Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Those of you that dont know rebuilt motor 20 hours at least. It's been better than expected . On saturday we were cruising WOT when there was just a slight hiccup then it was fine, five minutes later it just quit. ... Wouldnt start at all. Pulled plugs seemed like good compression, plugs looked fine. A fisherman was close by luckily (lake was practically empty of boats) He started towing us I tried to start and it fired right up. Ran fine at normal cruising speed 14 mph at 4000rpm. 30 minutes later almost to dock samething, it justt died. Restarted after 2 minutes, then died at dock and we swam it in 20 yards. Then started up to get on trailer. Got back to lots and it fired right up dry for 1 sec. In the morning hooked up the hose and fine again.

What do you think?

( I used my phone sorry for typos)

Sounds like it is intermittently broke.

Sounds like power pack or something in the electric system is getting hot and breaking down.

Other than that I have no opinion.

If it was a motorcycle, I would say it's a coil. If you can get it to replicate, check the spark before you let it cool off.

fuel tank vent, primer bulb collapsed, and check for spark right after it dies.

In any other kind of motor that sounds like a fuel filter...clogs up under use, the clog drifts loose when not under pressure and then re-clogs when under pressure. I'm not sure in an outboard where or what kind of fuel filter may be present.

DING DING! I was thinking bulb and line. He put a brand new filter on when it was rebuilt, however my dumb ass still has the old main line coming from the tank and a 4 year old bulb. So the filter could be clogged already. This was my thinking and my neighbors...

Shopguy wrote:fuel tank vent, primer bulb collapsed, and check for spark right after it dies.

x2.




LC.

Yep sounds like a gas issue. Curtis has lots of gas issues.

Brett has been talking to my wife....

Yes, Yes and Yes. I agree. Fuel restrictions seem to cause problems first.

I hope they put a new water pump in when the engine was rebuilt.

I once was in a boat that overheated due to a bad water pump, and the engine seized slightly. When it cooled off, it ran okay for a few minutes before losing power again.

The first step when you are thinking fuel is a portable tank with a different hose setup.
I keep a spare hose on my boat. I can just stick the end in a jerry can for a test.

Same thing happened to me 2 years ago. would run fine then shut down, after a while would start up just fine again. it was the connection to the fuel tank. Collapsed ball was the hint, although I didn't see it. My marina did as they towed me in.

Just because compression seemed good and plugs looked good doesnt mean you are getting good spark. Did you do a spark test? I went through almost the same thing 2 weeks ago. thought it was fuel issues and tried everything to fix it. New plugs and the same result. Did a compression test, that was good. Spark test showed firing in only 1 of 6 cylinders. dont ask me how it could run but it did. I ended up changing the 6 cdm's and the stator. Now it runs better that it ever did. i have a 95 merc 225 2 stroke. Those are parts that wont get changed at rebuild time. if you motor is a 94 also, Merc had a ton of trouble with the cdm's going bad. If 1 goes bad it screws up others.

I don't know if your motor has them or not but I had a small 2 stroke outboard do the same thing you described. It ended up being a bad coil pack. It cranked and ran great until it got hot then it just quit. After about 15 minutes, it would start and run till it got hot again.

yes the cdm's are the coil packs