Recent content by dsull

  1. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    This boat is the devil. Nothing works the way I think it will... I purchased a piston stop and placed it in the #1 cylinder. Removed all the spark plugs. Found the compression stroke and manually backed the motor away from the compression stroke. Inserted the piston stop and manually advanced...
  2. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Probably a long shot but does anyone have any idea what these wires are for? They are unhooked. They are orange/pink, brown, and black. There's a capped pair of wires labeled Mercathode that look orange/pink and brown but they are just terminated at a cap, not plugged into anything.
  3. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Thanks, Rick. I'm going to get a piston stop and mark true TDC, as you recommended. I've also done significant reading on the TKS and it appears that the plunger inside the TKS retracts when the engine is cold and enriched fuel is pulled into the intake and, when the engine gets warm, the...
  4. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    I can't get the timing set, either. I don't understand it. I ground the purple white wire and I've checked to make sure I'm on the compression stroke and, even using an advance timing light, setting the timing to 10* BTC makes the motor sound like it's barely running. I have to run the idle...
  5. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Anyone who is much more mechanically savvy than I want to tell me what these plugs are telling me. They're about two weeks old and maybe four hours engine run time. They look too rich to me but it's not consistent across the cylinders.
  6. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Mike, I've done all but the cylinder drop test. I'm a little wary of that process. When I've done it in the past, I've been popped a few times. Not fun. Edit to add I also haven't successfully tested the TKS module. I'm not positive how to do it and it's not economical to replace.
  7. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    The original issue was a lack of power at takeoff. I ran a compression test on the motor which I thought would rule out a cracked head gasket but maybe not. If it matters, the motor isn't in gear. Just idling in neutral. Not sure if that's still hard on the I didn't know that. Thanks for that...
  8. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    The original issue was a lack of power at takeoff. I ran a compression test on the motor which I thought would rule out a cracked head gasket but maybe not. If it matters, the motor isn't in gear. Just idling in neutral. Not sure if that's still hard on the drive.
  9. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    I set the timing to where it's supposed to be and adjusted the carb back to factory on the air/fuel screw and now I'm getting lots of white smoke from the exhaust and prop. Is it burning oil? See picture. I'm not familiar enough with carbs to know if this is an indication of lean/rich.
  10. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Chris, should I have been able to tell if I had a bad cylinder when I did the compression test? Do you mean to unplug each plug wire individually and see if the engine changes idle?
  11. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    Thanks. I haven't tried rotating by hand the balancer. I'll give that a shot. Sounds like I need to bite the bullet and buy an advance timing light.
  12. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    So I did verify firing order and wires were running to correct cylinders. One thing I did notice yesterday - there's a notch on the actual balancer, I'm assuming indicating TDC. It was not lined up with the mark on the block when I had the #1 cylinder at what I thought was TDC. I covered the...
  13. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    I've tried cleaning the flame arrestor as this one is black. Sprayed it down with some brake cleaner and ran compressed air through it. It feels like air moves freely through it. The only reason I haven't replaced it is that I tried to run the boat without the flame arrestor on it when on the...
  14. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    The engine says LH rotation but I swear the harmonic balancer rotate clockwise meaning the timing marks in the attached picture are moving down. That would indicate to me that the '10' shown before the '0' would be 10* BTDC. It's entirely possible that I'm doing it backwards 🤦. If it is...
  15. dsull

    5.0 Mercruiser Problems

    True. I'll try to get it back to factory setting and then adjust on the water with the motor in gear. I've read factory setting is to back out 1.25 turns from all the way in. Maybe that's the last missing piece. I know the motor is running rich because the new plugs are already black on the...
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