Mercruiser 3.0 Success

[nrf414]

Mercruiser 3.0 Success Story

Hey everyone as I read over the forums, I see many problems questions and troubles. Well I wanted to post a short success story with my 3.0 Mercruiser.

I am a lurker at best, reading when my curiosity strikes me. Well recently I bought a new boat that is my first I/O. I bought it approximately 3 weeks ago and since then I have read, read, and read some more. With all the reading and researching from other peoples problems and questions I was able to troubleshoot my situation successfully.

When I bought the boat at first it seemed to turn over very slowly and would not idle when it would fire up. So I checked compression (150 on all cylinders), checked the plugs for spark, cleaned the flame arrestor and added some fuel conditioner to the fuel tank. I still could not get it to fire up and stay running. I tried carb / choke cleaner. Still I could not get this thing to work. When all the simple stuff didn?t seem to fix it I knew there had to be something with the carb that could be tested next.

Reading the manual I found the idle speed adjustment screw next to the linkage on the port side of the motor. I turned it all the way in, pumped the throttle 3 times and staged at 1/3 in. With the turn of a key the motor stayed stable at high idle but STABLE! So I tuned the idle down to about 650 -700 RPM idle and now it seems to be running strong.

All too often we get caught up in the little things that can really turn us off. I thought long and hard about giving up and taking it to a stealer I mean a dealership or service center. But through perseverance and the right amount of patience I was able to succeed. I hope that we all can reap the benefits of the readily available resources and see our projects launched.

 

[Rocky_Road]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

Bravo!!!

 

[JustJason]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

stealer I mean a dealership

Comm'n man. Not all dealers are stealers. What most white collar folks don't realize or think about is this. At your job, your personal job. You make a gross pay, wether its salary or per hour or commision. It doesn't matter what you take home, it's all about your gross. Your gross pay is what your company pays you as an employee. However, because of taxes, benefites, etc, your actual cost to your company is roughly double your gross pay. Give or take.
If you make 50K a year. It costs your company 100K a year to employ you.
99% of dealerships are small business. If you pay 100 bucks a labor hour do you think as a mechanic my gross pay is 100 bucks an hour? Hardly. The best shops will pay their tech's 50% of the labor... usually with no pay on parts sold. (ripoff to us). And that's the best. The better shops will use estimated billing. Not so much flat rate, but estimated as in this......
Lets say a particular job has a flat rate book time of 1 hour... if there was no extreme corrosion or other factors on the job, flat rate assumes the average tech is "good" at their job, and bills the job at 1 hour. This is time billed to the manufactorer of the product for warranty issues, it has no bearing other than a vauge reference to the consumer. So lets take your 1 hour job and add in a whole bunch of corrosion. Working with corrosion related issues can easily double or triple the bill.
So lets say I tear into your boat at a 1 hour job, and it fights me with broken bolts but I work my everliving ***** off. And I get the job done in 2 hours. Lets also say i'm exceptionally good at removing broken bolts. Today is monday, and i'm ready to work. I worked my tail off for 2 hours on your boat.

How many hours should I charge you in labor?

Should I charge you 1 hour.... because that is the "average" time for the "average" boat?

Should I charge you 2 hours.... because that is the time it actually took me. Even though I worked my ***** off to do it in 2 hours.

Should I charge you 3 hours... If I decided to work at a steady pace instead of working my ***** off, I would estimate your job would have taken me 3 hours. But because I am more highly skilled than the average tech, plus motivated and not hungover I got it done in 2 hours, why shouldn't I charge you 3 hours for the job?

Nothing against you, but you white collar folks do have your projects and you have your deadlines. Us blue collar guys have deadlines that run every hour on the hour. It's always time time time.

For us it's this. Can you do the job? Can you do the job correctly? And can you do the job in an efficient, profitable manner.

I can make 100 correct diagnoses in a row.... but the second I make one incorrect diagnoses... I will hear about it for a year to come.

