Boat:1, Jared:0

So after posting all afternoon yesterday that I was headed to P2 landing at 494, I finally made it to the landing at dusk.

Got the boat in the water. Parked the truck.

And the boat motor said:

Chugga chugga ba-fffffft. Chugga broom ba-pffffft. BROOM. pfft.

And that was it. For the next hour I tried everything I could think of to no avail. Then I gave up, tossed a line out and played with my Lowrance for the next 3-1/2 hours…

Put the boat back on the trailer and came home.

Not. A. Happy. Camper.

There was a guy who went out after I put my boat in and came back about an hour later with the remains of a gunny sack wrapped around his prop. Not happy either.

But I did get to sit and listen to several other boats full of people talk about how INCREDIBLE the catfish bite is right now.

Not sure if I should fix the motor or just replace it. It’s a 1976 35HP Evinrude. Doesn’t get me anywhere fast and she’s a 817ch to start cold, but once it’s warmed up it runs like a champ.

How much can old gas affect a motor? Cuz the gas in there is -old- (from last season, actually)… maybe I just need to clean out the gas lines/filters/carb and try again.

Anywho… I did catch 1 sheephead… so I didn’t come home skunked!

I had a mid 70’s 35 horse e-rude for 10 years.One of the best motors I owned for it’s time.I would find a good o/b tech to check it out.If compression and rest of the motor is good.Tune up and carbs are probably the problem.My motor was kind of like a Stihl chain saw.They can be a one man motor.Mine you had to pump the bulb,twist the throttle 3 times,pull the choke half to full depending on temp.We left the dock a lot of mornings in the teens.It would start second pull 95% of the time.Never on the first unless it was warmed up.There is a lot of problems blamed on gas.In the process of replacing my two boats I have 4 outboards right now.2 had not run for almost two years due to some family health issues.My 4 stoke Merc 15 started on the first pull.A buddy lost power this week and grabbed my generator with 2-3 year old gas,with a few extra pulls it started up.None had fuel conditioner.My new 115&9.9 yammies will probably get a little closer eye on fuel care.

Hey Jared – Did you put fuel stabilizer in your tank last fall? If so, did you run the motor for a few minutes to get the stabilized gas in the system? You’d be surprised how fast gas sitting in a carb will foul it up.

Anyway, if you feel up to it, run a couple tests. Your motor needs 3 things: Spark, fuel, and compression. The easiest to test is spark.

Get a $6 spark tester at the auto parts store and see if you have good strong spark on each cylinder. If you rule that out, move on to compression. Compression testers are more expensive, but helpful to ruling out problems. If both cylinders test within 10% of each other, and you have spark, the only remaining gremlin in fuel.

You only have one carb on this motor, so get a carb kit for it. When you break it down to clean it, observe the carb bowl and look for varnish like spots/deposits. Not 100% indication if the carb is dirty, but a good place to start. Regardless, clean that sucker out good. Be sure to remove the little core plug and clean the low speed jets with a very fine wire. If you skip this step, you might as well not even do it.

If you don’t feel up to the task, take the whole works over to Robbinsdale Marine (since you are in BC) and have them fix the motor. They specialize in older OMC motors and I have found them to be honest and reasonably priced.

You can get exploded parts diagrams through Evinrude’s site as well, which is super helpful: Evinrude Parts

Best of luck dude!

http://www.fleetfarm.com/catalog/product_detail/sporting-goods/boating-marine/hardware/attwood-universal-round-motor-flusher

Get it running at home before you head to the water with one of these. Fresh gas is extremely important. Current fuel breaks down rapidly after 30 days if not treated with a fuel stabilizer.

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Get it running at home before you head to the water with one of these.

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x2! I use mine frequently when I get crap jammed in the motor’s pee hole. I know my neighbors love the unmuffled sound of a 2-stroke Merc!

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Get it running at home before you head to the water with one of these.

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x2! I use mine frequently when I get crap jammed in the motor’s pee hole. I know my neighbors love the unmuffled sound of a 2-stroke Merc!

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Or if you have a barrel big and deep enough to fill up to cover where the impeller is housed, use that.

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Or if you have a barrel big and deep enough to fill up to cover where the impeller is housed, use that.

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Then your neighbors don’t get the enjoyment.

I just compensate by taking the cover off and revving it unneccessarily.

Had a similar issue this season also, what worked was I got some new gas, completely drained the bowls, and pumped about a quart of fresh gas through. Closed the bowls up and it now runs like new. Bad gas/water stuck under the float in the bowl was the culprit.

