From bad to worse

Hey all,

As suggested by the title, I had a situation this weekend that’s got me a bit worried, and I’m hoping for some more experienced people to give me some advice.

I fished a tournament for the first time this weekend, and to make a long story short, we had a considerable amount of problems (incorrectly placed battery hookups, beached on a sand bar, late to the take off by an hour) before things got worse. While running down the lake, about three and half miles from the launch, the boat simply stopped, full throttle at full operating speed. I got it started again, and after about another half mile at full throttle it stopped again. Rinse and repeat, and the next time I couldn’t get it started at all. Then I checked the oil, and found an empty tank. We ended up going to a closer launch, calling some friends and getting ultimately towed in, without a fish to weigh in for the tourney.

Needless to say, I’m not very experienced with outboard motors. This is going to be my third year with this particular boat, and I’ve never had to replace the oil before, despite checking the large tank a few times. I even said something to my partner for the tournament just before it quit for good that I thought it could be the oil, but never checked it. In hindsight, that obviously should’ve been my first thought, but due to lack of experience and poor thinking in general, I didn’t. He had more experience and seemed to think that the oil wouldn’t be a problem for quite a while of it being empty, and he thought it could be a fuel problem.

The motor is a 40 hp Evinrude tiller from the 90’s sometime, and it’s oil-injected, electric start, with power tilt and trim. This problem isn’t due to the battery, as that particular hookup was fine. It also wasn’t due to a lack of gas, as I had just filled it with ethanol free gas. This was only the third time that I had used it (in three days) for the year, so I’m not sure if it has anything to do with that.

To sum it up, I guess I’m hoping somebody can help me out with the diagnostics on this thing. I can’t get the boat into the shop until Saturday, but until then I am pretty worried. I am fearing the worst, so don’t be afraid to confirm my fears.

Thanks,

acafisherman19

If I read your post correctly , you have an oil injected motor that you have never put oil in, is that correct? If so , prepare for the worse , won’t be good.

No beeping coming from the motor with no oil in the sump??? I had a VRO 40 Evinrude and had nothing but problems with it. I was told by an Evinrude tech, that the 40hp didn’t create enough vacuum to operate the VRO properly. The dealer gave me a brand new 50hp and it worked properly. The motor shouldn’t have run at all if there was no oil in the tank. Good luck.

By the way, that level in the oil tank is way more important than the level in the gas tank!!

Mike, the oil injection comes from a large take under the motor housing, but I’ve never had to refill it despite checking it a few times a year. I must have not checked it for too long.

Hopefully what happened is that it just shut down without any oil and no major damage was done. Again, I’m not an expert by any means so I really have no idea.

Running a two stroke motor for any length of time without oil is NOT good.
You should be checking the oil level before every single trip. I think the bad to worse for you may get worser.

IF the engine is NOT already blown, YOU HAVE TO TOP OFF THE OIL RESERVOIR EVERY TIME YOU TOP OFF THE GAS TANK! Or else….

You might be in the market for a complete engine overhaul or new engine. No oil = bad engine.

As I said, lack of experience really might have got me this time.
I’ll make sure to add checking the oil every time to my list, assuming that I can get my motor back to where it was. The good news is, it’s an older motor – at least I’m not looking at thousands upon thousands in repairs on a brand new motor.

Taking the positives where I can get them at this point.

Pull the plugs, silver on them means burnt piston and junk power head. Do a compression check, they need to be the same and above 90 or so. On the bright side you may be using this opportunity to upgrade to a newer motor. Good luck.

I guess I’m more in awe at the fact that you have ran the thing for three years and never added oil. And it still ran! Well it did…

Good luck, hopefully it isn’t as bad as it sounds.

sorry for your troubles,I am not trying to be a smart ass here when I say this,so please dont take it wrong.

if and when you get your motor fixed,or a new one to replace it,do yourself a big favor and buy an owners manual and READ IT front to back until you have it down pat.

another idea may be to find someone who has an identical motor and have them teach you maintenance,operation,and what to do in a pinch.

if you need further help,pm me,I will do what I can to help you.
sheldon

Thanks all for the advice and thoughts, I’m definitely going to learn some more about my motor/motors in general in the future. It’s a little sad that it took this kind of thing happening to make me do it, but I guess that’s how you learn, one way or another.

I would take everything iowaboy1 says to heart, he seems to be extremely knowledgeable about mechanical issues , and willing to share it, what a great resource. I hope everything works out for you.

Chalk it up to a learning experience. Everyone has them. I learned that when I was 12 that trying to kick the reflector in my front bike rim while moving down the street resulted in my foot getting caught and me flipping over the handlebars. Never did it again.
Now you know to check and fill your oil reservoir. Don’t use the boat until you have checked/filled the reservoir.

If the motor is still in working order, I recommend draining and disconnecting the oil pump in favor mixing the gas.

50:1 gas to oil mix should keep you problem free for a long time going forward.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Chalk it up to a learning experience. Everyone has them. I learned that when I was 12 that trying to kick the reflector in my front bike rim while moving down the street resulted in my foot getting caught and me flipping over the handlebars. Never did it again.

LOL, reminds me of my bike learning experience when I was around 12. After watching my friends dad rip some big stumps out of the ground with his Scout pickup I decided I had to try. I tied a 20′ rope to the seat post on my bike and then proceeded to tie the other end to a stump that was around 3″ wide. I backed the bike up to the tree and then took off as fast as I could….

….you can only guess how that played out!

311hemi wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Chalk it up to a learning experience. Everyone has them. I learned that when I was 12 that trying to kick the reflector in my front bike rim while moving down the street resulted in my foot getting caught and me flipping over the handlebars. Never did it again.

….you can only guess how that played out!

Can you still have kids?

steve-fellegy wrote:

IF the engine is NOT already blown, YOU HAVE TO TOP OFF THE OIL RESERVOIR EVERY TIME YOU TOP OFF THE GAS TANK! Or else….

Steve, are you reffering to the small tank under the cowling or the bigger reservoir tank in the boat?

bullcans wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>steve-fellegy wrote:</div>
IF the engine is NOT already blown, YOU HAVE TO TOP OFF THE OIL RESERVOIR EVERY TIME YOU TOP OFF THE GAS TANK! Or else….

Steve, are you reffering to the small tank under the cowling or the bigger reservoir tank in the boat?

I don’t think evinrudes have a small tank under the cowling. My 96 evinrude 70 didn’t

munchy wrote:

I guess I’m more in awe at the fact that you have ran the thing for three years and never added oil. And it still ran! Well it did…

Good luck, hopefully it isn’t as bad as it sounds.

that was my first thoughts with this one. How did it run so long, or do you not fish very much?