Hello all. This is my first post on iboats as I came across the forums while searching for answers for an outboard problem I am having. I will start by saying that I am not very familiar with outboards as this is the first boat I?ve owned, so my knowledge is limited. I?ve done quite a bit of reading on this forum and others, but I?m not really sure what to do next.
Background: Motor is a 1993 Evinrude 30hp tiller (E30TEL, Ser# G03246215), electric start. I bought this motor on a jon boat in Feb, ran it briefly (in barrel) before purchase, didn't notice anything wrong. I've been out of town for a while and been working on the boat itself and haven?t had it out on the lake yet. Since I finished the work on the boat, I changed the lower unit fluid and replaced screw seals (very clean, but don?t know how old), gave the engine a once over looking (for loose bolts, wear, etc), and started it up. I ran the motor (with motor flusher for water) and noticed an intermittent misfire at idle and higher rpms. Not too much smoke during idle, a puff of smoke with the misfire, and a lot of smoke when throttling up. After the misfire, the engine drops in rpms for a second or two before coming back up. After listening closely on the left side of the motor (looking from rear), I hear an intermittent click that coincides with the misfire, but I hear it more often than the misfires. With each click, there?s a slight jerk to the motor. I?ve got a good flow of water out of the ?pee-hole?. The first time I ran the motor at home, some grayish, gas-smelling foam came out of the exhaust, but it cleared up pretty fast and hasn?t returned.
With help from another forum, I had a few things to check for. I checked for spark on both cylinders and spark seemed fine on both cylinders. I?m planning on checking with a spark tester because I didn?t really know what I was doing the first time. I?ll also see if I can borrow a compression tester, but I haven?t done compression tests yet. The fuel mixture was old, so I replaced that with new fuel and purged the fuel line. I also replaced both spark plugs. One of the old plugs had some black carbon, but looked dry. The other was black and a little wet/oily. Both old plugs were gapped at around .037 (.030 according to manual). Bought the new plugs at local marine shop that were supposed to be pre-gapped but also measured .037. Re-gapped both to .030 and installed. Engine ran better for less than a minute before beginning the same intermittent misfire. I haven?t pulled the new plugs to look at them yet. I checked the coils for cracks and didn?t see any, but I will check again. All wiring looked good.
Another thing I noticed while running the engine was that the water coming from engine never got really warm. It was warmer than the hose water, but still cool to touch. When revving the engine to higher rpm, water got noticeably warmer, but still only luke warm. I don?t know if that is normal or not
I am hoping someone can give me some advice on what to do or look at next before I give up and take it to the local marine shop (I want to go fishing!). Money is tight and I?d prefer to keep the motor out of the shop if at all possible. If it would help, I can try to take some video of the engine running and post it on Youtube or something. Sorry for the long post, but I?ve tried to be as descriptive as possible. If you need any other info, please let me know. I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks.
Background: Motor is a 1993 Evinrude 30hp tiller (E30TEL, Ser# G03246215), electric start. I bought this motor on a jon boat in Feb, ran it briefly (in barrel) before purchase, didn't notice anything wrong. I've been out of town for a while and been working on the boat itself and haven?t had it out on the lake yet. Since I finished the work on the boat, I changed the lower unit fluid and replaced screw seals (very clean, but don?t know how old), gave the engine a once over looking (for loose bolts, wear, etc), and started it up. I ran the motor (with motor flusher for water) and noticed an intermittent misfire at idle and higher rpms. Not too much smoke during idle, a puff of smoke with the misfire, and a lot of smoke when throttling up. After the misfire, the engine drops in rpms for a second or two before coming back up. After listening closely on the left side of the motor (looking from rear), I hear an intermittent click that coincides with the misfire, but I hear it more often than the misfires. With each click, there?s a slight jerk to the motor. I?ve got a good flow of water out of the ?pee-hole?. The first time I ran the motor at home, some grayish, gas-smelling foam came out of the exhaust, but it cleared up pretty fast and hasn?t returned.
With help from another forum, I had a few things to check for. I checked for spark on both cylinders and spark seemed fine on both cylinders. I?m planning on checking with a spark tester because I didn?t really know what I was doing the first time. I?ll also see if I can borrow a compression tester, but I haven?t done compression tests yet. The fuel mixture was old, so I replaced that with new fuel and purged the fuel line. I also replaced both spark plugs. One of the old plugs had some black carbon, but looked dry. The other was black and a little wet/oily. Both old plugs were gapped at around .037 (.030 according to manual). Bought the new plugs at local marine shop that were supposed to be pre-gapped but also measured .037. Re-gapped both to .030 and installed. Engine ran better for less than a minute before beginning the same intermittent misfire. I haven?t pulled the new plugs to look at them yet. I checked the coils for cracks and didn?t see any, but I will check again. All wiring looked good.
Another thing I noticed while running the engine was that the water coming from engine never got really warm. It was warmer than the hose water, but still cool to touch. When revving the engine to higher rpm, water got noticeably warmer, but still only luke warm. I don?t know if that is normal or not
I am hoping someone can give me some advice on what to do or look at next before I give up and take it to the local marine shop (I want to go fishing!). Money is tight and I?d prefer to keep the motor out of the shop if at all possible. If it would help, I can try to take some video of the engine running and post it on Youtube or something. Sorry for the long post, but I?ve tried to be as descriptive as possible. If you need any other info, please let me know. I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks.