5.0GL PEFS Running Problem....New Boat Owner Here

[Dyoll4]

Hello there everyone. My name is Rick, and I just bought a 2001 Larson which has a Volvo Penta giving her life. After much searching around about this boat, I now know I have the engine model 5.0GL PEFS. Sorry if this is long, but its my first post and wanted to give as much details as I could regarding what I am dealing with.

My First Boat:
I am still learning about this boat and boats in general. I made the mistake of not using my best judgement when making this purchase. I found a boat I liked and locked in on it and ended up buying it without even taking it on the water. Stupid mistake all around, and I should have not been that stupid. Boat started in his driveway and stayed running for a good 5 min on with the muffs on the out-drive everything seemed fine. Kept waiting on weather & schedules to cooperate to take it for a test drive, and it never worked. So I ended up just buying the boat anyway because I got impatient.

Moving on....... I took it out on the water about 2 weeks after picking it up. It started right up, ran about 30 seconds and died. Tried to start it back up and it took about 5-10 minutes to get it going again. Never turned it off again and we rode around for a good 1-2 hrs with no problems again. Second time, took it out and it died again about 1-2 minutes after launching. Took maybe 15-20 minutes trying to get it started until it finally starts again and we take it out for 4-5 hrs of just running around the lake, but never turned it off in fear of it not starting again. Ran fine, never got hot, and seems fine to my knowledge and mechanical experience other than the dying issue. Third time out, the same thing.

Fast forward to last week, I was just looking over the boat and getting to know the wires and where everything was ran and learning how the whole boat was working. Such as steering cables, trim hydraulic hoses, fuel lines, etc. Just so I could familiarize myself with everything. I put the muffs back on the boat and she started right up just as she has done on the water, and sure enough she died after about 2-3 minutes of idle and minimal throttle. Then it just wouldn't start up again. Even after waiting 30+minutes, a then trying again the next day. I got frustrated and kept trying to start it and the battery got REALLY HOT. So much that when I went to disconnect the wires out of panic, the metal burned my hand instantly. After waiting another day I tried again, to the point the battery again got hot and ended up melting the screw post the cable was hooked too.

So I am now at a loss trying to figure this out without having to take this to a boat mechanic. I consider myself pretty mechanically inclined, and do most of the work on my cars myself. Such as swapping alternators, oil changes, changed clutches on both cars and motorcycles, replaced heads and timing belts. So I don't every mess too much with internal parts of motors, but can pretty much understand the concepts of most motor parts to change them myself. So I've been around boats as a little kid and very little after maybe 13-14. So mechanically, I am not very familiar with the troubleshooting and workings of a marine motor just yet. I'm doing my research, but sometimes you cant find everything you need, so that leads me here to my first post asking for help.

Where do I start????

I'm thinking tomorrow I was going to replace the fuel/water separation filter, and adding about a half tank of 91 octane with a bottle of Seafoam and cross my fingers....

I found a local shop, but their rates on the website show 110/hr, and I just don't have that right now just to diagnose the problem, and then pricing the fix. So I am coming here to see if there may be anyone familiar with this problem I am having and maybe it can be something as stupid as changing this fuel/water filter.

Sorry again for such a long post, but I figured I better get as much out there as possible so everyone knows exactly how green I am to this all.


I keep hearing that, "the best days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it". I am trying so hard for that statement not to come true....lol



thanks again for any help I can gain from this. Tried to upload pictures of the motor if it would help, but I am not yet authorized to upload yet.

 

[alldodge]

battery got REALLY HOT

Howdy Rick

You need to post three times before you can upload pics.
With the battery post getting hot there is something wrong with the battery, starter or cables. Resistance in connections will cause things to heat up. Remove the cables and clean the connections to bright shinny metal on post and cables. Get a voltmeter (cheap is OK) and connect to the battery and let us know what the voltage is before the motor is turned over, and also what the voltage is while the motor is being turned over.

 

[Maclin]

Welcome aboard!

When you say it won't start, does the starter turn the engine over at a good clip? If so, how many seconds at a time do you let it crank?

Are you familiar with carbed engines? What is your starting procedure regarding the throttle? Do you pump the throttle on a cold start? When it won't start out on the water do you move the throttle 3/4 to full while cranking to try to clear a flooded condition?

 

[dizzy1]

I have a 07' Volvo 5.0GL-H and had some issues like you when I first got it. Here is what I do and never have issues anymore. When ready to start, push the throttle botton and floor the lever for about 3 seconds. Then pull back on throttle to about 1/3 advanced. Start the boat and adjust the lever to fire it up and keep it idling at about 1500. The goal is to warm it up since its a carb engine. If you just put it back to neutral at that time, it runs for about 10-20 seconds and stalls. If you don't give it more gas, it will not start and just crank like you are doing. Once warm, you can go into neutral and never stall or click into gear and never stall. If stalls after warm just clicking into gear, you need to adjust the idle up some.

So next time at lake(different then on muffs), floor it for 3 seconds, then back to 1/3 throttle and start it up(adjusting throttle to keep it running around 1500rpms). Do this until the boat warms up. If you are on a busy ramp(like I am) you just have to remember when you click into reverse to get off the trailer you have to give it a little more gas then just clicking into gear, or it will stall. If you do this, you'll get off the trailer, keep it running and be good. Once away from ramp, I usually have a buddy part my truck so I keep the throttle up a little to keep the rpms up in the 1200-1500 range so the engine is warming up while i wait. After that you won't have any problems the rest of the day unless you stop for a few hours and it cools. Then just repeat above.

 

[Maclin]

Respectfully dizzy1, I think your carb needs an adjustment to the choke setting. Leaving the throttle open for any length of time makes no difference unless it is flooded and you are cranking the engine to try to clear it.

First cold start of the day should be two quick full pumps to near WOT returing the throttle to zero or just slightly advanced, then crank. If choke is working properly it should stay running, maybe a little rough for a few seconds.

 

[HalfFish5087]

I'm thinking tomorrow I was going to replace the fuel/water separation filter, and adding about a half tank of 91 octane with a bottle of Seafoam and cross my fingers....

Save your $ and buy 87 octane and don't bother with the SeaFoam. I'm with the others in that this is likely a carb issue and defiantly fuel related. However, I would tend to lean harder on checking out the fuel pump due to the variability in what your observing. I would test this by first replacing the filter, if it's not new, then disconnecting the inlet to the carburetor and placing a container under the fuel outlet. Disconnect your kill switch so that it won't start and then have someone turn the engine over for just a few seconds while you observe if fuel is being pumped into your container. Then report back.

 

[alldodge]

Agree, all you need is 87, and no way you need any kind of snake oil