HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

[sph130]

Well with my tale between my legs i had my first tow. So i have taken the boat out about 3 times no problem ran it to WOT ran just fine (2 People)

Well This time I took it out with 6 people. Tooted around for a couple hours. It made it onto plane but took a little longer. Felt sluggish but im guess the extra 4 adults did that.

Long story short twice it seemed to hesitate when going to full throttle. Felt like it accelerated then let off and then all the sudden kicked in. well about 20 minutes from that again going to full throttle it just died. Nothing.
Thought maybe we were out of gas and the guage was broke but after putting 5 gallons in it it still didn't start.

I see gas squirting in when i prime it. Doesn't even sound like its catching just the starter cranking it. What is the most common problem for these symptoms? Its Sunday tomorrows labor day.. I want to fix it to get it working again I can work with good instructions but know close to nothing about engines.

Any help?

Its a 2.3L Ford Cobra OMC I/O on an 18' capri bowrider.

Thanks,
Sean

 

[ifallsguy]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

Maybe a timing issue. I have a 2.3L in an 89 1950. It hesitated, bucked, and was hard to start. Timing was off and things improved when I retimed and replaced the points. I also found the distributor might have some slop, so I'm thinking about pulling it and having the bearings replaced and advance checked and maybe recurved.

Hopefully these might give you somewhere to start.

 

[sho3boater]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

Check for spark first, if so then check timing. Really unless someone messed with it the timing should never change. If it is off a long way reset it but unless the distributor was loose odds are your timing jumped. You need a new chain/belt I forget what that runs the cam in that. It might run but at reduced power and will jump again.

Make sure you don't have a bad fuel filter/vent that is causing it to run out at high fuel use and not when running slowly....but it should start back up if that is the case.

 

[sph130]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

Well about a week later the boat is back from the shop.
Turned out there was a broken roll pin in the distributor?? Have no clue what that is or how it happens. Also got a tune up, oil change, new impeller, gear oil changed and fuel filtered. So im going to get it tonight maybe take it out for a test drive this evening see how it goes. The shop said that all the hesitation i had earlier too was because of that roll pin.

I'm hoping for way better performance than I have ever seen.. since I bought it off a guy a month ago and before that it was stored for 2 years.

 

[sho3boater]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

That does not happen very often. If you would have reset the timing it would have run good until it moved again. Distributor runs off the cam at half engine speed, the pin holds the gear on the other end of the distributor. It would have run poorly with bad timing drive and correct spark timing. It should run much better now.

 

[ifallsguy]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

One thing to keep in mind. The dwell can and will change as you get wear on the points. Normal wear and easy to fix with a dwell meter or feeler gauge.

 

[sph130]

Re: HELP!! Labor day is tomorrow - First Engine Problem and Tow (2.3L Ford OMC)

Took it out last night. It hiccuped at the start - but I'm guessing its because I didn't give it time to warm up. Went fine in reverse died going forward. but after about 10 minutes it was fine. It really seemed to have more pep. I was accelerating faster and getting to a higher top speed that I had previously. Also the rpms were redlining faster so I just had to watch that.

One thing that i noticed is that the temperature didn't leave 100 degrees which is the pinned lower setting in the guage. THe shop (i called after) said it might be a broken thermostat. Is that an easy replace for me to do? Ill start a new thread for that but just wondering.

I think overall it was a big improvement. I'll probably take it out this weekend and then think about putting it in the garage for the winter.

Thanks all for your posts.