88 OMC 2.3L Dies After Idling Down from WOT

[5star3]

I have an 88 sea swirl tahoe with a 2.3L OMC Cobra. The boat wouldn't start before we put it in the water. We checked the points and they were green so we replaced them. Boat started up fine sounded good. We took it out for the first time this season and it ran great for about 10-15 minutes. We were just cruising around. When we went to idle down the engine just died. We had trouble getting it started again a received a tow back to the dock. Thought it may be some bad fuel so I added some seafoam to the gas the following weekend and it started up and sounded great, again. Didn't take it out.

Took it out the following weekend and same story. Ran great for about 10 minutes and then when we idled down it dies and wouldn't start again.

I do not know much about carburetors but am mechanically inclined and understand the basics of how they work. Additionally an outboard mechanic was near by(and a nice guy) and took a very quick look at it but didn't really say much. He mentioned that the shift linkage appeared to not be engaging and that the idle problem could be cause from fuel being dumped into the carb after idling down(ie something was sticking?) This seems to make some sense because we were able to get the boat started about 30 mins after it died(on the second trip).

I am more than willing to have a professional look at it but they are pretty busy for the time being. And I like to try and fix as much as I can myself. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[drrm123]

Re: 88 OMC 2.3L Dies After Idling Down from WOT

Did you replace the condenser when you did the points? If not you may want to start there. Test coil wtih multi meter to see if within specs. Take a meter with you next time if it dies to test for trouble. As for the carb it could be the floats sticking open so extra gas is being dumped into the engine. You have to pull the carb apart to clean it or replace the needle and seat while apart. It it's leaking you should be able to look down carb to see fuel leaking or smell heavy gas fumes. If it just a fuel leak you should be able to hold engine wide open and get it to fire after it clears out some of extra fuel.

 

[1987larsoncitation]

Re: 88 OMC 2.3L Dies After Idling Down from WOT

I assume you have a 2 barrel rochester on there. My throttle cable was sticky and it caused the same symptoms. Does it stick in high idle too sometimes?? If it is not that it might just be the idle screw is out of adjustment. Is water running thru cooling system for backpressure??