Hello all,
My quest to fix my recently purchased boat (motor) has led me to seek assistance from a forum (Marine Engine- thank you for providing this collaborative platform for us)
I see many people are having luck getting an answer to their questions on forums so I'm hoping I will be among those lucky individuals..
I bought this boat and motor from a gentleman in Kent CT two months ago- it sat through the winter and had not been ran since last year (Sept 2016)
His reason for sale is that his son has moved out and recently bought a more equipped bass fishing boat and made the move to let it go on his son's behalf. OK- fair enough..
From the get-go, the motor has started up, and idled, without issue... I mean, maybe it didn't start RIGHT up, per say, but with some choke, and a wee bit of throttle, she'd fire up. Fast forward to the fifth or sixth time I used the boat, and it would start (without the choke) after it turned over three or four times (which, of those first four/ five times the exhaust seemed to burn a tad rich; perhaps due to it sitting through the winter? Either way, not an issue anymore, nor has it been after the first few times starting the motor up.)
Now that we've discussed how the motor performed in terms of starting and ignition, let me describe to you how the motor ran in gear..
The first three/ four times of use were very very minimal- maybe a couple hours per trip, only in freshwater lakes, and did not travel far at all.. The first time, my boat would not start up (because my battery connections were not bolted down sufficiently lol). The second time it died because the Blue cap that connects the fuel line to the carburetor had a decent fracture to where fuel was actually spitting out of the crack (hence a loss of pressure in the fuel bulb). This I was able to diagnose by simply removing the motor cover and priming the fuel line while looking in the motor for a leak.. I took my boat to Don's Marine Center in Waterbury CT and paid him $250 to replace the carburetor diaphragm (rediculous amount of money if you ask me; he spent 2 hours on it...). To conclude my trip to Don, he patted me on the back and told me the motor has a few more years for sure, and is running perfectly fine, this-that, the other.
Well I go back out on my boat to Candlewood Lake, and what happens? Damn boat dies again and does not want to start up, like at all... after finally getting it to start up, the motor will only perform (well, might I add..) at low speeds (under 7/8mph). Come to find out later that night that the spark plugs were finger loose creating insufficient spark.
Ever since that day, my motor will only go 15mph for about 5, maybe 10 minutes, then totally bogs down and remains bogged down. It does NOT die or shut off, but it severely bogs down and sounds like it wants to cut off... My temporary but very effective solution (when out on the water) is to reduce speed to about 8mph for another 10-15 minutes, to where thereafter, it will only go 5 or 6mph MAX. And the motor does this consistently...(as in every time I've taken the boat out since, maybe a total of four times).
The boat had a pretty cut up prop on it when all these issues first occurred so I decided Id go out and buy a brand-spanking new one and see if the bogging down was from the drive shaft being overly stressed by poor hydrodynamic by broken prop.... It fixed nothing
Solutions Ive tested:
- cleaning gas tank and using new fuel/oil
- trial and error with increasing tank air flow/ decreasing tank air flow
- less weight on the boat (i.e going out by myself)
- cleaning spark plugs
- making sure throttle and all parts of throttle were doing their job (i.e mechanical parts of throttle were working together to control carburetor and making connections where a connection is obviously needed)
Possible Issues I've been told:
- compression: escaping psi due to poor rings on pistons? (still waiting on compression tester... arriving tomorrow 7/13)
- clogged main jet (since idle and lower rpm gear works well, and everything thereafter is trash, I've been confidently told that my main jet is likely clogged as 25% of throttle relies on the pilot jet, and the remaining 75% of throttle relies on the main jet.
- a vacuum line being either detached or broken
I am very inexperienced with motors but I do learn quickly and definitely know how to use context clues to figure **** out but this is one issue that has my head spinning. It's fishing season!!! I want to fish!
Thank you greatly for any and all direction
Greg
My quest to fix my recently purchased boat (motor) has led me to seek assistance from a forum (Marine Engine- thank you for providing this collaborative platform for us)
I see many people are having luck getting an answer to their questions on forums so I'm hoping I will be among those lucky individuals..
I bought this boat and motor from a gentleman in Kent CT two months ago- it sat through the winter and had not been ran since last year (Sept 2016)
His reason for sale is that his son has moved out and recently bought a more equipped bass fishing boat and made the move to let it go on his son's behalf. OK- fair enough..
From the get-go, the motor has started up, and idled, without issue... I mean, maybe it didn't start RIGHT up, per say, but with some choke, and a wee bit of throttle, she'd fire up. Fast forward to the fifth or sixth time I used the boat, and it would start (without the choke) after it turned over three or four times (which, of those first four/ five times the exhaust seemed to burn a tad rich; perhaps due to it sitting through the winter? Either way, not an issue anymore, nor has it been after the first few times starting the motor up.)
Now that we've discussed how the motor performed in terms of starting and ignition, let me describe to you how the motor ran in gear..
The first three/ four times of use were very very minimal- maybe a couple hours per trip, only in freshwater lakes, and did not travel far at all.. The first time, my boat would not start up (because my battery connections were not bolted down sufficiently lol). The second time it died because the Blue cap that connects the fuel line to the carburetor had a decent fracture to where fuel was actually spitting out of the crack (hence a loss of pressure in the fuel bulb). This I was able to diagnose by simply removing the motor cover and priming the fuel line while looking in the motor for a leak.. I took my boat to Don's Marine Center in Waterbury CT and paid him $250 to replace the carburetor diaphragm (rediculous amount of money if you ask me; he spent 2 hours on it...). To conclude my trip to Don, he patted me on the back and told me the motor has a few more years for sure, and is running perfectly fine, this-that, the other.
Well I go back out on my boat to Candlewood Lake, and what happens? Damn boat dies again and does not want to start up, like at all... after finally getting it to start up, the motor will only perform (well, might I add..) at low speeds (under 7/8mph). Come to find out later that night that the spark plugs were finger loose creating insufficient spark.
Ever since that day, my motor will only go 15mph for about 5, maybe 10 minutes, then totally bogs down and remains bogged down. It does NOT die or shut off, but it severely bogs down and sounds like it wants to cut off... My temporary but very effective solution (when out on the water) is to reduce speed to about 8mph for another 10-15 minutes, to where thereafter, it will only go 5 or 6mph MAX. And the motor does this consistently...(as in every time I've taken the boat out since, maybe a total of four times).
The boat had a pretty cut up prop on it when all these issues first occurred so I decided Id go out and buy a brand-spanking new one and see if the bogging down was from the drive shaft being overly stressed by poor hydrodynamic by broken prop.... It fixed nothing
Solutions Ive tested:
- cleaning gas tank and using new fuel/oil
- trial and error with increasing tank air flow/ decreasing tank air flow
- less weight on the boat (i.e going out by myself)
- cleaning spark plugs
- making sure throttle and all parts of throttle were doing their job (i.e mechanical parts of throttle were working together to control carburetor and making connections where a connection is obviously needed)
Possible Issues I've been told:
- compression: escaping psi due to poor rings on pistons? (still waiting on compression tester... arriving tomorrow 7/13)
- clogged main jet (since idle and lower rpm gear works well, and everything thereafter is trash, I've been confidently told that my main jet is likely clogged as 25% of throttle relies on the pilot jet, and the remaining 75% of throttle relies on the main jet.
- a vacuum line being either detached or broken
I am very inexperienced with motors but I do learn quickly and definitely know how to use context clues to figure **** out but this is one issue that has my head spinning. It's fishing season!!! I want to fish!
Thank you greatly for any and all direction
Greg