Peahead
Well-Known Member
A mile out from the marina yesterday things were running fine then the my main motor slowed quickly losing power then died- no alarms went off, no over heat/impeller was pumping water well. It started up fine and idled ok but then upon giving the throttle it sputtered and died again. Had trouble re-starting. Kicker motor got me back to the marina and then upon starting main again it started and ran perfectly fine . Put a load on her with some fixed throttle bursts and she ran fine. Took out of marina again for test run and ran perfectly but after 10 minutes at close to full throttle the same thing happened- it lost power, sputtered and died (very similar in presentation to when the gas feed line valve has been accidently shut off) On the way in the second time on the kicker, I managed to start the main again and it ran perfectly fine again - back to the marina without issue .
It seemed like a gas blockage issue so I am thinking I should start by having the gas fiter changed. Perhaps I am just thinking positively and hoping it is the filter or a fuel block issue and not cylinder damage issue. New plugs and new battery were just installed this month as well as a new water seperator- changing plugs again made no difference. The plugs seem very soaked in gas almost as if the opposite could be true -too much gas ?? I had just topped up with a higher octane supreme gas (Chevron's non-ethanol), I doubt that could be causing this ? The motor may have had gas with ethanol run through it at some point during its life but not sure - How often would ethanol have to be run through an outboard to cause damage to fuel lines ?
Before I haul out and tow to shop ...any ideas ?
Thx
It seemed like a gas blockage issue so I am thinking I should start by having the gas fiter changed. Perhaps I am just thinking positively and hoping it is the filter or a fuel block issue and not cylinder damage issue. New plugs and new battery were just installed this month as well as a new water seperator- changing plugs again made no difference. The plugs seem very soaked in gas almost as if the opposite could be true -too much gas ?? I had just topped up with a higher octane supreme gas (Chevron's non-ethanol), I doubt that could be causing this ? The motor may have had gas with ethanol run through it at some point during its life but not sure - How often would ethanol have to be run through an outboard to cause damage to fuel lines ?
Before I haul out and tow to shop ...any ideas ?
Thx