Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

[Jack Rose]

Hey, a while back, a number of you guys gave me some great advice on getting my Mercruiser 330 unstuck. Here's the thread: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=267296.

It turns out that the less aggressive methods, spraying PB Blaster through the spark plug ports and adding about a 1/2 ounce of Marvel Mystery oil to each cylinder, then ignoring it for six weeks, did the trick. That and the gentle application of a crow bar to the flywheel cogs through the starter hole.

So, after getting it moving, then turning it several revolutions by hand from the front end, then oiling it with an oil pump primer, I got up the courage to actually try it with the battery and starter motor, and voila, it spins quite freely, now.

I'm holding off on actually firing it up until I can change out the old oil, put in some new plugs, and figure out how to get fuel and water to it w/o using the old fuel tank and without putting it in the water, all of which you've answered elsewhere.

Meanwhile, I owe this major step towards success to you guys' advice and patience with me.

So, thanks a bunch ... but stay tuned for more questions.

Jack

 

[Don S]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Sounds to me like you have a lot of scrap iron in your boat. You just haven't learned it yet. You may even get it to start, but I doubt it will ever be a dependable engine. Rings rusted and stuck in the piston , scored cylinder walls, stuck valves, you name it.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

What don's is saying is your compression is probably going to be crapola..........

Instead of buying 8 plugs.... oil.... and other things get a compression tester from sears and check yours.
No sense in buying alot of parts for an engine that has lousy compression

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Do the compression check like Jason says.

But how we know what everything inside the motor looks like.

Maybe the crank is shot, cylinder walls scored.

Honestly your gonna go on the water without even eyeballing the inards?

How long you been fiddling with this?

Right way:

Pull the motor, pull the head, turn it over, off with the oil pan.

Than your in business.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Did somebody say pennywise and pound.......

 

[Bondo]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Ayuh,....

Just for Sh!ts,+ Giggles,....

I'd hook up a remote fuel can to the fuel pump, plumb water into the T-stat housing, throw the old sparkplugs back into it,...

And Light it...... Just for the 'ell of it.....

 

[Jack Rose]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Bond-O, thanks. That's my plan. I don't see any reason to yank the engine before simply checking the compression, changing the oil, plumbing water to the cooling system, getting fresh fuel and trying to fire it up.

The engine apparently wasn't as "stuck" as I thought. And I'm not sure that what was causing my problem wasn't at least contributed to by the rust and gunk on the flywheel that I described in another thread (see below).

My brother-in-law who has been building and re-building car engines since the 60s is looking over my shoulder on this. So far, he hasn?t seen any reason to pull the engine and tear it down. And this is a guy who won?t drive from Chattanooga to Knoxville without a trunk full of tools, just in case, and who would rather pull an engine to change the spark plugs than to have to lean over the fender and bang his knuckles on the exhaust manifold in that effort.

Anyway, again, thanks for everyone?s input. I?ll keep you posted on my progress and I hope you?ll be patient with my questions.

Jack

Inboard/1980 Mercruiser 330/almost no hours/1962 Century Coronado.
Previous threads on this engine-
Re-Commissioning "New" 1980 Merc 330
Stuck Mercruiser 330
Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330
Water in bell housing

 

[Jack Rose]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

OK, sorry, but many months later (meanwhile, I've finished out my upstairs master bedroom and built a dock), I'm reviving this thread to give it some closure.

I finally got around to doing the compression check , and it came in at 120-130lbs on each cylinder, which seems pretty consistent to me, so I'm not ready to admit that all I have is a bucket of bolts as suggested above, nor to pull the engine (willing to do so when necessary).

So, I've gotten water to the cooling jacket, fuel to the carburetor and a new battery. And ... well, I've still got hope. I got it running, initially for 30 seconds or so, with not-so-well-timed squirts of starting fluid, and eventually, for a couple or three minutes at a time on its own. While it's running, it sounds great, but then invariably it stops.

I'm thinking that since it will run, fairly smoothly at that, that there's no major problem with the spark or the timing, so that leaves the fuel source.

I'm running it with fresh fuel out of a fuel can that's about two feet from the engine and on the same level as the oil pan. The fuel/water filter is full, and it pumps strongly from the fuel line when I remove it from the carb; however, when I pump the throttle I'm not seeing a jet of fuel coming through the venturi. It's moist in there, and I can see the clouds of fuel/mist, but never a steady stream coming through the jets.

So, I took off the top of the carburetor (OEM 4-barrel Quadrajet carb) thinking that maybe the float or needle valve was stuck, but they weren't. The bowl was full, the float was floating freely and the needle valve appeared to be moving freely.

So, any other ideas?

Is there maybe a filter between where the fuel line attaches to the carb and the fuel bowl that might be clogged?

Patience, please. I'm OK on small two-stroke engines, and maybe even a VW engine or two, but this marine big block stuff is all new to me.

Jack

-------------------------------------------
Here're the other threads on this engine. Let me know if I should start a new one with this new problem.
Re-Commissioning "New" 1980 Merc 330 - http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=258271
Stuck Mercruiser 330 - http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=267296
Water in bell housing - http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=282855

 

[bigskiohio]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

i know its apples and oranges but i know derby guys do that alll the time and abuse the heck out of them afterwards ,but boat engines seem alittle more finicky, but these guys overheat them and then break um loose and run them next derby but they wont be stranded out in the middle of the lake but some guys dont mind rolling the dice.

 

[Jack Rose]

Re: Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330

Hey, I'm gonna start a new thread on this, Mercruiser 330 Fuel to Carb (http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=333111).

Hope that's ok. I was just trying to close this one out, but I guess my new problem might be creating thread creep.

Jack

Inboard/1980 Mercruiser 330/almost no hours/1962 Century Coronado.
Previous threads on this engine-
Re-Commissioning "New" 1980 Merc 330
Stuck Mercruiser 330
Un-Stuck Mercruiser 330
Water in bell housing