Throttle power problem

[Singing Boat Guy]

I was at the lake yesterday and anchored a couple of times and shut the engine down to relax and listen to some tunes on the new stereo I installed. On the last time I started up and hit the throttle, got up on plane and was accelerating when she started losing power. I could pull back and get some stability, but it would always seem to cut out if I gave it more throttle. I brought it to the dock and looked everything over, seeing no obvious problem I went back out to see if the problem persisted and this time could not even get on plane.

The boat is my 1976 Sea Ray with the OMC 175 Inboard.

It revs fine in neutral, but under load it seems to cut out.

When I went to start the boat first time around starting off the day, I hardly had any cranking amps, so I went to check the battery and burnt my fingers on the battery terminals they were so hot. Got them off and changed to my other battery and all seemed good.

The only change was me installing this stereo, which leads to my questions.

1) Can low battery power cause the power problem that I had trying to accelerate?

2) What could be the cause of the battery terminals being hot enough to burn living skin from my fingers?

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Throttle power problem

Pull your sparkplugs & look for signs of water intrusion......​

 

[eriediver]

Re: Throttle power problem

If your alternator is not charging it could do that as it loses voltage fro the ignition system. It sounds more like a fuel problem to me tho.
As far as the hot terminals, check all your electrical connections.

 

[Singing Boat Guy]

Re: Throttle power problem

The only thing that I changed in the electrical system was the stereo and I had to wire the constant clock power to the battery terminal on the ignition for it to work. I was going to run the constant clock power straight to the battery but thought the constant battery power on the ignition would suffise.

I do agree that it sounds like a fuel delivery problem, as the motor ran great and didn't sound funny at all. Just under load it seemed to bog until you found a spot it was happy at, which was getting less and less into the power band each time.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Throttle power problem

Change your water separating fuel filter & pull your plugs & check for water intrusion....
It costs nothing & may save your engine......
Were the wires hot before or after trying to crank the engine?.....​

 

[Singing Boat Guy]

Re: Throttle power problem

the battery terminals were hot after attempting to crank it only once, when I felt it did not have the power to do so I went to change batteries.

Where would one find this seperating fuel filter?

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Throttle power problem

Don't know on an OMC, but it will look like an oil filter......
I will say it again, if you were having trouble cranking the engine, it may be due to water ingestion from a bad riser/manifold....
Remove the sparkplugs & spin the engine to see if there is water present in the cylinders.....
It will cost you nothing but your time to do so......​