Evinrude 20hp, not idling

[ex0r]

Hello guys. Sorry to be such a bother, but i'm new to boating and want to make sure I am doing everything right. I recently purchased two boats (basically for the price of one as I got the other one for literally nothing) Well, the motor seems to be seized up on the other one, so I have moved onto this one, which is in much better shape appearance wise.

I don't know much detail on this one, as the markings are missing from it since somebody recently rebuilt the deck, but one of the licensing stickers on it is from 83, so I know the pontoon itself is at least that old.

It has an evinrude 20hp motor, though I don't think it's the original one for it. I have attached some pictures of the motor with the cover off of it, as well as the throttle control for it.

The guy showed me how to start it before we bought it, and he had it running but only for a second as he didnt have it in any water and had the waterpump replaced on it recently and didnt want to burn it up.

He said that on this one, there is a little locking level you need to lift up on to lock the throttle into neutral before you start the motor up, and then once it starts up you lock it back down so you can shift into forward or reverse.

The problem I am having, is I cannot get the motor to idle. I removed the top cover, and had my father push down on the throttle lever to open the throttle door a bit so it would stay running, but as soon as he releases it, it stalls out. Also, if I shift into gear it appears to stay running, but as soon as I bring the controller back to neutral it stalls out.

I have double checked to make sure there is gas in the tank, and the bulb is stiff as a rock. It's possible that it has bad gas in it sure, but I would suspect that it wouldn't stay running in gear if that were the gas, either.

He also told me that this model doesn't have a choke on it, either manual or electric, and I can't seem to find one either way, nor can I find the carbueretor leading me to believe it's a newer, fuel injected model (Which is apparent with the throttle body and flapper attached to the boat facing side of the motor). The ignition does have a push in feature for an electric choke though.

Also, when it first started up, it was smoking pretty bad. It started out as a blue smoke, and then went to a white smoke and even after it stalled out from shifting into neutral there was still some smoke coming from it. It expect with it being close to a 32 year old motor (Guessing, based on the boat year), that it will have some issues and will smoke, but it looked a little concerning to me.

Does anybody know what I could do to test it?

 

[flyingscott]

Pic #3 the carb is right on the front of the motor silver thing with the knob sticking out not Fuel Injected.
Pic #3 just to the left of the carb attached to the red handle is the primer (Big Black Round Thing) that replaced the choke assembly around 1983. This actually pushes fuel into the motor should be a small line attached to the top of the carb that runs to it.
Pic #3 the same red lever make sure it is turned so it is inline with the primer same big black round thing. If the lever is turned to a 90 deg angle to the primer it will just let fuel flow freely into the motor flooding it.
Now turn the key to the on position and push it in you should here the primer click that means it should be working. If the primer does not click turn the Red knob to 90 Deg and pump the ball on the fuel line twice and turn the red knob back for starting only.


Cold starting your motor
#1 pump the fuel line ball until it gets hard
#2 lift the small lever on the control about 1/2 way it is the white lever black end.
#3 turn the key on and push it in and start the motor.
#4 be ready to push the small lever down if it revs to high you will need to figure that out as you go. Just need it to run fast enough to keep it running until it warms up.

 

[ex0r]

lol that was way confusing.. So do I do all the steps listed, in both paragraphs, each time it needs to be started? I was told it doesn't have a choke on it, and when I push the key in I hear no audible noises even with the motor cover off. Is that level supposed to stay up? It doesn't freely stay up, I have to hold it to keep it up or it falls back down.. Sounds like it's a multi person job to start this thing every time we run it >.<

Also, is the knob sticking out of the carb (Which looks exactly like a throttle body on fuel injected car) the adjustment screw for the idle? We were turning that thinking that it opened the butterfly a bit as it seemed to not want to idle and was acting like it was starving of air.

 

[flyingscott]

Steps 1-4 are for starting one person can start the motor. The knob out of the carb is the low speed fuel mix not the idle screw. Turn that in to LIGHTLY seated now turn it out to 1.5 turns that will get you started. The Red lever is there if the primer is not working correctly. In step #3 Instead of pushing in the key ,turn the lever and pump the ball twice turn the lever back and start your motor. Starting a carb motor is not the same as a FI a few more steps.

 

[ex0r]

Great, thanks for the help! Now.. One last question. How do I fix the fast idle lever? It doesn't stay up, I have to physically hold it up or it falls back down but doesn't lock down.

 

[flyingscott]

Sounds like there might be an issue inside the control box

 

[ex0r]

I know the box is an omc not an evinrude. Not sure if that matters.

 

[flyingscott]

OMC is evinrude and johnson. Your primer can be fixed so it works correctly, if it is the primer they are expensive but you can get them used.

 

[racerone]

OMC / Evinrude is the same thing.

 

[ex0r]

So I was getting ready to take it to the lake today, and I can't get it to stay idle. I did the starting sequence right, but it will not idle. I have to continually press the key in to give it gas. After a while I can shift it into forward or reverse but as soon as I go back to neutral it chugs and stalls out unless I continually press in the key. It also stalls out under power sometimes, too.

 

[ex0r]

So... I figured out the idling problem. The gas can apparently doesn't have a vent hole on it so it was losing pressure. I had to unscrew and remove the cap to keep it running. On to another problem though. A short time later, the control box alarm came on, a steady horn. Looked it up: overheating. The guy said he just put a new water pump on it, but apparently he did not. I removed the hose from the tell tale engine side, and there is no water coming out of the outlet. The lower unit is also rather hot leading me to believe that the water pump isn't working. There's water coming out from behind the prop but that's it.

I had read that in the older motors (83) the tell tale doesn't shoot water out until the thermostat opens.

I also noticed after it ran for a bit there was some black oil on the fun by the exhaust holes. There was quite a bit there.

Trying to get it ready for summer, boat place said they couldn't get it in for another month and probably could t and wouldn't be interested in fixing such an old motor anyways. Advice please?