mhieronimus
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2011
- Messages
- 10
Ok, so here's my problem.
I have a Johnson FD-20C, that I got from my father in law. We had borrowed it from him and went fishing. The motor started like a charm. We had traveled a short distance from the boat launch, fished a bit, then decided to take off across the lake. I was running it at WOT when suddenly, without warning, it lost power and died. Tried restarting it, it would start, run poorly, then die. Tried again, same thing... over and over and over. That put the end to our day of fishing. So we went, swapped motors and finished out our fishing trip.
The motor sat for 3-5 weeks, out side of his garage. He said he didn't want to put any money into it and that I could have it. So I took it home, threw it in the ol trash can, and bam, started up like a champ, and ran beautifully. Let it idle for half an hour, no problem. So I figured I'd give it a test out on the lake. Put it in the lake, started just fine, took off, and after about the same distance as before (800-1000yds) and bam. Died again, this time there was a bit of... almost a knocking noise as it died. So I rowed back to the launch, took it home. Gave it a while, put it in the barrel, and it started, ran like crap, and died. Couldn't get it to idle even.
I was thinking over heating issue. The exhaust port is spitting out water, and the thermostat functioned in a hot pot of water. I had noticed on both occasions, that the motor seemed to smoke a lot. That was with two different gas tanks, running the same mixture. The motor didn't seem overly hot, but I only put my hand on the cover, which was warm.
Now today I tried again, and it started, ran for a second, died. After that it sounded like it was back firing when I tried to start it. Little "poof/pop" while pulling the pull cord. I took the top off, inspected the ignition components, cleaned up some gummed up pieces, reassembled and same story.
I had read somewhere on the internet, someone was having a similar issue and someone suggested replacing ignition components because they believed that they were heating up and failing, cooling off then working again. This motor DID have a head gasket replaced at one point in the past several years before I got it.
Does anyone have any ideas? This motor was running great, idled great, just at WOT for extended periods it gave me issues. And I thought it was strange after sitting for a couple weeks, it sudden fired right up and ran fine.
I have a Johnson FD-20C, that I got from my father in law. We had borrowed it from him and went fishing. The motor started like a charm. We had traveled a short distance from the boat launch, fished a bit, then decided to take off across the lake. I was running it at WOT when suddenly, without warning, it lost power and died. Tried restarting it, it would start, run poorly, then die. Tried again, same thing... over and over and over. That put the end to our day of fishing. So we went, swapped motors and finished out our fishing trip.
The motor sat for 3-5 weeks, out side of his garage. He said he didn't want to put any money into it and that I could have it. So I took it home, threw it in the ol trash can, and bam, started up like a champ, and ran beautifully. Let it idle for half an hour, no problem. So I figured I'd give it a test out on the lake. Put it in the lake, started just fine, took off, and after about the same distance as before (800-1000yds) and bam. Died again, this time there was a bit of... almost a knocking noise as it died. So I rowed back to the launch, took it home. Gave it a while, put it in the barrel, and it started, ran like crap, and died. Couldn't get it to idle even.
I was thinking over heating issue. The exhaust port is spitting out water, and the thermostat functioned in a hot pot of water. I had noticed on both occasions, that the motor seemed to smoke a lot. That was with two different gas tanks, running the same mixture. The motor didn't seem overly hot, but I only put my hand on the cover, which was warm.
Now today I tried again, and it started, ran for a second, died. After that it sounded like it was back firing when I tried to start it. Little "poof/pop" while pulling the pull cord. I took the top off, inspected the ignition components, cleaned up some gummed up pieces, reassembled and same story.
I had read somewhere on the internet, someone was having a similar issue and someone suggested replacing ignition components because they believed that they were heating up and failing, cooling off then working again. This motor DID have a head gasket replaced at one point in the past several years before I got it.
Does anyone have any ideas? This motor was running great, idled great, just at WOT for extended periods it gave me issues. And I thought it was strange after sitting for a couple weeks, it sudden fired right up and ran fine.