In the white collar world. You do group projects, group activities. You work together as a "team". If the team pulls through then fantastic... pat yourselves on the back. You made group decisions as a group. If the team fails... finger pointing often ensues. Some will still be employed at the end of the day, and some will not.
In my blue collar world. I have the problem in front of me, and either I can fix it or I can not. If I can fix it, fantastic, i've done my job. If I can not fix it... I'd better walk away from it with embarassment and humility. And whatever time I put into it before I realized I cannot fix it, I can expect and rightfully so not to get paid for it. In alot of shops there is a very much a to each their own mentality.
In the white collar world.... if you work a year on a project and the project ultimately fails for whatever reason.... you still got a years pay.
In my world... It's not a question if i screw something up or not, it's more if If I don't cover my own rear end before I touch something.... I don't get any pay. It's a job by job basis.

I will agree that there are absolutely shady people/business/shops/dealers out there. And it truely is buyer beware. But please don't call every dealer a stealer. We physically with our bodies and often with our minds work alot harder than you white collar folk. Most of us are not looking to get rich overnight but we do realize and don't back down from what we believe is working an honest days worth of work, no matter how back breaking, for an honest days pay.

good to hear you got your boat fixed. Were still here if you need us.

 

[IVAZ]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

justjason,
You are so wrong on so many levels as to what takes place in the "white color" world I actually laughed. This is one example: I estimate what it would cost to build a low sulphur diesel unit at a refinery. I estimate 12.5 million. If I?m wrong by even 3% you don?t think my neck is in trouble? I do a ton of work at home I don?t get paid for also. Life is not fair and I assure you my job sucks as much as yours.
I do appreciate you bringing some light to the whole ?stealership? thing. Since keeping up with cost is my job I had a good idea why they charged so much. Many people do not.

 

[cooter2506]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

IN central PA there are not too many dealers. I have heard horror stories about all of them. BUT you really only do hear the bad things. Never the good. That not only happens in the boat business but in everyother business also. HVAC techs and owners like me get same grief. People dont take care of their equipment and when they call you they are desperate to fix it and when you do and give them the bill they freak and you are trying to rip them off. It is just the nature of being a skilled technician in any field.
Congrats on getting the boat running. Im also from south central PA. where do you plan on running your rig? have a great day.

 

[fat fanny]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

JJ Consider the use of incorrect choice of words in nrf414 post due to possibly being ripped off or finally figuring out that here on iboats the info and help recieved to be able to due a job on his own without paying someone to do it is gratifing . I have worked on both sides of the fence white and blue collar and I have to say blue is more satisfying.

 

[IVAZ]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

I have worked on both sides of the fence white and blue collar and I have to say blue is more satisfying.

Blue collar more satisfying? Absolutely. The pay was the part I did not like.
I also think we may have ruined nrf414?s thread. Sorry.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

But through perseverance and the right amount of patience I was able to succeed.

Ayuh,.... I always just Love a Happy ending,....

 

[nrf414]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

Wow, the point was really hijacked on this one.

I wasn't accusing all dealerships as being stealerships but the ones around here do not have the best reputation. As I've had experiences with most of them at some point or another.

I think I have a pretty solid understanding of economics, thats why I try to do the work myself and save myself money (because I don't have a lot of it)

I by no way wanted to imply that all dealerships and all associates are crooks. Some are, that was all I wanted to present.

My real agenda behind the post was to thank everyone for having the information available so I was able to save myself some money and enjoy boating.

 

[nrf414]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

IN central PA there are not too many dealers. I have heard horror stories about all of them. BUT you really only do hear the bad things. Never the good. That not only happens in the boat business but in everyother business also. HVAC techs and owners like me get same grief. People dont take care of their equipment and when they call you they are desperate to fix it and when you do and give them the bill they freak and you are trying to rip them off. It is just the nature of being a skilled technician in any field.
Congrats on getting the boat running. Im also from south central PA. where do you plan on running your rig? have a great day.

Last year I had a lot of great experiences at Raystown Lake. I'm not too far from the Potomac in MD which is a great place to just get out, but not my preference. I liked Lake Clarke on the Susquehana as well.

 

[cooter2506]

Re: Mercruiser 3.0 Success

We go to Lake clarke about 9 times a year and raystown twice, maybe we will see you there. The boat in my signiture is the one you will see me on. It is red and white hopefully I will have a pic to put to it soon. See me and pull on up we will have some fun. And once again congrats on your boat!!!