Hopefully we have a few evinrude/marine mechanics among us. Seems my '88 110 V4 has stopped running at it's best and since I'm no mechanic, I'm stumped.
It seems to have started one trip when I bought fuel at a marina but could just be a coincidence.
The motor starts up fine but seems to not have any upper rpm power. Under load (not on a hose but in the water and idling out of the ramp), you can hear a miss in the rhythm and the position of the throttle where it now shows 2k rpm should be more like 3k. When you push her to WOT (to come out of the hole) she sounds like there's only 2 (maybe one) of the 4 cylinders running. As she sputters, I ease off the throttle and then she starts to kick in and finally starts running on more cylinders - not sure if all but seems to run normal/near normal. Ran it for 14 miles in the gulf yesterday at midrange and WOT, fuel used was higher than normal but seemed to run ok. When I come back off plane, idle for a while and then try to go back on plane the sputtering starts again.
What I've done so far - I've changed the plugs, the wires and have checked to make sure I have spark at each plug. The lower plugs seem to foul/have more oil & gas on them, yet have spark. Don't know if they have enough spark, if there is such a thing. I've also sprayed a can of carb cleaner into all 4 carbs thinking it might be an air/fuel mixture thing - no help. Also put cleaner into the gas.
Since then I have also replaced the internal wiring harness (was losing all it's insulation - if you looked at it the wrong way some would fall off - looked unsafe) - seemed to go together wire for wire although I did have to modify it a bit. I do have one wire left unattached with no apparent place for it to go. Seems to have one more wire than the original harness???
I hate to keep changing parts due to ignorance - the next would be the 4 coils?
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