Jared,

First off, never, ever run regular gas in an outboard or any small engine. The ethanol level in the fuel will absorb water and gum an engine in a week or two. Always use non-ethanol gas. I’ll drive 20 miles to get non-ethanol gas. The bright guys in St. Paul want to up the ethanol in the gas which will only make matters worse for small engines. This applies to any small engine you have. Adding a fuel stabilizer will help although with the higher ethanol values in the gas today, there is a limit on how long you can store gas. I’ve stored non-ethanol gas with a double dose of Stabil in it over the winter without a problem. I have buddies who bought regular gas one weekend and by the next weekend have had issues. The quality of gas varies widely around the state also. Best bet is to never store gas over winter or for a prolonged time and always use a stabilizer.
If you can’t find a station with non-ethanol gas, go on the internet and do a Google search. The MN Street Rod Association has a list of gas stations for their members to use. The list is free.

Good luck

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Jared,

First off, never, ever run regular gas in an outboard or any small engine. The ethanol level in the fuel will absorb water and gum an engine in a week or two.

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Come on, this is sensationalistic. It will not ‘gum an engine in a week or two’. Ethynol gas will slowly break down some components like hoses, but it is not as sudden as you let on. I use regular 87 from the gas station in my outboards and do not have problems when it sits for weeks at a time.

Not sensationalism, just my experience. Ask a marine mechanic what their thoughts are. The marine mechanics here in the Cities charge over $100/hr and will be happy to fix your motor for you.

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Not sensationalism, just my experience. Ask a marine mechanic what their thoughts are. The marine mechanics here in the Cities charge over $100/hr and will be happy to fix your motor for you.

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Ok dude. I’ll give you that components in older outboards were not designed with Ethanol in mind, but it isn’t the menace you make it out to be.

Well, I already have both the compression tester and the water jacket doodad, and I prefer the old-school way of checking spark…

Dude, hold this.
(hit key)
Let’s see, you jumped… 2.37 feet in the air… yeah we got spark.

It’s a remote with electric start, so I’m not really looking forward to pulling it off the boat, but I’m not sure that Robbinsdale Marine has room on their property for my pontoon boat.

Seriously, though… I think it needs to be gone thru. I’m going to look at taking it in to Robbinsdale Marine. I have no idea when it was last gone thru, I know it needs some electrical work, part of the motor is held in place with that fine picture-hanger cable stuff. And it shudders and shakes something fierce when it’s at idle.

Then again it is a 2-cycle that’s almost as old as I am and I shudder and shake when at idle as well.

Glad you haven’t had issues. If you fill your tank very regularly and burn it up fairly fast you probbaly won’t have an issue.

I’ve had enough with everything from lawn mowers, chain saws to watching friends sitting at the dock trying to get their motors to start that I made the switch and never had an issue after that. Everytime I took one of the engines in for service the first question out of the mechanics mouth was what type of gas I was running.

Just an opinion on what his issue could be.

I have a 87 eviinrude 115 h.o. And that son [censored] literally will not start with 87. Honestly even just regular premium it doesnt go well.
I have to find the non-oxygenated premium gas that not to many gas stations sell. Then it usually pops off first turn of the key and idles fine.

I’m with Dfresh. Ethanol is a scapegoat.

Mine is a 90 Merc the cold starting 2001 version.

Been running regular since day one.
Replaced a water jacket gasket and a flywheel.

SeaFoam twice maybe three times per year.

It is running most every weekend.

I’m not sure what my problem is but I like it!

Good Luck ACD!

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I have a 87 eviinrude 115 h.o. And that son [censored] literally will not start with 87. Honestly even just regular premium it doesnt go well.
I have to find the non-oxygenated premium gas that not to many gas stations sell. Then it usually pops off first turn of the key and idles fine.

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Hey KATmando… Bill’s Superette has nonoxy, and they aren’t CLOSE to you but still n the same general area. Boone and 63rd in Crystal, MN. Boone and 694 is where the Brooklyn Park Home Depot is, right next to the Northland Inn… Bill’s is just a few blocks south.

As for my boat motor… I just remembered that the vent screw is missing off the cap of the tank, and with all the rain we’ve been having I’m thinking that I may have water in the system. So in a bit I’m off to Bill’s for some nonoxy gas and the ACE next door for 2-cycle oil and Gumout.

Wish me luck, y’all!

I was going to ask if you vented the tank, but didn’t want to go there

Turns out you had it vented TOO well dude.

Also, if you suspect water in the tank and replace that gas, make sure you purge the fuel hose as well, or you may get the same results because of the remnant gas in there!

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Not sensationalism, just my experience. Ask a marine mechanic what their thoughts are. The marine mechanics here in the Cities charge over $100/hr and will be happy to fix your motor for you.

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Ok dude. I’ll give you that components in older outboards were not designed with Ethanol in mind, but it isn’t the menace you make it out to be.

