Hey guys, I just found this forum and I am hoping that someone may be able to help me out.
I have a 1997 Mercruiser 3.0 LX/ 19' Sea pro that we just bought last year. I'm new to boat ownership, and as such I left a 1/2 of a tank of gas in the boat over the winter...and of course I did not treat it (won't do that again!). I did run it a few times over the winter, just to keep things moving..and it seemed to run OK>
I tried to run the boat for the first time this year last week. Last Saturday it would not run above about 2000 RPM. If you leaned on it, it would backfire, and eventually bog down and stall. It started easily back then. Additionally, there was a good bit of white smoke/steam coming out of the exhaust at that point.
In the past week, I have replaced the plugs, plug wires, distributor cap & rotor, ignition control module, ignition coil, fuel filter on the carb, fuel filter in the fuel pump, and rebuilt the carburetor. In addition, I siphoned out as much gas as I could twice, in order to try to get rid of any bad gas that may be in there. The first time I siphoned, the last 3 gallons or so had little orange globs in it. I then added more gas and siphoned as much as I could once again..the end result is that the gas doesn't look near as bad as it did.
Unfortunately, the boat is still running poorly. It is now harder to start than it was (I did mess with the mixture some though) but it will run at up to about 2500 RPM...but no more. If you lean on it, it just doesn't accelerate. It also still backfires and generally does not run strong. It doesn't make near as much white exhaust smoke/steam as it was before.
Could this be a fuel pump? That's about the only thing that I feel competent to replace that I have not replaced yet. Rockfish season just opened up last weekend and I am dying to get this thing fixed up and fishin'!
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Trev
I have a 1997 Mercruiser 3.0 LX/ 19' Sea pro that we just bought last year. I'm new to boat ownership, and as such I left a 1/2 of a tank of gas in the boat over the winter...and of course I did not treat it (won't do that again!). I did run it a few times over the winter, just to keep things moving..and it seemed to run OK>
I tried to run the boat for the first time this year last week. Last Saturday it would not run above about 2000 RPM. If you leaned on it, it would backfire, and eventually bog down and stall. It started easily back then. Additionally, there was a good bit of white smoke/steam coming out of the exhaust at that point.
In the past week, I have replaced the plugs, plug wires, distributor cap & rotor, ignition control module, ignition coil, fuel filter on the carb, fuel filter in the fuel pump, and rebuilt the carburetor. In addition, I siphoned out as much gas as I could twice, in order to try to get rid of any bad gas that may be in there. The first time I siphoned, the last 3 gallons or so had little orange globs in it. I then added more gas and siphoned as much as I could once again..the end result is that the gas doesn't look near as bad as it did.
Unfortunately, the boat is still running poorly. It is now harder to start than it was (I did mess with the mixture some though) but it will run at up to about 2500 RPM...but no more. If you lean on it, it just doesn't accelerate. It also still backfires and generally does not run strong. It doesn't make near as much white exhaust smoke/steam as it was before.
Could this be a fuel pump? That's about the only thing that I feel competent to replace that I have not replaced yet. Rockfish season just opened up last weekend and I am dying to get this thing fixed up and fishin'!
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Trev
