Mercruiser 5.0 v8 had to start with starting fluid

[dlogvine]

My friend was running my boat with Mercruiser 5.0 v8 when the shutoff lanyard plastic part cracked and the engine automatically shut off. He tried to restart it, but the engine was just cranking and not igniting. Called me on the phone, so I told him to use starting fluid. He used it and the engine started and from there on had no problems starting again even after it was getting turned on.
The question is, what could have caused such behavior? It happens sometimes after several weeks sitting in the storage but I was always able to start the engine after some cranking for a minute or two.

The other question is, about the shifter, I replaced the shifter lower cable and adjusted the barrel so it was shifting without any problems. My friend said that when he was shifting it today he have heard some grinding noise when shifting. Any suggestions as to what could have caused it? I really dont want him to ruin my boat.
Thank you, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Searay205]

The shifting noise he heard may have been normal he just isn't used to it. I assume your engine is carburated? I wouldn't worry about anything until you use the boat and see if anything has changed. If you don't want him to damage the boat you shouldn't have let him use it!!

 

[alldodge]

The phrase "No good deed goes unpunished" happens to me all the time. I have to just stop loaning things out because something seems to always happen when I do

Agree with searay, and the either after shut down from the kill switch may have been a bit flooded. Either is bad stuff to use on a motor

 

[dlogvine]

I thought about the other reason for the grinding noise. My Baja boat has a double lever shifter, one does the throttle and the other one shifts the gear, reverse, neutral, forward. If my friend did not take the throttle lever all the way down, this could have caused the noise, since he would be switching gears with gas on.