Sea Rider
Supreme Mariner
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2008
- Messages
- 12,345
Drifting along the Pacific
This example will show why you need to lube periodically your engine, to make the story short. A client that purchased a brand Tohatsu 18 horse 2 years ago and never required tech service went fishiing with 2 friends on a 380 sib. At morning cold start had combustion problems, the engine finally started, went to an island 50 kilometers of coast, fished all day long. When cold starting engine with choke late in the afternoon, the engine flooded, plugs were removed, happy birthady plugs was sung, reinstalled and to the crew surprise & astonishment the engine heavily flooded again at next re start. What happened ?
When you pull choke to start engine, butterfly closes, when engine starts and choke is pushed in the butterfly opens. But boater didn’t know that the air butterfly shaft had stucked inside carb. When pulling, pushing choke while cranking, butterfly remained closed. Due to flooded engine never managed to re start back. Wind finally took it’s nightmare turn, the boat went drifting till next day, there were no marine radio, oars, cell phone comunication was useless. Luckily were found by other boaters that went in their search, the owner was severely fined by the coast guard for endangering the lives of others. Lesson learned : take your engine to service for total lube or lube it yourself if knowing which points to lube. Carb is a must be in opt working condition.
This exact tech issue happend to me, luckily we didn’t leave the pier, after troubleshooting the symtoms the cause was found, carb issues corrected 10 minutes latter. We should blame E gasolines
for those sticky problems. You should lube all 4 shaft butterfly points periodically, automatic trasmission oil will penetrate and lube right. When well lubed, butterfly shaft must move freely and slightly sideways without any hesitation. Same applies to remote engines which uses key on control box to engage solenoid. Keep all sliding parts well lubricated and check that solenoid and plunger are well aligned and working inmaculate clean.
Happy Boating
This example will show why you need to lube periodically your engine, to make the story short. A client that purchased a brand Tohatsu 18 horse 2 years ago and never required tech service went fishiing with 2 friends on a 380 sib. At morning cold start had combustion problems, the engine finally started, went to an island 50 kilometers of coast, fished all day long. When cold starting engine with choke late in the afternoon, the engine flooded, plugs were removed, happy birthady plugs was sung, reinstalled and to the crew surprise & astonishment the engine heavily flooded again at next re start. What happened ?
When you pull choke to start engine, butterfly closes, when engine starts and choke is pushed in the butterfly opens. But boater didn’t know that the air butterfly shaft had stucked inside carb. When pulling, pushing choke while cranking, butterfly remained closed. Due to flooded engine never managed to re start back. Wind finally took it’s nightmare turn, the boat went drifting till next day, there were no marine radio, oars, cell phone comunication was useless. Luckily were found by other boaters that went in their search, the owner was severely fined by the coast guard for endangering the lives of others. Lesson learned : take your engine to service for total lube or lube it yourself if knowing which points to lube. Carb is a must be in opt working condition.
This exact tech issue happend to me, luckily we didn’t leave the pier, after troubleshooting the symtoms the cause was found, carb issues corrected 10 minutes latter. We should blame E gasolines
for those sticky problems. You should lube all 4 shaft butterfly points periodically, automatic trasmission oil will penetrate and lube right. When well lubed, butterfly shaft must move freely and slightly sideways without any hesitation. Same applies to remote engines which uses key on control box to engage solenoid. Keep all sliding parts well lubricated and check that solenoid and plunger are well aligned and working inmaculate clean.Happy Boating
