Help out a new boat owner

[oxfordgt]

Hey guys I just picked up an 89 Glasstream 211 with a 4.3LX Mercruiser. When I got it it ran pretty good but didn't really want to idle. It had some soft spots and missing interior so I took it to a guy in Nashville to have it all fixed along with clean the carb. Well got it back and it still has a hard time idleing but better but now in the water when you throttle it up it just bogs down and takes forever to reach 4800rpms, sometimes minutes.

Today I recleaned the carb, put new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and coil. Am hoping this fixes it but it still has a bit of trouble idleing. base timing is at 8* BTDC and idle set at 800. I adjusted the idle mixture screws to center of stalling lean or rich. I am at a loss of what else to do now.

Prop is brand new (came loose on me in the water), water pump is new (damn temp gage doesn't work tho) and I had a hydrofoil put on to try to get it to plane out.

Any advice will be great thanks.

Oh yeah I traded for this boat LOL

 

[artificialreef]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Recleaned the carb, what does that mean? Sprayed stuff down into it? Are you getting a nice stream when you activate the throttle. Dont do that while running with the flame arrestor off while you are looking down or you may loose your eyebrows at the least. Your face at the worst.

 

[thumpar]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

How old is the fuel?

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Cleaned the carb ment took it off, took it apart, sprayed carb cleaner thru all holes and passages and put in a new filter. Yes the accelerator pump works and a nice stream thru both sides.

The gas that was in there was from last year and had stabil (blue) in it. I ran it all out and now on the second tank of fresh gas.

Revs up perfect on the trailer on muffs but has a rough idle still. Only acts up in the water under load.

I am a pretty good mechanic. I have built many fast cars ranging from 500rwhp to 1200rwhp and can fix anything with a small engine including 4 wheelers and motorcycles. But this boat really has me scratching my head.

 

[ponchoman]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Did you do a compression test? I would've guessed wires/cap/plugs but you did that.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Cleaned the carb ment took it off, took it apart, sprayed carb cleaner thru all holes and passages and put in a new filter. Yes the accelerator pump works and a nice stream thru both sides.

The gas that was in there was from last year and had stabil (blue) in it. I ran it all out and now on the second tank of fresh gas.

Revs up perfect on the trailer on muffs but has a rough idle still. Only acts up in the water under load.

I am a pretty good mechanic. I have built many fast cars ranging from 500rwhp to 1200rwhp and can fix anything with a small engine including 4 wheelers and motorcycles. But this boat really has me scratching my head.

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... That still sounds like a fuel delivery issue, most likely the carb,...

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Only thing I can think of with the carb is float level. Not sure how to check this one. Wish I could just slap a holley on there so I know what I'm doing LOL.

Think it could be fuel pump? It looks good, no leaks and no fuel in the site tube.

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Did you do a compression test? I would've guessed wires/cap/plugs but you did that.

I wouldn't think it would be compression. It does rev all the way up eventually and runs great at WOT just takes forever to get up there. Compression check will be the last resort since I had to take half the damn boat apart just to get to plugs.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Only thing I can think of with the carb is float level. Not sure how to check this one. Wish I could just slap a holley on there so I know what I'm doing LOL.

Think it could be fuel pump? It looks good, no leaks and no fuel in the site tube.

Ayuh,.... Is yer carb the Rochester Quadrajet, or the Merc/ Weber AFB,..??

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

It's a quadrajet

 

[Moose truck]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

I feel the same way towards the Quadajet.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hly-0-80492
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-17310
http://www.summitracing.com/search?keyword=4.3 v6 chevy 4 barrel intake&dds=1
May help... Regards Moose

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

A little update:

Well took it out today and it ran about 70% better. It had half a tank of gas in it. It had year old gas in it that I have been trying to burn up and kept adding fresh gas to try to mix it. Well once I got just below 1/4 tank of gas left it started dying. RPMs dropped to 2500 at WOT and would not idle at all unless I held the choke closed. My best guess is that the bottom of the tank was filled with phased water/alcohol causing it to run like crap.

When I got home I ran to auto zone and asked for the cheapest electric fuel pump and some fuel hose. Before draining the tank I did pull the line from the carb and checked the feul pump pressure (almost shot across the boat). So i sucked the tank dry with the E pump and put all that orange gas in my trucks. Tomorrow I will fill her up with fresh gas and take her out again. I'll give another update after.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

A little update:

Well took it out today and it ran about 70% better. It had half a tank of gas in it. It had year old gas in it that I have been trying to burn up and kept adding fresh gas to try to mix it. Well once I got just below 1/4 tank of gas left it started dying. RPMs dropped to 2500 at WOT and would not idle at all unless I held the choke closed. My best guess is that the bottom of the tank was filled with phased water/alcohol causing it to run like crap.

When I got home I ran to auto zone and asked for the cheapest electric fuel pump and some fuel hose. Before draining the tank I did pull the line from the carb and checked the feul pump pressure (almost shot across the boat). So i sucked the tank dry with the E pump and put all that orange gas in my trucks. Tomorrow I will fill her up with fresh gas and take her out again. I'll give another update after.

Ayuh,.... 'n now yer trucks ain't gonna run right,.....:laugh:

 

[Expidia]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Holy Mackerel . . . I just noticed Bond has 48,368 posts. Even though he has a lot of Ayuh's, Yeps and Nopes . . . Still 48k plus posts is still a formidable feat

Short on words or not this guy is quite an asset to this forum . . . Thanks Bondo

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Ayuh,.... 'n now yer trucks ain't gonna run right,.....:laugh:

My trucks love old gas. I take in old riding mowers, 4 wheelers and jet skis to fix and flip and always use the old gas. Some of it was so bad I had to run it through a few coffee filters before I could use it LOL.

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Well haven't got her on the water yet but put 5 gallons of fresh ethanol free gas in and she idles great on her own. No stalling and no sign of stalling. Just got to get her in the water to fine tune idle and see how she performs.

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

Well took her out today for a couple hours. Ran great for about a half hour. I stopped for a while and let the kids swim then when I we went to drive around again it started taking a while to get up to speed again. Then while at WOT we would be cruisin for about 30 sec then the RPMs would drop to around 3000 then catch itself and run back up. Kept doing that all the way back to the marina.

I am at a loss now please help.

 

[artificialreef]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

How about a water seperator.

 

[oxfordgt]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

I did a little reading last night and found a thread about a guy having the same symptoms as me including rpms dropping when hitting waves. To my surprise he actually updated it with what the cause was unlike most. Turned out it was the anti-syphon valve. So I took mine off and it had a broken piece of the threads. So I pulled the pickup tube and found the metal laying on the screen at the top of the tube and you could barely see through the screen. So I cleaned it out and replaced the anti-syphon valve with just a barbed fitting (temp). I saw that the fuel filter would fill with more fuel now.

Gonna take the boat out today and see if it fixes anything. I hope it does because I am so frustrated and ready to sell this boat.

Still having a hard time nailing down idle but I think it's just my lack of knowledge with this carb.

 

[Celtichawk]

Re: Help out a new boat owner

I had the same problem with my welcraft, despite it being OMC but dumped the boat about 6 months ago for 2 dirt bikes and $500 cash. Was worth it at that time, but later found out after all I replaced, which was the same as everything you did including that anti-siphon valve and new pickup tube special ordered, it was the bushings in the distributor that went bad. New owner contacted me and said he rebuilt them and it worked great. Well damn good for him lol. But if your anti-siphon valve don't fix it maybe check that. I will add also that my timing jumped around a bit so that might explain more of a distributor issue rather then your problem.