140 looper sluggish at low rpm

[JOFO17]

I have an 87 140 looper that doesn't seem to run right. I took it to the local shop and they did a compression test and gave it a look over. They said I had some water in the fuel and when they ran it on their external tank it ran just fine in the test tank. When I took it out on the river it didn't run well. It kept stalling in low rpm reverse, and was very sluggish at low rpm forward. When I opened it up it seemed fine except for slow throttle response. The one thing that in my opinion points to a fuel problem is that I burned almost 3 gallons of fuel just making a few back and forth passes. Im talking less then 15 mins total run time. Time to get the carbs redone or do you think I may have a different problem????

 

[boobie]

The shop said you had water in the fuel. Did anybody correct that problem before you started running it ??

 

[JOFO17]

I was running on an external tank with fresh gas so wasn't a bad fuel issue.

 

[boobie]

Check your spark. It should jump a 7/16" open air gap. Then do the carbs.

 

[JOFO17]

Just an really delayed update, it turned out that the genius at the local shop didn't have the gaset that goes behind the intake manifold so he used permatex. A big thanks to my new mechanic for figuring it out. And a lesson learned by me. I put off goig to my new mechanic because he was one of the more expensive guys around. Obviously it was for a good reason! From now on I will pay the extra money and take it to him.

 

[jimmbo]

The Genius should have obtained the gasket, even if it meant you had to wait a couple of days. 3 gallons for 15 minutes isn't excessive for that engine

 

[Faztbullet]

That's a small bore looper and it a pig on fuel, has crappy carbs so forget a good idle, cooling system has to be top notch or bridged port will scuff pistons and lugging it will kill it so prop about 200 over max rpm.

 

[JOFO17]

It is surprisingly good in fuel after the leak behind the intake was fixed. Ran the C&D canal 13 miles against the tide at speed of 24 k and used only 8 gal. On the return trip with the tide pushing me ran 28k and burned 4 gals.