Some Boat Help

[Lincoln]

'89 OMC 2.3 liter I/O. Carb'd and a points distributor. Overhead cam Ford block. Roughly 200 hours use.

Taken out about 3 weeks ago and ran fine until the end of the day then started running a little weird. Kind of short on power.

Taken out last weekend and ran find for 15 minutes then started running bad. Low on power, rough, etc. Continued to get worse on the way back to the dock until it quit running completely and wouldn't restart.

Cooled overnight and started but ran extremely rough. Some close detective work found oil leaking out of the coil. Thought I was extremely smart and went down and bought another coil.

Being the cool guy I am I bought an MSD coil. The original was an external resistor coil which was the same as the MSD but I could not find a resistor anywhere. There was about a 1/4 volt drop from the battery to the positive lead on the coil. Wrote that off as a voltage drop in the wiring and added the MSD .8 ohm resistor before the coil.

Boat still runs crappy and smells rich. It will barely come off an idle and likes to drop off sudenly and backfire. No high revs.

I messed around checking the plug wires and also pulling one at a time to see if I could find a miss firing cylinder. On all four none really seemed to change the way it was running and all the wires checked out.

On another moment of briliance I bypassed the resistor and tried that. It runs a little smoother but still won't come up above 1200 to 1500 rpms. Only ran it for a minute and didn't really give it a chance to back fire. I checked the timing with a timing light and it seems ok. It won't really hold any rpms but it seemed to be around 8-10 degrees and then start advancing towards 20 before basically puking out.

I'm wondering if the timing belt took a crap and jumped a notch. What puzzles me is the running find and slowly getting worse. And also running better when the motors cool than when hot. It does have a 1 quart water seperator/fuel filter and that was replaced before the last weekend trip.

The points look to be gapping out ok but I only checked them visually (before adult beverages were consumed) and didn't checked them with a feeler gauge.

I'm retarded so please help. :D

[GSequoia]

Cam timing? Tensioner might be crapping out letting it jump.

[Wayne Sihler]

On a boat first thing I,d check would be water/condensation in the gas,you have the seperater for that .
Next check condition of points and rubbing block,check points gap,Replace condensor,how can you check them anyways? Coil & resistor again?
Timing belt would be the last place to look.
Wayne

[Lincoln]

I kind of ruled out the condenser and points since they were replaced last year, but it makes sense. I'll get a condenser and double check the condition of the points. I know the coil was going crappy maybe it damaged those in the process.

When I changed the filter on the seperator that was no water found.

I was going to try and check the condition of the timing belt in the daylight. Hopefully I can see some of it without having to pull a bunch of things off.

Thanks,
Lincoln

[Captain Ron]

Sounds like an engine problem.

It happens to powerboats all the time. :D

--ron

[GSequoia]

Lincoln. If I recall there is a hole or two in he timing cover on the 2.3. If you can stick a screwdriver in there and see how tight the belt is that may be good enough.

I only mention it because I lost a tensioner in a 2.3 in my old Courier...

[Glenn B]

Rule out the ignition... then focus on the carb. Might be time to get a kit and clean it out.

[Lincoln]

I think we're down to the timing belt. G-string, how much tension should be on that belt? There isn't much. I poked at it with a screw driver and it wasn't even close to what I would think a belt should be tensioned at. The Courior explains a lot about you.

Carb was gone through last year and the problem not being there and then there makes me question the carb.

The points were a little tight and opening those up a little helps. I also found out there is a resistor in the positive lead to the coil somewhere but I could not find it.

Right now is starts up ok, runs so so, then after a minute or two it starts getting worse until it can't be kept running. Leave it a few minutes and it does it again.

Ron, I was speculating about your comments last night. :D

[XJ_ranger]

Sounds like an engine problem.

It happens to powerboats all the time. :D

--ron


Ha Ha Ha

I actualy laughed out loud...

therefore


LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GSequoia]

Opie's sucking up to his boss. Typical.

Lincoln - I don't know the value but I sem to recall it being goodntite.

Tensioner is cheap though, I was able to afford one when I was po'.

Tip - In my Courier I advanced the cam timing one or two teeth and got a good amount of more power out of it - look into it.

[Wayne Sihler]

I believe that points to the coil over-heating. I,ve had electronic ingnition since 72 ,kinda hard to remember the points stuff.
Wayne



Right now is starts up ok, runs so so, then after a minute or two it starts getting worse until it can't be kept running. Leave it a few minutes and it does it again.

[GSequoia]

One thing...

You could get an electronic distributor from a bone yard quick and cheap from a Courier, mine was a '78 and there were no points to be found.

Another cool thing about the Courier was the carb. Had a groovy glass side float bowl so it was really easy to set the float :D

[XJ_ranger]

Opie's sucking up to his boss. Typical.


:eyes:


:shocked:


lame...

[Midnight Krawler]

Two areas to check! Empty the fuel/water separator into a clear container and see if any water is in there. If full of water, clean carb. Second, there is a shift linkage unit attached to ether the motor or transom (follow the shift cables). This unit cuts the engine power to allow it to shift in and out of gear smoothly. If it's sticking, the engine will act like what your describing. It's a mechanical unit with a lever and 2 switches. It may or may not have a cover on it. Check it and make sure the lever is centered between the two switches.

[Lincoln]

I've kind of pushed this one off to someone else. It's a friends boat and I was trying to help.

I decided that my time was much better spent killing things yesterday. :D

Midnight Krawler, the seperator was the first thing checked. I saw the switch you are talking about but didn't inspect it that much. I'll have him take a look at it tonight.

Thanks,
Lincoln