Engine Has Trouble Starting After Refueling

[Henry Wu]

Hello all. My Sea Ray 175 Sport (Mercruiser 3.0 engine) had issues running when I put it in the water in April. The engine would cut out when adding throttle and I was advised that it was a carburetor issue. So, I rebuilt the carburetor and after that the boat ran well and could handle the throttle. However, when I refueled for the first time, the boat had trouble starting. It took a few cranks to get it to start. After that, the boat had no problems starting and running. Then the next time I refueled it wouldn't start. While trying to start it, the engine would unevenly rumble and not start. I would try to start it every few minutes and finally after over 30 minutes, its uneven rumble smoothed out and started running again. No issues until the third and most recent time I refueled. Initial few tries, it wouldn't even rumble, then it would do the uneven rumble, and then eventually during one try it smoothed out and ran fine again, this time under 10 minutes. I dock my boat at a marina so to refuel I have to start it up and drive to the gas dock to refuel, so it is not an issue with the engine being cold. It is clear that something about refueling is causing it to have trouble starting but I don't know why. I would appreciate any ideas about why this is happening.

 

[Little Ducky]

Might need to change out your water separating fuel filter.

 

[Loyd Dinneen]

If you have in carb filter it is probaly clogged especially if you had old fuel from over the winter and did not winterize it with a conditioner.

 

[BillK2632]

Does yours have the fuel fill with the vent line integrated into it? It probably does - you can look on the inside and see if the vent line connects to the fuel fill. So what happened with mine a long time ago, while I was fueling fuel was running down the vent line and there was a dip in the vent line that would hold fuel, in effect clogging up the vent. With the fuel tank full it didn't take but a min and I had a fuel problem. I worked on the vent line to make sure it was all downhill to the tank with no dips that could hold fuel. A quick way to check this is next time you fuel, leave the cap off and see if the engine starts up ok - if it does then the vent line is your problem.

 

[sbw1]

Does it do this if you start the engine, run it for the amount of time it takes to go to the fuel dock and fuel up, shut it down without fueling, and then trying to restart it? In other words, fueling may not be the issue and just coincidental to problem.

 

[techmitch]

Henry Wu
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