Hi,
I have a 4.3 LX/V6 Alpha One Balanced Shaft/Thunderbolt IV Ignition engine on my 20? Sea Ray. The year is 1993. Although 15 years old, the engine has only about 450 hours on it and was professionally maintained by the previous owner. I got it this summer and have experimented with it for a while now. The engine runs perfectly in all conditions. It runs awesome at high speed, it idles perfectly and never dies, it runs perfectly on the lowest speed/throttle (I use it for trolling for many hours with no problem whatsoever). However, it is hard to start.
In order to start it, I have to pump the throttle control several times (may be more than three) and also to shift it to the full throttle position. Even then, I have to crank for several seconds before it actually goes. I quickly move the throttle control back to the lowest throttle position, RPMS drop to about 600-700 (as they should be according to the label on the engine top cover) and the engine runs perfectly then. It never dies. I got this engine with this problem and I noticed that the state of engine (warm or cold) does not affect this behavior. Even when it is warm (let us say, I stop it after one hour of trolling) it is still hard to start.
A little bit of history. When I was test-driving this boat with the dealer who sold it to me, we realized that the engine didn?t stop (he said it is ?dieseling?). He said he will quickly adjust it for me and he really did, I have not seen it dieseling again. He adjusted the carburetor setting, I believe, for the RPMS to drop down to 600-700 at idle. The thing that worried me a little - he forgot his glasses and was doing this, basically, semi-blind! He did the adjustment, but I wonder whether he did everything right and carefully enough? May be this is the origin of the starting problem, or this is irrelevant?
Please, suggest what I should try in this situation. It is hard to find a good honest dealer. I called couple places but they all start with ?you have to rebuild you carburetor? without even listening for symptoms. If all what is needed is the adjustment of those two screws on the carburetor front I would better do it myself and avoid paying $500 for an unnecessary work.
Thank you for your help!
I have a 4.3 LX/V6 Alpha One Balanced Shaft/Thunderbolt IV Ignition engine on my 20? Sea Ray. The year is 1993. Although 15 years old, the engine has only about 450 hours on it and was professionally maintained by the previous owner. I got it this summer and have experimented with it for a while now. The engine runs perfectly in all conditions. It runs awesome at high speed, it idles perfectly and never dies, it runs perfectly on the lowest speed/throttle (I use it for trolling for many hours with no problem whatsoever). However, it is hard to start.
In order to start it, I have to pump the throttle control several times (may be more than three) and also to shift it to the full throttle position. Even then, I have to crank for several seconds before it actually goes. I quickly move the throttle control back to the lowest throttle position, RPMS drop to about 600-700 (as they should be according to the label on the engine top cover) and the engine runs perfectly then. It never dies. I got this engine with this problem and I noticed that the state of engine (warm or cold) does not affect this behavior. Even when it is warm (let us say, I stop it after one hour of trolling) it is still hard to start.
A little bit of history. When I was test-driving this boat with the dealer who sold it to me, we realized that the engine didn?t stop (he said it is ?dieseling?). He said he will quickly adjust it for me and he really did, I have not seen it dieseling again. He adjusted the carburetor setting, I believe, for the RPMS to drop down to 600-700 at idle. The thing that worried me a little - he forgot his glasses and was doing this, basically, semi-blind! He did the adjustment, but I wonder whether he did everything right and carefully enough? May be this is the origin of the starting problem, or this is irrelevant?
Please, suggest what I should try in this situation. It is hard to find a good honest dealer. I called couple places but they all start with ?you have to rebuild you carburetor? without even listening for symptoms. If all what is needed is the adjustment of those two screws on the carburetor front I would better do it myself and avoid paying $500 for an unnecessary work.
Thank you for your help!
