fuel issues....

[DouglasMB]

I launched the boat yesterday and I feel just frustrated... I have put almost 3 grand into just getting it in the water and we get in the chanel and get ready to open her up... one of the engines falls on its face. The boat guy I was with thinks it is the fual pump because it idled fine. I asked him if it could be a filter and he said no because it if was trash in the tank then both filters would have gotten messed up. So not we took it to the slip and it is just sitting there... It's driving me nuts.

So my question is... I know where 2 filter/water seperators are. Are these the only filters? how do I check them? can anyone help me locate them any help would be great.

 

[DouglasMB]

I guess I should add to make is easy... I have an 81' 255 amberjack with 2 485 Mercs set up.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Take a look at each of your engines in the area near the carb. There might be an inline filter that's just "upstream" from where the fuel line goes into the carb.

Did you try to restart the engine? Had you started to hit the throttle when the engine died? If that's the case it might be that there was no fuel in the secondaries of the carb. If the boat sat for a long time you may need to really ease into it when you hit the throttle. The carb may have shot in too much gas and stalled the engine.

 

[DouglasMB]

When the engine died it would try to restart when you pumped the throttle... but would not stay started. the boat guy said some thing about possible hole in the diaphragm of the full pump. but did not think it had anything to do with the filters

 

[Crushin It]

Who is "boat guy"?

 

[chandalen]

fuel check ....

while engine is off....
look in body of carb .. have admiral go wide open while you watch for a spurt of fuel, a good strong healthy squirt. if none fuel filter or fuel pump or carb see below*

if a good squirt try to start ... if it dies right away.... push the button on the throttle and move throttle forward a bit this will cause the engine to idle higher than normal temp. if engine stays on now then your idle needs to be adjusted

if no start put gas dow the carb and see if she starts if she does and dies try again but press the button on throttle and make her rev higher if she dies fuel pump is likely

good luck

you mentioned when you opened her up engine died... if the carbs float is not set correctly the bowl could be emoty of fuel and starving the engine

 

[Toecutter]

Let's check the least $/effort things first before swapping out parts like pumps and such.

Could be a few filters involved.....i don't have the same boat/motors, but you may want to replace filter (plural if two tanks) right at the tank. Might look like a steel 'sediment bowl' type where the bowl drops down and there is a cartridge filter inside.

Next should be filter/water seperator, which you know of already.

Then right on the carb body where the fuel line enters, there could be another cartridge filter, and if lucky, it's a cleanable mesh type. So, either clean or replace.

I would then recommend getting some Seafoam for your tank(s) or Startron. This will help with any water/moisture in the fuel. You may or may not know, but fuel is crap these days and starts to degrade quickly. If you did not treat it with a quality stabilizer, then grungy little critters can 'grow' over the winter.
This is particularly a problem with ethanol gas. Avoid it like the plague, use midgrade or above.....I know it's more $, but the older fuel systems hate the ethanol blends.

This should help get the cheaper items (that are normal yearly items in my view anyhow) out of the way to allow more precise diagnostcs to be performed.

Good luck with her!

 

[Toecutter]

And not to discount gofirstclass' earlier comment, there could well be inline filters upstream of the carb.

 

[DouglasMB]

thnk you guys for the comments... I 'll try to comment on it all here...

"Boat guy" was a reference to the gentalman who owns the baot yard where my boat was delivered, he also over saw the set up and check of the boat to see that everything was in good condition and correct before I took it out. He launched the boat and was showing me basic oppereation of it, and was with me when if fell on it's face.

In my frusteration I was not going to give up and I was going to go through every filter on the boat before we devled into fuel pumps... boat guy said he could order them on Monday and have the kits deliverd next day so that gave me 1 day (yasterday) to sort it out. My brother is a car guy builds, rebuilds, plays with... and sometimes destroys lol but he heard my frusteration and met me out at my slip. my plan was to go over the few things I could and that I did know on my own and with my shop vac just clean up and wash and just stay active on the boat... I mean it was on the water... if I did not thing else but sit in it with the radio going by god I would be in my boat on the water lol. if only at the doc

So my brother gets out there and basically made the same comments you guys did... we tried to get engine #1 to run I will call it number 1 because it has the Altinator on it and the power steering pump so it seems like it should be number 1 lol. Well it acted the same as before... turn over great but would not fire... pump the throttle a few times and it would hit but only for a few seconds. So he said ok... it wants to eat but is not getting food, that is a good sign. Starting at the small little filter attached to the carb he backed off that nut maybe a turn. Said ok hit the key but just bump it. If it turns over cut it off quick... the way he said that made me nervous lol but I did it and fuel shot out like someone putting their thumb over a water hose. He said ok... i could be wrong but with that kind of pressure I do not think it is your fuel pump.

He took the nut the rest of the way off then poof... what was suppose to be like a cartrige screen filter (we only know this because we checked the other one and it looked proper) was a piece of screen folded over several times and just kinda shoved in there. In it was a bunch of junk that has been there for a long time. We did not have the proper filter to replace it with so we cleaned it it out and he told me that there is a chance if thei stuff go in your carb you maybe need to take it apart and go through it. But if this did its job we can clean it up put it back (temporarily untill I get the proper one) and see how she runs.

We were on the water for the next 2 hours going through it pushing it up to about 4k just cruising along and enjoying the sun. It was great.

I learned something about boats, i think more than likely it is some you have to just learn and it can not be taught. You will hate it when it is broken, will make you made and your thoughts of storms and insuarnce money come to mind... lol but that one moment when you hit the key and it starts right up, and you just clear that wake zone and you can open her up.... in that one moment everything that happened before is forgiven, and you would not trade it for the world.

 

[src]

Absolutely. No matter how big a grin you have while running your boat, it's going to smaller than the grin you have running the boat you just fixed!

 

[DouglasMB]

yeah I will go along with that lol

 

[jetpartner]

Same thing happened to me, my boat acted like it was starving for fuel, it would run at low power settings and finally would not start at all. I changed everything fuel related, did not help. It was a bad coil. Would never had thought a coil would acted that way, I thought you had spark or you did not.