Mercruiser cranks but wont start.

[ronaca88]

We got a new issue on our tahoe this weekend. I was at the bay, when a friend was about to go in the boat after wakeboarding, I turn off the engine. After that, the engine start rough and dies twice. Then I turn the key on and nothing happened. Another friend pull us to the marina.

In the marina, it seems that it was a fuse that was lose and rust, so we clean it and then we got the start motor running, but the engine no.

The engine just cranks and cranks but never fire up, not even an attempt to fire up. Today a local mechanic inspect it and he tell me that there is spark on the sparkplug on time so the ignition coil and the distributor is working. Also there is fuel in the line. It seems that it just have a signal from somewhere (something electric, another blown fuse, or something else) that tells it no to start.

Is there anything you think I should look at? Any special connector?

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Carb? TBI? MPI? engine or year or both?

 

[ronaca88]

Sorry, the engine is a 2014 Mercruiser 5.0 MPI with Alpha 1 Gen 2 outdrive.

 

[achris]

Someone needs to put a scantool or a laptop with diagnostic software on it... You need to find out if any fault codes have been set. That effectively halves your search. If a fault code it set, that points you right at the problem. If no code, them that rules out enough possibilities to make the rest of it a lot easier. Without knowing where to start looking, you'll be chasing your tail....

Chris.........

 

[ronaca88]

The problem is the the only guy in my area that has the scan tool charge $85.00 just to put the scan on it. I think this is pretty expensive, thats why I trying to find the old way.

 

[brian4321]

The last time that happened to me,I spent quite some time trying to figure it out and ended up my kill switch was flipped

 

[wahlejim]

I was just going to say the same thing as Brian, check your kill switch.

 

[ronaca88]

I believe that if the kill switch is down, the engine dont even crank right? The engine IS cranking but somehow it dont even make he attempt to start... Im loosing my mind in here.

 

[littlerayray]

The motor will crank even with the kill switch active kill switch to be in the up position

 

[ronaca88]

The kill switch is in the up position. When the key is turn, you can here the fuel pump doing its job before you crank.

 

[littlerayray]

Hmmm

 

[littlerayray]

Check your fuel filter

 

[ronaca88]

Thanks for the help littlerayray, is what exactly i need to look at the fuel filter? This filter was changed 2 months ago, as well as the oil filter, transmision and engine oil.

 

[biggjimm]

$85 isn't bad if it tells you exactly what's wrong. You could be trying this & that for months & spend a whole lot more than $85 & still not have it figured out. That's the beauty of being able to scan one & tell exactly what is going on.

 

[littlerayray]

I would pay the 85 dollars to get a scan also the motor should still be under warranty

 

[Bondo]

Thanks for the help littlerayray, is what exactly i need to look at the fuel filter? This filter was changed 2 months ago, as well as the oil filter, transmision and engine oil.

Ayuh,.... The Contents of it,..... Is it pure gasoline, or got water, 'n crud in it,.....

As for the $85. cost of the scan,......

You can always just buy the scanner for several hundred dollars,....

I'm guessin' the $85. also includes the guys mechanical knowledge, 'n best guesses too,....

 

[ronaca88]

That's the problem, is just scan, they dont specialize in mercruiser, the just fix outboard. Im thinking buying the scanner techmatepro with the (74006 adapter for mercruiser).

As for the fuel filter, a question I have is: Lets supposed there is water in gasoline (I cant think how it get there), does the engine should even make an attempt to fire up,? bad combustions or some rough noise of combustion rather than just crank and no more?

 

[ronaca88]

I took a spark plug and it smells a lot to gasoline, is that normal? Is the engine just floooded?

I have tried put the shifter at 100%, 80%, and all the % available (are a hundred right?).

 

[achris]

Although it's no substitute for the proper scan there are things you can check. You obviously have petrol running into the engine, have you pulled a spark plug and checked for spark? Put a timing light on and made sure it's actually firing at the right time?

Chris.......

 

[ronaca88]

Hi everyone.

Here is more detail the story of what happend a week ago.

1. We sail away from the Marina to the wakeboarding area. I have no problems starting the engine at the Marina. I cruise at may be 20-25 mph.
2. I pull a my fist friend on wakeboard and no problem at all. By this time I haven?t turn off the engine any time.
3. When it was time to change the boarder, I turn off the engine so the first border can climb in the boat.
4. When I try to sail far away the shore, so the second border can start his turn, the engine doesn?t want to fire up. It fire up rough and the stop (I have read some issues about vapor locking, I think is a common problem and since the weather in here is to hot, I thing that?s why it doesn?t fire up). At the third time I tried to start the engine, it doesn?t even crank, radio accessories all working, but the engine don?t crank.
5. I call by radio to the marina and they send someone to pull us there.
6. We take up the boat, and inspect every connection on the battery, start motor and everything looks fine.
7. First though was that the starter motor was dead and the solenoid must be changed. So we take out the starter motor and I went to a local electrical repair shop to get the motor inspected. What a surprise, the starter motor was fine, no corrosion at all, nothing seems unnormal.
8. I put back the starter motor and we do another inspection looking for corrosion, blown fuses or other thing. What we found, was a corrode fuse (not blown) in one of the connections to the battery. We clean that up and, bingo! The engine start cranking.
9. We the engine cranking, we still having problems firing It up. No attempt to start, nor a single sound of combustion. We check and clean sparkplugs, we notice there was spark on the 8 cylinders, nothing happened.
10. Since that day, the engine still dead and We are losing our mind thinking why an new engine (1.5 years old) is having that kind of problems

What we have do.

- We check all fuses we see, all connections everything electrical.
- Check the kill switch, but it is ON.
- We check for spark on time one all the eight spark plugs. Everything seems normal.
- We pull out the fuel filter, verted in a jar and it DOESN'T have water on it.
- Change sparks, everything normal. We notice a fuel smell on them, we think that there is fuel going int to the line.
- Spray out starter on the carb, nothing.
-

Im thinking pay for the scanner but, it really can give me information even when there is not visual either audio alarm??

Hope you can help me in the midway with more ideas.