Re: Gasoline in the oil pan
Bondo, Frustrated ranting may occur.
Yes, actually, I am a fair mechanic. I successfully maintain my own cars, which are all electronic ignition and fuel injected, have done engine swaps and restored my two hobby cars, a Porsche 911, a Datsun 280Z, which both start and run every time. My lawnmowers sit all winter yet start every spring. My boat, which gets far more attention and care than all my other conveyances combined is, by comparison, an unreliable expensive piece of crap. When it ran its best it didn't run GREAT. It appears to me that boat people will put up with more unreliability that we should have to. Modern internal combustion engines start and run.
This story began when I just got really gotten stumped with multiple problems on a carbureted engine in a boat hanging on my boat lift at a remote lake.
Several knowledgeable people attempted to help me solve the rough running problems which appeared to be fuel related hense the wholesale changes- made one at a time - such as the carb last year and fuel pump. The boat ran but seemed like it was starving for fuel - never gave full throttle, bogged down, etc.
Then it became hard to start, so I began a quest to upgrade everything to electronic ignition to remove that as a possibility and to get away from points, and when I swapped the distributor, I was never able to get fire again. That distributor turned out to be bad, per the mechanic. Remember it was hanging on my lift, 40 miles from the nearest parts store or help. So, I ran out of time to figure it out, and decided with much embarrassment to take it to a reputable boat shop and once there it has developed worse problems such as the gas dumping.
The gas dumping problem started after the boat sat through the winter at the mech shop. The mechanic who has been in business for 30+ years is either a serial liar because he has called me to come get it twice claiming it was running perfectly and was easy to start, and twice it has not even remotely done so, or something happens between his shop and my house, which is not likely.
So please do not assume that I won't understand any advice you may have. I agree, I have to fix one problem at a time. However, I do not know much about carburetors. For example, if the boat won't run, how do I fix and test the carburetor? Once that is fixed, how do I determine whether my new Mallory distributor is DOA since I still do not have fire? The mechanic installed it without a ballast resistor. I asked him if it needed one and he said it did not, which was false, so it may have been damaged by his installation, So, now I have to either eat the cost of a new module or make him pay for it as a parting gift. I have never had so much trouble with a mechanical device in my life, and I bought this particular boat in part because it would be simple to keep running, or so I thought.
I just want to do what it takes to once and for all make the boat run as it should and start reliably. Each step has seemingly taken me farther from that goal.
