Motor issues again!!

Well, i’ve developed another motor issue. I guess these things are bound to happen when you fish 4-5 times a week!

My problem this time, i started up the motor, started up the river at full throttle, then all of a sudden, the motor just shut down, you could tell it ran out of gas. It starts right up, and will run fine anywhere up to 1/2 throttle, then once you get to around 3/4 throttle it runs for about 10-15 seconds depending on how much throttle it’s given, then dies. The more throttle, the less time it runs before it dies, so obviously it’s a fuel delivery issue.

Now i just re-built my carb about a little under a month ago, but it sounds like this is a carb related issue. The only other thing i can think of, is it could be my fuel pump? I’ve run probably 50 gallons of gas through the motor since i re-built it, and i’m guilty of not using the BEST oil, i usually run Penzoil or SuperTech. Could that be the cause of my problems? I’m going to run a thing of sea foam through and hope that clears it up. Any other advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

What type of motor is it? OMC’s can have an issue with the VRO pump. I replaced mine this spring.

Be careful if you have an omc. The OIL and the fuel both run threw the VRO. NO OIL…. Big problem.

Yeah, it’s an OMC, but it’s not a VRO motor. Thanks for the help though!

I had a similar problem with a 40 hp Merc. When I opened it up it would die as if it wasn’t getting the gas it needed. I had only had the motor for a month or so when it happened. Instead of looking under the hood myself I took it to a local dealer and he found that it was a problem with the throttle linkage. There was a nylon ball joint that had come loose from the throttle arm right where it linked to the carb. I don’t know if this happened when I took the hood off or if it just came apart on it’s own but it ended up costing me $15 for a new ball joint and $75 for them to look at the motor. The motor would start just fine and run OK up to about 1/4 throttle but then it would act as if it was only hitting on 2 of 4 cylinders before completely dying. This happened a 2nd time after I had it repaired. This time I ordered the $15 part myself and replaced it but wound heavy duty rubber bands around it so it would not pop out. I love the motor but the throttle linkage control was a BAD design from the beginning. I can’t believe that Mercury actually used that throttle design in their motors. This was over 5 years ago now and I have not had the problem since.

Eyehunter

As my dad always told me “Oil is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy” and he was an insurance man! It can definitly have an effect because not all oil is created equal. You could’nt get me to run Penzoil in my lawn mower.
Nuff said on the oil.
I was thinking a partial block in the filter but that would’nt usually act like it’s run out of gas. It would more than likely just run like carp starving for more fuel.
It sure sounds like the float is sticking in your carb to me and it is essentialy runing out of gas but allowing you to start it again without priming.
Seafoam just might do the trick.

I had the same problem and what it was , was the fuel tank was too far from the motor. What it was doing was running fine then dieing. I thought maybe it was too far for the fuelpump to pull gas from the tank to the motor, I shortened the fuel line and move the tank farther back in the boat closer to the motor and it ran fine after that. If your tank is in the front of the boat try moving it closer to the motor, maybe if you tried bigger i.d. fuel line that might help solve it too, less restriction. Check and make sure the vent is open in the cap, that will cause fuel shortage problems too. Maybe the direction valves in the fuel pump are loosing thier seal too, you might want to put new ones in, thier cheap. Ive found that running the oil the manufacturer says to put in the motor is best, thier are other good oils though.

If its a carb’d motor I’d suspect a stuck or sticky float.

I had a similar problem but mine was completely unrelated to the fuel. I had a bubble develop in my oil injector, This would allow a small amount of oil into the motor, but the override system would kick in shortly after it could not draw enough oil into the motor. I checked the oil bulb inside the motor and noticed it was low. All I had to do was drain and bleed the oil line, and she ran like a top again. Might be worthy of a look if it is an oil injected model.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Brent

Well i got it figured out. I always seem to assume the worst, rather than check the easiest thing first.

It ended up being the idle valve had come a bit loose, and was starving the engine of gas. A couple twists and it’s running great now, hopefully. I took it out and ran if WOT for about 3 min, and it ran great.

Off to te Cedar River tonight!!!