More Fun w/Ethanol?

[Tailgunner]

Ran out 7 miles last night at dusk to my favorite spot. Engine ran fine. Reduced to trolling speed and motor starts sputtering. Increase RPM's and motor dies. Drain fuel/water seperator and restart engine. Sounds great in neutral at all rpm's. Put in gear and sputtering continues. Fuel bulb is rock hard. It's now dark.

Decide to head home. At about half throttle, motor jumps to life. Run home at 4,800 rpms. Once in mooring field and speed decreased to no wake, motor sputters. Pull up to mooring and motor dies. Tie up and restart engine. Starts right up and once again all is well in neutral.

I'll replace all filters AGAIN and see if that does it.

[JimCt]

Do you have a back-up kicker on the boat?  If not, might be worth considering.

[Tailgunner]

No I don't have a kicker. I'm picking up a small outboard for the dinghy and am considering possibilities.

This is just such a PITA. Last year a Racor filter lasted all season and I went out 50 times at least. This year I'm only on my 3rd tank and about to put on my 3rd filter.

The good news is the Merc got me home!  

[jdupree]

Tailgunner,

How old is your engine?  Have you ever replaced the power pack?

[Tailgunner]

Motor is 3 years old. Class one Mercury service last year.

[Ben87]

Let me share with you my experiences with my 87 Mercury outboard.  I always carried a spare/new stator and all the tools I'd need to change it out, why?, because they would go at anytime.  It was not a matter of if, it was always when.  

Electrics in the past were always dodgy.  All that heat coming off the engine and the electrics were always bolted straight to the block, and that coupled with the cowlings that hold in heat and cause electrics to fail.  

The Stator on my 87 was known to go.  Mercury make an improvement to it and from what I heard they put larger laminations/whatever that is, to try and cure their failing.  No matter what one did, the stators would just go.  They live on the top of the motor and as heat rises and the stator is located under the flywheel, it would get hot and just like anything else, hot means no good for electronic parts.  I had the drill down pat;

Pull off cowlings, all 3 parts.  Use flywheel puller to pull flywheel.  Use allen wrench to pull stator off.  Use socket driver to pull wires leading from stator to switchboxes, then phillips to take switchboxes off block as they were stacked on the starboard side of the block.  Then reverse process to install new stator.  I must have replaced the stators on that 87 no less than 5 times in the 10+ years I really used the engine.  I'd replace the water pump every year along with the T-Stats, all to no avail.  The stator would just go when it wanted to.  

The symptoms would be everything and anything.  The motor might all of a sudden die, or it would only rev up to 1,800rpm, or it would rev fine out of gear but not in gear, but no matter what, it would always be the stator, never a carb or fuel issue.  This was my cross until this past spring.

[JimCt]

You can thank the people in Washington, who tell you they are working for you, for this ethanol mess.  Something to keep in mind next election day.

[Tailgunner]

JimCt,
Don't EVEN get me started on this.....

Now is a good time to be a corn farmer. Ethanol, high fructose corn syrup... all due to Govt subsidy.

[JimCt]

It isn't the little hard-scrabble corn farmer but "Big Corn" which spent lavishly in D.C. to purchase ethanol legislation we, the voters, are obliged to enjoy & reap the benefits from.

Perhaps ADM might do well to purchase Racor and earn a few extra clams selling voters fuel filters.  Just a thought...

[Tailgunner]

Just replaced both filters.

Racor was very sludgy. I'm pretty sure this is varnish from the tank. Old fuel leaves a varnish line in the tank and ethanol is kind enough to remove it from the tank.

Inline filter was white and I saw no discoloration.

Note:
I poured the fuel from the Racor into a small container. It seperated quickly to become 2/3 clear fuel and 1/3 pinkish. I only returned the clear into the Racor.

Started right up and was fine through the power band in neutral. Test will be under load.

I was going to make a test run but there is a 65' yacht hard aground just outside the harbor. The last thing I wanted to have trouble with all that nonsense going on.

[Tailgunner]

Little rubber balls found in fuel line. Pulling the boat Monday and cleaning the carbs as well as replacing all fuel lines.

[T-Ed]

I just repowered with a carbureted 90HP Yamaha and I'm experiencing the same ethanol/old tank problems. I'm on my 3rd filter and 2nd set of plugs. The idle carb jets are now unhappy.  When the engine sputters I switch to a 3 gallon deck tank and it runs well enough to get me back to the ramp.

Anyone know where to get a replacement tank for a 1985 170 Osprey?

[JimCt]

Try Luther's.  He's right next door in RI.  Might even deliver the tanks.

http://www.lutherswelding.com/index.html

Will be having him fabricate the tanks for my 240.