1988 4.3L OMC. Starts right up even if it has sat for a while due to cold weather. Seems to run really good, tho on very rare occasions if I have been sitting for a while fishing an area, the engine will start right up, but if I "gas" it hard, there will be a big hesitation before it kicks in - rarely has happened - I always figured just too much gas in carb ?
Sort of winterizing it as it will not be used in a few weeks due to cold weather. When I picked up the engine cover, which is carpeted on the inside, I noticed above the carb there is a bunch of black soot.
Pulled the flame arrestor off of the carb to clean it and it was also covered in black soot.
Pulled the plugs to inspect and put some oil in the cylinders since it would be sitting a minimum of 2 weeks, expected to see fouled plugs but the plugs actually looked pretty good - no carbon fouling on them at all.
No expert, but it sure seemed like it must be running too rich since there is so much black soot, but if it was running that rich, I would have expected carbon on the plugs.
It does still have points on it. I know all of the arguments, but I am going to be switching to a pertronix with the diode fix.
This is actually the 2nd time I have "winterized" it and the soot was there the 1st time also or I could just put it off as soot from the seafoam I put in the carb, tho from my experience, seafoam had always been a white smoke (I love seafoam, a HUGE fan and put it in everything in the winter)
The 2 hoses going from the flame arrestor to the valve covers did have a crack in them where it joins the arrestor, so the smoke could be leaving there to go on the engine lid cover, BUT, those hoses have been cracked since I bought the boat in January and have never had the soot before (yea, I kept forgetting to replace them - i know I am wrong, but was thinking as it is a vacuum thing anyway and they basically are just sitting "by" the arrestor, would not make a huge difference. I am getting new hoses today for there)
Any suggestions on where I should be looking ? I did clean the carb using regular seafoam and the "new" seafoam carb cleaner. As mentioned, normally I would automatically think it is running rich, but clean plugs has thrown me.
I would have thought if I needed to rebuild my carb, the plugs would have been fouled - they are pretty clean.
Any info on where to start appreciated.
Thanks
Sort of winterizing it as it will not be used in a few weeks due to cold weather. When I picked up the engine cover, which is carpeted on the inside, I noticed above the carb there is a bunch of black soot.
Pulled the flame arrestor off of the carb to clean it and it was also covered in black soot.
Pulled the plugs to inspect and put some oil in the cylinders since it would be sitting a minimum of 2 weeks, expected to see fouled plugs but the plugs actually looked pretty good - no carbon fouling on them at all.
No expert, but it sure seemed like it must be running too rich since there is so much black soot, but if it was running that rich, I would have expected carbon on the plugs.
It does still have points on it. I know all of the arguments, but I am going to be switching to a pertronix with the diode fix.
This is actually the 2nd time I have "winterized" it and the soot was there the 1st time also or I could just put it off as soot from the seafoam I put in the carb, tho from my experience, seafoam had always been a white smoke (I love seafoam, a HUGE fan and put it in everything in the winter)
The 2 hoses going from the flame arrestor to the valve covers did have a crack in them where it joins the arrestor, so the smoke could be leaving there to go on the engine lid cover, BUT, those hoses have been cracked since I bought the boat in January and have never had the soot before (yea, I kept forgetting to replace them - i know I am wrong, but was thinking as it is a vacuum thing anyway and they basically are just sitting "by" the arrestor, would not make a huge difference. I am getting new hoses today for there)
Any suggestions on where I should be looking ? I did clean the carb using regular seafoam and the "new" seafoam carb cleaner. As mentioned, normally I would automatically think it is running rich, but clean plugs has thrown me.
I would have thought if I needed to rebuild my carb, the plugs would have been fouled - they are pretty clean.
Any info on where to start appreciated.
Thanks