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Have to agree with you DFresh we have a300 gallon gas barrel on the farm since we don`t run much gas any more it has sit for upwards of 2 years and have not had an issue with it.

My 2000 135 Opti has only seen 10% and never had a fuel issue except the old gray fuel line and bulb which I replaced. I do call a lot of bogus with the newer engines 10% is not a problem. I can see where the outboard mechanics complain like DFresh stated those older fuel systems were not made to handle Ethenal. Being that ethenal probably cleaned out many old outboard gas tanks filled with crud from old gas, issues are going to come up.

While i agree that the hype around ethanol has turned into noize, not news, Jared’s motor may be at risk. And it has ‘sat’ around for a couple of years. Some seafoam (itself ethanol) would probably help to eliminate the issue of varnish (the naptha helps this, you must agree) I have seen lots of issues with old fuel being a culprit, but not necessarily more since the passing of ethanol mandates.

So… new gas and plugs, no immediate change.

Checked spark, plenty of that.

If I pull the plugs and put mixed gas right into the cylinder it’ll fire but not run.

My guess: gummed carb from old gas and water. Gotta clean that out and I should be golden.

Thanks for all the input, I will keep you posted and keep the info comin.

If you shoot premix into the carb and it fires, you are right, you have a fuel delivery issue. It is either the carb itself or the fuel pump.

Jared, did you do the fuel pump test I PMed you about? You want to rule the pump out before you tear into the carb. Not that a good carb clean isn’t always reccomended, but lets see if it is the pump first

Right DFresh, the 87% down here is non ethenol gas and the only gas I run in older motors, especially them. Some of the older motors have gaskets in them that alcohol can harm. Like said above check the spark and make sure its good and sharp blue.

You can buy a compression tester for about $15 and both cylinders should run within %10, if there within %15 thats still ok. If theres more just run the motor anyway.

If you can take your carb off without loosing the settings its not hard to rebuild them. Buy a big can of carburator cleaner and take the float bowl off and remove the jet. If your motor ran good befor it developed problems, then when taking out the air adjustment needle, twist it all the way in until it bottoms out and count the full turns and every 1/8th of a turn past that, so you can reset the air mixture needle.

When you replace the float needle make sure the float is set right and runs about level with the rim of the float bowl when turned up side down and looking horizontal at it. Theres a little tab that rubs against the end of the needle valve that regulates the gas, via the float and gas assembly, thats where you set the gas level at, by bending it until the float runs level or set per directions.

If you have an air compressor and an air jet blow out all the passages after you use the carb cleaner. If you loose the air adjustments setting when disasembleing then turn the air screw in until it bottoms out, then turn back out 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 turns and thats a starting point, then adjust the RPM’s until they even out, you can tell by listening, do it a few times and you can see where it will run at.

If it still doesen’t want to run right then its eigther the sparkplugs or the points under the flywheel. If you can find NGK spark plugs use those, thats all I use and never have a problem with them. A bit of advice is I’ve never had good luck in my cars or boat motors with Champion plugs because they fowl to easy. I/ve used to run AC’s for years without a problem and changed to the better NGK plugs just because.

Plugs and a varnished up carb is where Id start, message me if you need any help under the flywheel, theres a few things you have to know but aren’t hard to do. Its good to be able to do all these things then you can work on your motor yourself and save yourself a few bucks, and tune your motor anytime you want.

Mossy-
Nice concise summary.
Best refresher i’ve seen in a long time.

I’ve work on my own motors for along time because I didn’t have the money and because I’ve always had a few wrenches around, my familys influances.

I’ve been turning wrenches for along tme, since I was a kid in autoshop at 17 in highschool. I’ve got a few motors under my belt and they always run when I get done working on them. Some better then others depending on how worn out they are.

It never hurts to take the motor you’ve got and take it apart to see what it does and how it works, besides that what you learn, you can in the future work on your own, mine always run, everytime!. My thoughts are what you can do, do it yourself because you know it will be done right, what are you going to do out on the river when its too late?

It doesen’t take much, it never does when you are trying and its fun besides. Take my word for it, nows the time and they will always run, with a smile on your face, like mine, it don’t take much, you just got to learn how to do it, which T’nia not big deal…

I can tell you know Stu, how much I don’t know but I can tell.

I’ve always done all my car work and I was a professional diesel mechanic for a long time… So none of the is terribly new except the specifics.

The fuel pump works, it runs if I spray premix into the carb, but it won’t run on gas coming from the fuel pump.

Only thing can think of is e bowl/float… Just not letting gas get thru to the carb. Or a clogged jet, had a jeep get a grain of sand into one of the carb jets once. That was a fun one to figure out.

Any other magic thoughts before I pull the starter off so I can yank the carb?

You guys are awesome, thanks for all the input!