4.3 TKS stalling at idle

[roffey]

Just putting a question out there. My boat is a 2014, it has a 4.3 TKS with a 2 barrel carb and 140 hours on it. I have ran one tank of gas through it this season. My problem was this weekend, when I slowed to an idle the idle ran very rough and then stalled. To start it I had to advance the throttle to almost full and it would not idle. I was able to get back to dock where I cleaned the flame arrestor and it ran great for the next day but yesterday it did the same thing coming back to dock. Once more I was able to get it to idle fine after checking the flam arrestor but I did not clean it, just checked it and put it back on. I was going to run some seafoam through it and try the seafoam spray in my carb.

What to you people think?.

 

[R055]

Is your flame arrestor dirty everytime???? sounds like a fuel issue to me.

 

[roffey]

Is your flame arrestor dirty everytime???? sounds like a fuel issue to me.

no, flame arrestor is normally good but I was thinking fuel as well. Maybe a bad tank of gas?

 

[R055]

no, flame arrestor is normally good but I was thinking fuel as well. Maybe a bad tank of gas?

Possibly your tank vent ain't working?

 

[roffey]

Possibly your tank vent ain't working?

Interesting as we have a tent caterpillar infestation underway, worst in years. Maybe the little buggers have got into the vent hole?

 

[R055]

Interesting as we have a tent caterpillar infestation underway, worst in years. Maybe the little buggers have got into the vent hole?

Open the fuel doors next time it starts acting up and if it starts sucking in air then that's the problem.

 

[alldodge]

Pull the fuel filter and dump the contents into something clear like a baggie. See if there is anything in there but clean gas.

 

[roffey]

Pull the fuel filter and dump the contents into something clear like a baggie. See if there is anything in there but clean gas.

First tank of fuel after the winter break. I did change the filter in the fall but for sure I will check as I have a spare....

 

[roffey]

so.. I changed the filter and cleaned the flame arrestor. I dumped carb cleaner down the carb and added seafom to the gas, all no good. I run the boat at high idle say 1500 RPM then when I pull back to 600 rpm the motor just stops like I hit the kill switch. If I pump the throttle it will start but not idle. After it has stopped I can not start it with just the key no matter how long the motor sets. After 15-20 min if I pump the throttle it will start and idle,,, for about 10 min. then it starts all over. The motor is a 4.3 TKS motor, I'm thinking it has to do with the TKS and maybe computer related.

So at this point the boat is back at the dealer and I will post back when I have the answer.

 

[achris]

Open the fuel doors next time it starts acting up and if it starts sucking in air then that's the problem.

What's a "fuel door"? Carburetor throttle plate maybe?

OP. Check the electrics to the TKS module. Make sure it's warning up.

Chris

 

[Bt Doctur]

put a normal carb on it

 

[roffey]

put a normal carb on it

good point, that would certainty fix it...

I was a computer tech for years and we used to say formatting a hard drive fixes about 90% of computer problems and %100 of software problems. It fixes the problem but do you really want that fix?

 

[Bt Doctur]

do you have theTKS manual

 

[Bt Doctur]

check your message

 

[roffey]

I just have what came with the boat unfortunately. I do agree with you the cause is likely the TKS system. The motor is still under warranty and as such I have it at the marina I bought it from.

 

[roffey]

got a call from the marina. They were unable to reproduce the problem. Drove the boat around for an hour and still could not reproduce the issue. I put all sorts of octane booster, stabilizer and carb cleaner in the gas and down the carb and swapped out the water separator.

I'm thinking maybe I fixed it? Thanks for all the suggestions, here's hoping this thread just goes back to sleep.... LOL

 

[roffey]

ok, so the gas treatment did not work. I ended up taking the boat back for a second time and after some testing it was found to have a bad ignition wire. Once the wire was replaced, under warranty, the boat behaved perfectly.

 

[alldodge]

Cool, thanks for the update