1991 120 Johnson VRO V4 Flooding after taking decent turn

[captain_strikes]

Howdy,

I've got my 120 Johnson running extremely well after doing some tuning and regular maintenance. I've been out probably around 10 times this year with no issue. Granted, most of my trips are travelling in straight lines for extended periods of time with minor slow turns to get to a good fishing spot. I took some people out to tool around a little bit this past weekend and was out on the water for several hours... still travelling in primarily straight lines, everything seemed great.

After a while, I made a tighter turn, it felt very graceful. Wasn't a crazy or suddenly sharp turn but i dropped the throttle from WOT to about half throttle while turning to make gradual 180. That is when the engine died out and I assumed it flooded. I obviously tried to start it again with no avail. I pulled the fuel line from the motor, pulled the spark plug wires, turned the ignition key for a couple of seconds, reconnected everything and then boom fired right back up and everything was happy.

I am wondering if this turn was just.,..

A. a limitation of having an older 2 stroke carb engine
B. the way I was driving the boat (WOT to half throttle while turning)
C. Something wrong with the carbs?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Joe Reeves]

Back in my day, so to speak..... After doing a full rebuild of a carburetor (there were a few vertical inline V4 carburetors that we all hated), however, regardless of what type carburetor, I would put the rig in a tight turn from a standstill and apply throttle until I had the gunnel at the waters edge (almost) just to make sure that the engine would continue running and not have a conflict with the float(s). I'd be interested if you would take a test day sometime and go through a procedure such as I describe just to see if you encounter a nonoccurrence of the problem you describe. The turn shouldn't have had anything to do with it.

 

[captain_strikes]

Yeah, I guess I'll have to do some more testing on it. It's kind of a butt whooping to take the carbs off and check the floats since there are 4 of them... Now I'm wondering if I made sure all of the floats were level when I rebuilt the carbs a year ago... lol.

 

[Joe Reeves]

(Carburetor Float Setting)
(J. Reeves)

With the carburetor body held upside down, the float being viewed from the side, adjust the float so that the free end of the float (the end opposite the hinge pin) is ever so slightly higher (just ever so slightly off level) than the other end. And when viewed from the end, make sure it is not cocked.

 

[captain_strikes]

Guess I'll have to buckle down and do this at some point before I take the boat out again.

Thanks for the tips. I guess this might be the most logical step in figuring out the issue.

 

[racerone]

Test run with another portable tank and hose.--I think it might be a tank issue.

 

[captain_strikes]

Test run with another portable tank and hose.--I think it might be a tank issue.

That's definitely another thing to consider. My boat is just as old as the motor. Built in tank, think its about 30 gallons. I did have about half a tank of gas around the time it flooded.

 

[captain_strikes]

So I finally found out what it was! I had a broken seal on one of the carbs. Noticed it when I rebuilt all of the carbs this year. Took the boat out that weekend. No flooding at all. Ran like a champ. Did some good turns and didn't have any issues.

 

[oldboat1]

Got mad and put it away for a year, eh?

Glad you found it -- makes sense, given the way it acted up. But that's easy to say after the fact. I would have guessed a fuel tank issue.

And come to think of it, wouldn't be a bad idea to check the fuel in that tank (see if there is water at the bottom). Maybe you already have it covered, but stabilizer and maybe some drigas probably wouldn't hurt.

Hey -- hope you have a full summer of great boating this time around!

 

[captain_strikes]

Thanks! Yeah, I just dealt with it last season. just didn't make any sharpish turns and it was fine. had to travel in very straight lines. Not a big issue if all I am doing is fishing.