Fuel System Test ?

[BackWoodsTracker]

Can I leave the hose and gauge attached for a few hours of trolling so I can check it all out after 3 or 4 hours? I only ask because the boat shows no signs of trouble until about 3 hours of trolling. I have done the checks and all looks great, but I still get surging after fishing. Right now I'm leaning towards the pick-up getting clogged. I sure wish the tank wasn't sealed in under the floor!

 

[meesh]

Re: Fuel System Test ?

A carb running rich will cause this. Will slowly foul plugs after several hours of trolling. Saw this on the father in laws old boat. Was fine for about two hours then started running poorly. Would suddenly die. Would have to pull up gear and blow smoke and carbon out in a hard run. Then fine for about two hours. Finally he had the carb rebuilt and never had the problem again. That was a Merc 350 with a 4 brl rochester.

 

[BackWoodsTracker]

Re: Fuel System Test ?

My first thought was fouled plugs. But when I changed them out on the water, it didn't solve the problem. It was still acting the same way, put another set of plugs in, and same thing. It's always fine when we first start out. So now I'm thinking that either my pump is getting weak after a few hours, or my fuel pick-up is getting plugged after a while. From the way I read the fuel system test, it'll show more than 4hg. without the line pinched if the screen is getting plugged . If that seems good, I should be able to tell if the pump will still get the 6-9 hg of vacuum by just pinching the line shut. I would just run it with the gauge attached, but it's my dads boat. In his eyes, when it says in the write up that this is a temporary set-up, that means a few min, not a few hours. I'd really like to not have to disconnect the fuel lines out there.

 

[Apollo75]

Re: Fuel System Test ?

There are two problems with this scenario :

1. If you are fishing you are not watching the connections for leaks.

2. It is not going to fail normally while the engine cover is up !

I'll tell you what -- Bubba

I owned a 1937 Mathews Custom Sedan Cruiser with twin 318 B-Blocks.

I made new everything and that day I made new steel fuel line from the pumps to the carbs. I ran the engine and checked everything and ran the engine again for 20 or 30 minutes to oil everything up, get all the moisture out and check the charging system under different loads etc.

A friend walked up to the boat and we started talking --- it was noisy so I closed the floor engine covers ---- we talked for a few minutes and when I opened the floor there was fuel everywhere leaking from the inlet to the carb. Leaked in the bilge and was everywhere ---- then the bilge fume sensor went off (an explosion late).

Hand me my sign


OFM