am_dew
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2005
- Messages
- 417
My up until now perfectly running AQ130C suddenly started acting up last weekend. While out of gear (in neutral), the engine sounds perfectly normal and revs to 3-4K RPM perfectly. If you put it in gear and accelerate, there is a noticeable loss of power compared to what it usually has and pretty quickly it starts to bog down and dies. If you back the throttle off when it starts to bog down to about 2000 RPM or less, it is fine. The highest RPM I was able to get yesterday was 4200 RPM (normally it will easily go to 5000) but it won't run at the RPM very long before it bogs down and dies on it's own, unless you back off the throttle. If you are in gear at idle speed or slightly above, everything is fine, but when you give it more gas, that's when things go quickly downhill.
The only variable since the previous outing where the boat ran perfectly to the very end of the trip (as it has every trip this year and in previous recent years) is that I put about 10 gallons of 91 octane gas in it along with about 3 oz. of marine Stabil in it. I did not touch the engine other than to check the oil level as do after every trip.
BTW, the engine oil is fine and both of the Solex carbs both seem to be operating fine...at least visually. I also pulled and checked the spark plugs -- they looked as good as any used spark plugs I've seen.
My first thought was fuel, so I checked the fuel filter (old glass bowl style) this weekend and while the filter was not clogged badly with it, there was some evidence of the Marine Formula Stabil (a light blue color). I'm not sure how old this Stabil was (maybe 2-3 years?) but I wonder if it did not mix with the fuel for some reason? Or perhaps I got some bad gas and/or have water in the gas tank? I'm thinking it can't hurt to put some HEET into the tank and take the boat out again on the river and give it a try. I thought I might also buy a portable gas tank and fill it with new gas and hook it up to the fuel pump and see how that goes if the HEET does not help.
This is very frustrating since the engine (a rebuild bought from Volvo by a V/P dealer who instaled it for me) has worked absolutely perfectly all season long and for the past several years if not longer since it was installed in about 2000. I can't help but think it's a fuel issue of some kind.
Any suggestions or advice?
The only variable since the previous outing where the boat ran perfectly to the very end of the trip (as it has every trip this year and in previous recent years) is that I put about 10 gallons of 91 octane gas in it along with about 3 oz. of marine Stabil in it. I did not touch the engine other than to check the oil level as do after every trip.
BTW, the engine oil is fine and both of the Solex carbs both seem to be operating fine...at least visually. I also pulled and checked the spark plugs -- they looked as good as any used spark plugs I've seen.
My first thought was fuel, so I checked the fuel filter (old glass bowl style) this weekend and while the filter was not clogged badly with it, there was some evidence of the Marine Formula Stabil (a light blue color). I'm not sure how old this Stabil was (maybe 2-3 years?) but I wonder if it did not mix with the fuel for some reason? Or perhaps I got some bad gas and/or have water in the gas tank? I'm thinking it can't hurt to put some HEET into the tank and take the boat out again on the river and give it a try. I thought I might also buy a portable gas tank and fill it with new gas and hook it up to the fuel pump and see how that goes if the HEET does not help.
This is very frustrating since the engine (a rebuild bought from Volvo by a V/P dealer who instaled it for me) has worked absolutely perfectly all season long and for the past several years if not longer since it was installed in about 2000. I can't help but think it's a fuel issue of some kind.
Any suggestions or advice?
