hi, I'm new to the forum and just picked up an 87 sea ray Seville for a song. it has a 2.3L OMC and had been sitting for about a year and a half according to the previous owner, in very good condition. never docked, clean, no hour meter, engine pretty clean, interior quite good too.
Sorry in advance for the story, but i'd rather provide the details in case someone reads something that might have meaning
so the previous owner never got it running, but had performed some maintenance-related items like oil change, oil filter change, fuel filter, spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor, points and condenser as well as coil, oh and the impleller, not that that's gonna have any impact on my issue. so several of the items of concern have been replaced. the plug wires weren't replaced, but appear to be in good condition.
that's the setup, now what I know and have done. the boat would want to start but wouldn't catch. I decided to rebuild the carb and had the same symptoms. after some research, I decided to unplug the interrupter and overrun switches and BAM, it started!! it ran pretty smooth and didn't appear to need any other adjustments, at least based on how smooth is was running - some black carbon on the driveway which I though was long needed for this engine. anyway, i'd start it for the next couple days, let it come up to temp at idle, full throttle, feather the throttle, back to idle - it really ran great no issues that I believed I should be concerned about.
so I took the boat out on the river to see if it would float lol, and to run it some, find out how it was going to react since I got it running. it ran great but I could only run it pretty much at idle due to no wake zone. I got on it a couple times full throttle and nice crisp response. so I chalked it up to a successful run, boat fixed!
a few days later, I wanted to go out on the Lake, so I put in, started her up, let her idle and was excited to watch a really cool sunset. I take her out of the marina, past the lighthouse and head toward the beach. I got on it, throttle wide open, running great and planed out, sea-spray blurred my vision (obligatory RUSH reference), and the boat started choking and sputtering. I backed the throttle down and it seemed to come around. so I immediately turned around to get back in and I had to feather the throttle - almost pump shot the throttle to keep gas feeding into the intake. I did it all the way back to the put-in, maybe 10 min.
I let it idle, gave some thought to the situation and remembered I hadn't set the idle mixture screws on the rebuild, so I put them to about 1.75 turns out - I think that's the service manual suggestion. I know that turning till idle change also helps to dial in better, but good enough I thought.
I decided to take it back out, idled through the marina and started to get on it again. it sputtered again and died. then I wasn't able to get it going again. I was able to start it at high throttle, but if I backed it down toward idle it would die.
I rowed it in 800-900 feet maybe, and came home. next day it started right up with good throttle response, like there was no problem.
sooo... my initial thoughts lean toward a fuel issue like fuel pump, but I don't want to just start spending without some thoughts from those more knowledgeable than I. I did find the fuel filter to be installed backwards on the rebuild, and I did replace the accelerator pump.
I also read on this forum that ethanol fuels will evaporate when the fuel line gets hot. here in my county, ohio we have 10% ethanol during the summer months
ANY thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated so I can get my daughter and me back out on the water!
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!
Sorry in advance for the story, but i'd rather provide the details in case someone reads something that might have meaning
so the previous owner never got it running, but had performed some maintenance-related items like oil change, oil filter change, fuel filter, spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor, points and condenser as well as coil, oh and the impleller, not that that's gonna have any impact on my issue. so several of the items of concern have been replaced. the plug wires weren't replaced, but appear to be in good condition.
that's the setup, now what I know and have done. the boat would want to start but wouldn't catch. I decided to rebuild the carb and had the same symptoms. after some research, I decided to unplug the interrupter and overrun switches and BAM, it started!! it ran pretty smooth and didn't appear to need any other adjustments, at least based on how smooth is was running - some black carbon on the driveway which I though was long needed for this engine. anyway, i'd start it for the next couple days, let it come up to temp at idle, full throttle, feather the throttle, back to idle - it really ran great no issues that I believed I should be concerned about.
so I took the boat out on the river to see if it would float lol, and to run it some, find out how it was going to react since I got it running. it ran great but I could only run it pretty much at idle due to no wake zone. I got on it a couple times full throttle and nice crisp response. so I chalked it up to a successful run, boat fixed!
a few days later, I wanted to go out on the Lake, so I put in, started her up, let her idle and was excited to watch a really cool sunset. I take her out of the marina, past the lighthouse and head toward the beach. I got on it, throttle wide open, running great and planed out, sea-spray blurred my vision (obligatory RUSH reference), and the boat started choking and sputtering. I backed the throttle down and it seemed to come around. so I immediately turned around to get back in and I had to feather the throttle - almost pump shot the throttle to keep gas feeding into the intake. I did it all the way back to the put-in, maybe 10 min.
I let it idle, gave some thought to the situation and remembered I hadn't set the idle mixture screws on the rebuild, so I put them to about 1.75 turns out - I think that's the service manual suggestion. I know that turning till idle change also helps to dial in better, but good enough I thought.
I decided to take it back out, idled through the marina and started to get on it again. it sputtered again and died. then I wasn't able to get it going again. I was able to start it at high throttle, but if I backed it down toward idle it would die.
I rowed it in 800-900 feet maybe, and came home. next day it started right up with good throttle response, like there was no problem.
sooo... my initial thoughts lean toward a fuel issue like fuel pump, but I don't want to just start spending without some thoughts from those more knowledgeable than I. I did find the fuel filter to be installed backwards on the rebuild, and I did replace the accelerator pump.
I also read on this forum that ethanol fuels will evaporate when the fuel line gets hot. here in my county, ohio we have 10% ethanol during the summer months
ANY thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated so I can get my daughter and me back out on the water!
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!
