'78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

[uwboater]

I recently inherited a 17' Glastron boat w/ 1978 Envirude 115hp. The motor is very slow to get the boat moving but eventually gets there. Once it gets the boat up and planing on the water it seems to run fine. I was told one of the cylinders (?) is not firing. Is there any problem running the motor in this condition if I'm willing to live with slow starts?

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

No! Don't run the engine like that.Start with a spark, and compression test. Running an engine in this condition could well make a fixable problem, unfixable with a lot of exspense. Make the above tests, and tell us what you have.

 

[uwboater]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

I did not run the spark test myself but the previous owner had done this. He said that one of the plugs is not firing at all. All plugs were replaced with new ones. I checked all myself and one did not have any corrosion/carbon, giving the appearance it had not fired at all. I am an idiot at engine repair so I'm not sure where to look next. My guess is to troubleshoot the wire leading to the spark plug. Any other suggestions?

 

[G DANE]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

If your plug looks exactly like new, and not oily/soothy, reason is probably blown headgasket and water intrusion in cylinder. That also explains why it picks up at high rpm. I would advise you to:<br /><br />First look if there is spark at cylinder, try with a fresh plug, unscrew all four and ground their threads. Make someone cranck and see if they all fire, I think they will. If that single one is dead, you probably have a bad coil at it. Try to connect wire to another coil and see if it sparks. If you have spark, at all 4, pull cylinderhead, have it checked for warpage, corrected if needed and replace gasket.

 

[uwboater]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

OK, here's what happened so far. Took it to repair shop. One of the plugs was not firing so they replaced the coil and now it's firing. Took boat out to see how it ran and it was worse than when i brough it in. At full throttle it barely made a wake. Took it back to repair shop and they claim that was previoulsy adjusted to work on 3 plugs and now that all 4 are working the timing is off. Is this a reasonable explanation or am I getting milked? If it's reasonable, why wasn't it done when they replaced the coil?

 

[uwboater]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

What appeared to be a simple fix is suddenly becoming quite costly. The mechanic called back and said he needed to replace the powerpack. I guess I don't understand how the fix went from a simple coil replacement to a powerpack and full tune-up. Does this sound like a logical course of action for the mechanic or again, am I paying for more than I need?

 

[captain spike]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

uw,do you have a manuel?these motors are fairly easy to work on,get a good manuel not a clymer!!!!!!!there are simple to do tests on everything you just metioned do the work your self and you can save big $$$$$$$$$!the people of iboats are awesome and can definetly help you have patience and youll be on the water soon!!all parts are available online and right here. <br /> ***1971 18"winner 1969 115 jonny***

 

[kreecher]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

Take captain spike's advice, get a good manual and dig into it yourself. If you have a friend who is mechanically inclined, ask for his help. Two heads are usually better than one. I had similiar problems with my engine and went the shop route and got taken for $675 which was eventually fixed by myself with just a new $20 ignition coil. Be patient, a good manual and the experts on this forum will take you right where you need to go.

 

[uwboater]

Re: '78 Envirude 115hp - no take off power

Good advice. I'm not very mechanically inclined but I most likely will get a manual and dig in myself should other problems come my way (hopefully not). Thanks to all for the replies.