blackhawk99
New member
"I bought an old pontoon boat
"I bought an old pontoon boat last winter. The guy claimed the motor ran great. I took his word for it. Towed it 200 miles up to my cottage and let it sit over the winter. This past spring I started in the driveway after replacing the lower end fluid (which was kind of milky) and after replacing the spark plugs. Seemed to do well in the driveway.
Took it to the launch and she wouldn't start. So I took it to the local marina (since tools and time are limited on my weekend visits to the cottage). They found the carberators needed to be rebuilt and adjusted. They also said the compression in the bottom cylinder was very low. The top was at 120 PSI and the bottom was at 80. They suggested a new head gasket. That got the bottom cylinder up to 90 PSI. All that work was about $300. Put back in...ran great for about 8 gallons of gas.
This past weekend more problems arose. The motor was VERY, VERY hard to get started. To the point that the battery once died on me from trying to get it started. Once started, she ran like a top. Getting her to start was an act of Congress. The choke position nor the throttle advance didn't make a difference on getting her to start. But, after each time, with enough finese, she finally started. But, it wouldn't idle. I had to keep the throttle advanced for it to idle.
Called the marina...they went to my dock and looked at it again to ensure their work didn't cause my hard start conditions. They inspected it and said they found metal fragments and dust on the bottom cylinder. The compression check showed only 70 PSI on the bottom and still 120 on the top. They said the motor's shot.
What do you guys think? Will a compression variance so great between the two cause a hard start? I was thinking about putting a new plug in that lower and just use up the rest of the life in the motor before a rebuild. I've been given advice that doing so will literally cause an explosion and the motor will desinigrate and throw shrapnal everywhere. It seemed like an exageration. I want to be safe, but at the same time I won't be repairing this motor since the electric choke is broken, the power trim doesn't work and it's in overall rough condition. I will replace this motor with something used that's in good condition."
"I bought an old pontoon boat last winter. The guy claimed the motor ran great. I took his word for it. Towed it 200 miles up to my cottage and let it sit over the winter. This past spring I started in the driveway after replacing the lower end fluid (which was kind of milky) and after replacing the spark plugs. Seemed to do well in the driveway.
Took it to the launch and she wouldn't start. So I took it to the local marina (since tools and time are limited on my weekend visits to the cottage). They found the carberators needed to be rebuilt and adjusted. They also said the compression in the bottom cylinder was very low. The top was at 120 PSI and the bottom was at 80. They suggested a new head gasket. That got the bottom cylinder up to 90 PSI. All that work was about $300. Put back in...ran great for about 8 gallons of gas.
This past weekend more problems arose. The motor was VERY, VERY hard to get started. To the point that the battery once died on me from trying to get it started. Once started, she ran like a top. Getting her to start was an act of Congress. The choke position nor the throttle advance didn't make a difference on getting her to start. But, after each time, with enough finese, she finally started. But, it wouldn't idle. I had to keep the throttle advanced for it to idle.
Called the marina...they went to my dock and looked at it again to ensure their work didn't cause my hard start conditions. They inspected it and said they found metal fragments and dust on the bottom cylinder. The compression check showed only 70 PSI on the bottom and still 120 on the top. They said the motor's shot.
What do you guys think? Will a compression variance so great between the two cause a hard start? I was thinking about putting a new plug in that lower and just use up the rest of the life in the motor before a rebuild. I've been given advice that doing so will literally cause an explosion and the motor will desinigrate and throw shrapnal everywhere. It seemed like an exageration. I want to be safe, but at the same time I won't be repairing this motor since the electric choke is broken, the power trim doesn't work and it's in overall rough condition. I will replace this motor with something used that's in good condition."