Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

[alternative]

Ran my boat today and was fine for about 10 min. then out of the blue it just bogged out and stalled.. fired right up moved a little ways.. and then stalled again .. fired up ..let idle 4 minutes then stalled and wouldnt start up.. got a tow in and now im confused ... fuel filter was just changed 3 weeks ago.. and tune up done .. will fire up on either but will not stay running .. '88 OMC 305 Cobra (Fourwinns) <br /> 2 bbl carb.... any other info needed?????

 

[bomar76]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

In no paticular order:<br />1. Out of gas<br />2. Fuel filter clogged<br />3. Massive amonts of water in fuel<br />4. Anti siphon valve stuck<br />5. Fuel pump DOA<br />6. Kinked fuel line<br />7. Out of gas (yeah, I know, a repeat...check the obvious)<br />8. Really old nasty gas <br /><br /><br />and lots others.....work on those for starters.

 

[Don S]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

Could also be a plugged vent for the fuel tank.<br />While it sounds like a fuel problem, did you check to see if there was spark when it wouldn't run?

 

[Hog Wild]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

I vote for check that you have spark first when it dies. Then if you have spark you know it's a fuel issue. The fuel issue has many angles, try the cheap/easy fixes first. And my advice is it's almost never a carb. issue but most people try that first.

 

[hoot]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

check ignition components, coil could be bad.

 

[HULKSTERUPS]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

Check the gas tank pickup tube, there was a screen on mine and it kept getting clogged.

 

[Northern Eclipse]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

also look at the wire from the points to the condensor sometimes they get pinched under the distributor cap and break the insulation causing your spark to be grounded out, I found this out when my fathers boat was doing has you descibe, we thought it was fuel related at first since it would take aleast 15 to 30min for engine to quit while running a cruise speeds.

 

[papdetomaso]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

If you can get it started, do a "wiggle test" with the ignition wires and harness to see if you can get it to quit. It happened to me and I chased several things before finding a broken ignition wire that was making connection intermittently...good luck...Pappy

 

[Don S]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

As you can see, there is no one cure for any problem, and just like us poor ole boat mechanics, it's going to take checking all the systems till you find the problem. The fun really begins when you have an igniton problem and a fuel problem or some other what seems unrelated problem at the same time.<br />Trust me, every certified mechanic out there has at one time or another threw his hands up and said "Got Me.......I've checked everything and it should work"<br />But you should have enough information above to keep yourself occupied for a few hours anyway.<br />Good Luck

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

I always carry a inline spark checker in all my boats. Harbor Freight has them for a few bucks. Check it first though, then stash it. You can run with it attached. And also when it quits, pop the Flame arrester real quick and hit the throttle and see if your pumpimg fuel. <br />My guess is your fuel pump went south...

 

[alternative]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

HERES THE DEAL??? i guess we were out of gas..?<br />Two weeks ago, i had the gas dock fill up the tank and the kid said it would only take 20 gallons .. (its a 44 gal tank.)and the guage was on 1/4 so i thought the guage broke or float stuck.. later that day the guage dropped to Empty and i really thought the guage was shot. I arranged for a mechanic to change or check the float.. but curious to see where i was on fuel after a few days on E and driving around i pulled in to the gas dock and it supposedly only took 7 gallons.. ok i thought the float is broke?<br />well only about 3 days later is when the boat stalled on the lake and this post went up.. yesterday my mechanic called and said its out of gas... took 40 gallons and put ether in carb and fired up and now is fine... Im not sure though .. will try to run today.. just nervous that it will happen again and fuel maybe wasnt the problem> ? any opinions???

 

[tommays]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

i dont think theres any question you were out of fuel in fact the first thing we we taught in marine mech school was people run boats out of fuel all the time and check before you waste any time on other things<br /><br />i would change the fuel filters running empty will have pulled everything in the tank into them <br /><br />i would look into why its gotten hard to refuel the boat <br /><br />cloged vent line??? spider web<br /><br />to be honest my 20 ft maxium will not take fuel unless no one is on the stern at all and takes it best if some sits one in the bow area<br /><br />i am the orginal owner and it has allways been like this very hard to refuel on the trailer because the stern is low when hooked up to my truck<br /><br />tommays

 

[bomar76]

Re: Whats up with my boat... stalled on water..?CARB .no fuel??

Originally posted by alternative:<br />[QB] HERES THE DEAL??? i guess we were out of gas..

Originally posted by bomar76:<br />1. Out of gas <br />7. Out of gas (yeah, I know, a repeat...check the obvious) <br />

I find it humorous that you thought you could boat for 2 weeks on 27 gallons of gas.......<br /><br />Sounds like the gauge and float are working fine (don't expect them to be anything more than a very rough approximation).<br /><br />Might have a clogged ventline, or a kink in the fill hose.