1986 Evinrude 90 V4 Running Rough

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Jul 13, 2015
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What triggered this rough running incident? Did it happen after running, or did it just act funny from the second you put it back on the water?

First thing I noticed was power loss, I did not realize it was running rough until I dropped to idle speed. It wasn't sudden or drastic power loss, I just didn't have the top end speed I was used to.
 

emdsapmgr

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You can do some backyard ignition troubleshooting on your own. Swap the misfiring coil with another firing one and see what happens. Usually these coils are pretty reliable, but they do fail on occasion and swapping them is an easy test. Also, you can swap the two power packs on the ignition. If the problem moves to the other head after the swap, then you've got a back pack. If neither of these make any difference, you need to get into further ignition troubleshooting. Best website for troubleshooting info is this website: cdielectronics.com Look up the troubleshooting guide for your specific engine.
 
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I am about 99% sure the ignition is not the problem. First thing I did was swap spark plug wires, coil and spark plug with one of the other cylinders to see if the problem moved. It did not, and if I hold the spark plug wire 2 inches off the spark plug, I see a bright blue spark visible in bright daylight jump the gap. While the compression on that cylinder is not great, it does have the second highest compression of the 4 cylinders and the other 3 are working. At this point I am leaning towards a fuel delivery issue. Is there anything I can check before going ahead with a carb rebuild?
 

emdsapmgr

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You can make some observations. After running the engine, shut if off and check the plugs. Do they all look the same? After idle, they should all be black and oily. All crossflows run overfueled at idle. That's normal. If any plugs are dry looking, that's suspect. During any carb overhaul, pull the jets out of the carb and check for debris in the orfice. Esp pay attention to any carb throat that feeds a spark plug that looks abnormal/dry. Debris can starve an cylinder. And will cause that cylinder to be under lubricated with oil-not a good thing. You can also do a high rpm throttle chop (shut the engine off abruptly at high rpm's.) Compare all of the 4 spark plugs. At high rpm's the plugs should be dry and light tan in color. These two shut off procedures are a good test, as the high rpm chop shows what is going on with the main jets, the idle shut off shows the idle jet.
 
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Found something new today while running some Seafoam through the engine. Any chance the fuel leak pictured below is enough to cause the cylinder to starve for fuel? Seems like the roughness is somewhat intermittent, it will smooth out for a few seconds before running rough again.

 
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Update: I finally rebuilt both carburetors and I found this in the high speed orifice that feeds the malfunctioning cylinder.



Appears to be part of a deteriorating fuel line. I replaced all the fuel lines in the engine while I was in there. As soon as I fired it back up on the muffs I knew I had fixed the problem, but took it for a test run on the lake to be sure. At 39.4 mph I am sure. :lol:

 

sutor623

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WOWWWW!!!! That is quite a bit of debris there. Sure glad you didn't grenade her on this one!!!!!!!!!!
 

w2much

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Good job. By the way was that a harbor freight compression tester? I bought one also and they read terribly low. FYI
 

flyingscott

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Most Auto parts stores have loaner tool programs usually a little better quality than harbor freight products.
 
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oldboat1

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WOWWWW!!!! That is quite a bit of debris there. Sure glad you didn't grenade her on this one!!!!!!!!!!

always gets me on my high horse about "cleaning" (as in soaking, poking, spraying.... whole nine yards).

nicely done!
 

emdsapmgr

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That's the problem with old fuel lines. They don't like today's ethanol fuels. The ethanol fuel breaks down the hoses and the small black bits of hose migrate through the system and lodge in bad places, like high speed jets. That's a great find on your part! Hopefully that cylinder has not been run so long as to damage the ringset due to the lean condition....
 
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I was careful to run the engine as little as possible once I noticed the power loss (diagnostics and a quick Sea Foam treatment) and I know there was some fuel making it into the cylinder, just not enough to run consistently. When I pulled the carbs off there was actually a little oil sitting in the intake manifold.



Yes, I bought the Harbor Freight compression gauge. At least there was only a 4 psi spread between all 4 cylinders.
 
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