If a motor idles and goes into gear fine out of the water, what are some things that could go wrong once you are on the water and how severe are they to fix?
A 1976 maybe 79 55 hp evinrude. Seen it idle and go into gear but I am worried if they're may be something I can't see when I get it on a boat and go. I have a friend who works on boats so motor repairs basicly only cost me parts plus maybe 10% so I'm not too worried if something small needs fixing but if there could be something very expensive then that would be a problem.
Has your motor been looked at by your friend yet? Has the impeller been inspected/changed recently.
Get yourself an OEM factory service manual so your can familiarize yourself with your motor. (Don't get a Seloc or Clymer manual). You need to know how an outboard works, so if a problem happens on the water...you'll know what's going on. Breaking down on the water is different than on the road...especially in bad weather or when you are in the middle of big water.
If you run your boat constantly worrying about what MIGHT happen then you'll be miserable.
You need to start educating yourself on basic maintenance and operation of your motor.
Bonairll is right. First you need to educate yourself on how it work ( I'm just doing that myself now) than have your buddy give it a good look over. If you are still nervous about it try and find a friend with a boat to go out with you the first time and bring a long rope so if it all goes wrong you have the peace of mind knowing you have a tow home.
Here is just a short list of things that can go sour on a boat outing. These may be oversight on your part or just things that break or wear out.
1) Run out of gas. Sucks up crud from the bottom of the tank and now plugged up filters and carbs.
2) Fouled spark plugs due to lack of preventive maintenance.
3) Overheat due to stuck thermostat, bypass valve, or water pump impeller -- again lack of preventive maintenance.
4) Engine seizure due to lack of oil (injection system failure or running without oil in the resevoir)
5) Spun prop hub due to striking under water object
6) Loss of igntiion system (engine dies due to no spark)
7) Lower unit failure due to lack of maintenance (lube change) or water intrusion due to bad seals.
8) Stalling due to lack of carburetor maintenance
9) Poor performance due to lack of or improper fuel system/ignition maintenance
10) No start situation due to dead battery. Failure to understand what the console voltmeter (alternator not charging)
Unless you carry every tool required to repair this stuff, as well as having every potentially failing replacement part on board, there is no way you can repair much of this on the water. Preventive maintenance and a good bit of common sense greatly reduces the risk of an on water failure. The stupid thing to do is going out with a boat known to have an issue regardless how little or how big that issue is.
I think the more direct answer is this: what will cause a boat that seems to work well in the driveway not work well on the water?
It's a different condition--in the water, there is pressure against the sytem (the prop and the exhaust.) Also, you can't (shouldn't) rev a motor on land above say 2000 so you don't know what's up at the top end.
With that in mind, here are a few things I know about that could occur on the water but not be apparent on land:
Motor bogs down when you accelerate (dirty fuel path, air leak in fuel path)
Weak performance due to bad compression (big problem)
Bad oil mix/failure (unless you premix)
Poor water pump pressure
Overheating--usually from ^^ or thermostat
bad performance due to wrong prop
bad performance due to spun prop (sometimes detected visually on land)
bad performance due to incorrectly mounted motor/wrong size shaft (sometimes detected visually on land)
bad performance due to loose ground at battery (symptom: motor acts stupid)
Beer that is cold on land is hot on the water (incorrect cooler operation)
The most common thing to go wrong is that you forget to charge your cell phone, get insurance with BoatUS towing and buy a paddle and distress flag. If you have those, go have fun in your new boat and stop worrying.
Homecookin, that's what I was lookin for! And the last point made me shutter to think about, haha! Well I got the motor, we'll see how she performs on the water as soon as possible!
