Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

[drackley]

I'm starting this thread to get a recommendation as after 7 months, and another rip off I've thrown in the towel. 1994 Evinrude 115 V4 inboard (Turbojet), power head rebuilt, and electronics replaced. All electronics check good with proper test equipment, and procedures from factory manual, (done three times over), carbs gone through three times. Engine very hard to start, rough non-existent idle, and fighting itself to accelerate as if plug wires reversed (they are not). <br /><br />After giving up I took it to the second boat dealership last week after a bad experience with the first. I explained the above, and provided all test information, as well as telling them they were authorized to 1.5 hours and call me with what they had found and we would go from there. In other words, if you find it call me, if you don't, call me, if you need more time call me. I was called this week and told they had found four things. 1. It has no primer bulb (it's not suppose to as this is against CG regs. on an inboard). 2. It has a broken shift cable (the shift cable works fine, just a lose collar, and I knew this). 3. The gear case has a different drain plug bolt in it (it's under the boat on a Turbojet). 4 the VRO tank is out did you mix? I asked what this has to do with the engine? and the response was "do you want these fixed?" I still did not understand what was going on and questioned further resulting in being put on hold till I had to get back to a meeting. I went to the dealer to find my boat still in the yard, the engine had not been touched, and I was being charged for this unauthorized un-requested inspection to tell me things I already knew. The only thing I would grant is the VRO issue. No mechanic of course would want to run an engine not knowing that it was safe to do so. But that should have been a 30 second phone call. Ranting aside, my question to all is if there is a mechanic willing to work with me, I'll pay for the phone calls and fees to you. Or if you know of a mechanic within 150 miles of the Portland Oregon area, I'll drive it that far. Thanks.

 

[clanton]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

You are to far from me unless, you would like to spring for a ticket on Northwest, Delta. You can call me at 239-842-0294. 10:00 EST AM, or you set the time. Do you have a factory manual? What kind of fuel pump are you using? You could remove the engine and ship it to me.

 

[drackley]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

I just got your note Clanton and missed the time. Would a time this afternoon or tomorrow be convenient? I do have the factory manual, the fuel pump is a stock VRO with oil disconnected and running about a 35-1 ratio. It would probably be cheeper to ship you here than to ship the engine there. Depending on weight of course . I'm very serious about being glad to compensate for the time. I've done all the ignition tests and have the data in front of me.

 

[clanton]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

Call any time. Its a cell phone and not on all the time. After you call I will give you a different number. I only have 450 minutes cell time. I am trying to find you a tech close to you. I like the part ship me to you, I could use a break. Im 175 lbs.

 

[Forkin' Crazy]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

This sounds like a strainge animal. Can you post any pics?<br /><br />I always follow this proceedure on a running or not running motor that is giving problems.<br /><br />1. compression check. All cylinders should be within 10 psi or so.<br /><br />2. Spark check with a spark tester. It should be set at about 7/16" and should make a pretty blue spark and should fire evenly, not intermittantly. <br /><br />If not ignition, compression, or carbs, the it has to be a bad reed valve. To test this remove the air box (if equiped) and run on the hose. If it is blowing fuel/air vapor out of one or more of the carb throats, it has a bad reed valve.<br /><br />FC

 

[ezeke]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

This summer my brother in law and I reassembled the powerhead on a 1994 Fling which is run by a 1994 OMC Turbojet. I picked this boat up at a very good price because the dealer had completely disassembled the motor before advising the former owner that the cost to put it back together would be $3000. <br /><br />We have the primer pump wired in the same circuit used for a choke solenoid on an outboard. Maybe the fellow who said you needed a primer bulb did not understand inboards, or maybe you don't have a primer pump?<br /><br />Anyway the point was that we removed the VRO except for the pump, following directions I found on this site. After break-in we used a 50:1 premix. We used higher octane gas because the OMC service manual says [pg 2-4] "[Note]The use of premium grade fuels is specifically encouraged...." <br /><br />We encountered a starting problem which disappeared when we threw out the old battery and installed a 925MCA 725CCA deep cycle battery. We had to replace the regulator, cost $80.00 <br /><br />For the rest of this summer and up til a few weeks ago, my nephew and his friends have been enjoying the boat on a lake in upstate NY. I actually got to drive it once myself - great fun.

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

If you have not already done so, check the sensor magnet on the hub of the flywheel. They are glued on, and can slip and turn. You said the engine will not wind up as though the plug wires are crossed. That is what a spun sensor magnet sounds like.I have never worked on these turbo-jet engines, so I'm not familiar with their set-up. Is there a way you could run the boat on a regular 6 gal. can to by-pass that whole built in setup. Sounds like trouble shooting this engine has gotten way out of hand, Someone has got to return to "GO" and take it step by step.

 

[drackley]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

Ezeke. The boat has a new battery. It also has an electric primer solenoid. What he ment was that it did not have a rubber squeeze primer bulb, which it should not have.<br />Rjohnson. The flywheel has been replaced, and both have the proper part numbers. They both seem tight, and are positioned the same place. Unless they both spun to the same point, they should be ok. Also. The timing light on each plug wire shows the correct cylinder firing. The turbojet is nothing more than an 1994 Evinrude 115 V4 crossflow mounted inboard on a gearbox.

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

This sounds like one of those engines that is going to be tough, without being able to put hands on it. As I said before go back to go. Take off the airbox cover and feed each carb with squeeze bottle of gas, do a running test on each, and all ign. components with a peak reading volt meter. I would think something would show under these tests. I can understand you want to throw in the towel

 

[Walker]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

Before shipping it off to Clanton try a couple of things. Disconnect the battery, clean every ground connection that you can find. Remove each coil and clean the ground strap on them and the block where they bolt on. Check your choke solenoid to make sure its working right and the lever is in the right position. Check your timer base and make sure it moves freely. If you can see them make sure no check valves are broken off.

 

[drackley]

Re: Tubojet 115 Evinrude. The horror continues!

Rjohnson. All running and cranking tests have been done on each and all ignition components at least three times over. The results were posted in another thread by me titles something like "crossfiring 115". This turned out to not be the case, as the inductive timing light was picking up stray em field from the adjoining plug wire. That put me back to square one as to what the problem was.<br />Walker. Timer base is ok. This does not have the standard choke primer as the outboard. It is an electric metal unit specific to the Turbojet, and does not have a lever. Clanton had suggested checking that the jets are all in their proper place. When the carbs were rebuilt (by me, and yes I know what I'm doing . All jets were placed back where they came from. This however can not discount the possibility that some yutz before me had them in the wrong place since I bought the boat with a grenaded power head. I'm going to go through the carbs checking proper location of the jets, and clean all grounds. Thanks for sticking with me everybody. It was very dissapointing to do all this work and money since February and not get to drive it once.