started the engine up for the first time in 4 months

[greenwell001]

got my boat out of storage and it started up after the second time trying to crank it over and man did it put out some white smoke......after it ran about 45 sec the smoke subsided for the most part.....got the engine up to temp and it started dying at idle but ran good at 1500 rpm....first of all is the smoking normal since it had sat so long in storage.....second question (96 merc 5.7, non vortec, 2bbl carb) does it sound like the choke might be stuck and that is why it is dying at idle.....it ran strong last season, winterized it and put it up for winter...i stored with 3/4 tank with stabil.....i only ran it on muffs for about 10 min, is it maybe something that needs to be ran in the water for a while to work itself out or will the spring tune-up take care of it.....sorry for being long winded and thanks for any advice

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: started the engine up for the first time in 4 months

does it sound like the choke might be stuck and that is why it is dying at idle.

Howdy,

Well, it could be......but your best evidence will be to pull the flame arrester and have a look!

When the engine was winterized, was it "fogged"? That would produce a fair amount of smoke until it cleared.... (I'll assume that you ran it on a flush adapter ( or "muffs") and the water was on before starting and turned off after shutdown.....)


If it only sat for the winter, the stabilized fuel is probably ok. I would store it with a little fuel as possible and fill it up in the spring.....I never use Stabil.....ymmv

 

[rjwoodrome]

Re: started the engine up for the first time in 4 months

after the foging agent has burned off, I change the plugs and clean the flame arrester. add 5 gallons of new high octane fuel. muffs on all the time. check that oil too...