Fuel in westerbeake exhaust

Michael Mirra

Michael Mirra

Member
Jan 18, 2017
177
Rock Hall, Md
Boat Info
360 Sundancer 2002
Engines
8.1 Horizon X 2
I am getting quite a bit of what appears to be unburned fuel in the exhaust from my generator. I'm pretty sure its not oil. Can this be from not running it often enough? I seldom turn it on, which i know is not good. I plan to run it for a few hours this weekend and see what happens. Any ideas?
 
If a cylinder isn't firing you'll see a sheen on the water and usually the discharge will be cloudy. It could also be a stuck choke. The solenoid on mine is a serious wimp and must be regularly lubricated or it will stick closed/partially closed.

If you've shutdown while under load or if the choke has stuck, it can foul a plug.
 
Years ago my WB was spitting fuel out the exhaust.
Ran ok and still powered the whole boat.
The plugs were horribly fouled..
 
They will also do that if you run it without a load on them they are jetted to run under load
 
As a 2002 is it carburetor or fuel injection. If carb I would suspect faulty choke. If FI I would suspect low operating temp (thermostat) or faulty temp sensor telling the FI that it's hasn't warmed up yet and telling the FI system to feed more fuel.
 
I have a Koehler 5e has with 700 hours and my problems started with a rpm hunting condition.
After I pulled the generator and rebuilt the carburetor it was running perfectly in my driveway in a no load condition.
Subsequently I reinstalled the generator and while it ran fine with no load. With load the carburetor would go to full throttle and bog pumping out large patches of carbon and some raw fuel in the exhaust with a reduction in rpm of approximately 500 from 3600 to 3100.
I bought a new carburetor and bingo. The generator has been running perfectly since having put 50 hours on it since.
Since the generator has a Kawasaki fd 501 engine I was able to cross the carburetor to a Kawasaki part and saved over 100$ by purchasing a carb from a local lawn mower retailer.
 
IMG_4230.JPG
It is probably a choke or a plug issue. As others have mentioned these units foul plugs quickly because it is hard to maintain a 75% load. As soon as the hot water heater is full of hot water and the A/C reaches its set point the load falls off and the plugs begin to foul. I used to change my plugs at the first sign of black carbon or fuel in the exhaust. This worked out to about every other year for the way we used the genny. WBs seem to have a personality of their own, and once you get the hang of them they work well.
 
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