Rodnocker
Member
First... the history...
I bought this from my boss, who had bought it from someone on CL about a year prior but had never used it. I have it on a 14' semi-v aluminum boat that is 48" across at the transom. My first trip out two weeks ago resulted in the following. Very hard to start. Turns over ok, just did not want to fire. Priming bulb primed and tight, fuel tank valve open so it doesn't form a vacuum, and it took about 10-15 minutes before I could finally get it to start. to the point that I had blisters on my hand and had frayed the pull start rope. Once I got it started the first time though... I could cut if off and crank it with one pull. I head down the lake and can only get about 4.5mph and the boat will not plane out. I realize that all my weight is in the back of the boat (245lbs of me, 6 gallons of gas, motor, trolling motor and battery). I moved the battery to the front of the boat and it seemed to help a little. I was able to get up to about 6.5mph but still far from plane.
What I did...
I replaced the starter rope and found a hardened fuel line so I replaced that also. I found out that my motor should use champion j4j spark plugs but they don't make those anymore. They were replaced by j4c but I could not find those local. I found where someone is using j6c on the same motor I have but I could only find 1 local and I wanted to replace both (two cylinder). I finally found online where j8c's would work and I got those, gapped them at .030 per manual and put those in. I am running new fuel mixed 24:1 and 8oz of seafoam to 6 gallons of gas.
Next run...
I took the boat out this past Sunday. Still... very hard to crank. I primed the bulb until it was tight. I spent the next 50-75 pulls trying to crank it and it finally caught about 10 minutes later. For the rest of the day, it would only take one easy pull and it would fire right up. I even anchored to fish in one spot for about an hour, and it just took one easy pull and fired right up with no problem. Once I got it fired up... I was able to get up to 15.5mph and planed out nicely so I think the sparkplugs helped there.
My two issues are these.
1. Why is it so hard to start the first time? Could I be flooding it out by priming it to much?
2. When I go from idle to WOT (either slow or fast), it sounds like it has a hesitation, almost like it is missing a random spark, then it will finally clear (about 10-20 seconds) and smooth out and run fine.
Any help with these two issues would be greatly appreciated.
I bought this from my boss, who had bought it from someone on CL about a year prior but had never used it. I have it on a 14' semi-v aluminum boat that is 48" across at the transom. My first trip out two weeks ago resulted in the following. Very hard to start. Turns over ok, just did not want to fire. Priming bulb primed and tight, fuel tank valve open so it doesn't form a vacuum, and it took about 10-15 minutes before I could finally get it to start. to the point that I had blisters on my hand and had frayed the pull start rope. Once I got it started the first time though... I could cut if off and crank it with one pull. I head down the lake and can only get about 4.5mph and the boat will not plane out. I realize that all my weight is in the back of the boat (245lbs of me, 6 gallons of gas, motor, trolling motor and battery). I moved the battery to the front of the boat and it seemed to help a little. I was able to get up to about 6.5mph but still far from plane.
What I did...
I replaced the starter rope and found a hardened fuel line so I replaced that also. I found out that my motor should use champion j4j spark plugs but they don't make those anymore. They were replaced by j4c but I could not find those local. I found where someone is using j6c on the same motor I have but I could only find 1 local and I wanted to replace both (two cylinder). I finally found online where j8c's would work and I got those, gapped them at .030 per manual and put those in. I am running new fuel mixed 24:1 and 8oz of seafoam to 6 gallons of gas.
Next run...
I took the boat out this past Sunday. Still... very hard to crank. I primed the bulb until it was tight. I spent the next 50-75 pulls trying to crank it and it finally caught about 10 minutes later. For the rest of the day, it would only take one easy pull and it would fire right up. I even anchored to fish in one spot for about an hour, and it just took one easy pull and fired right up with no problem. Once I got it fired up... I was able to get up to 15.5mph and planed out nicely so I think the sparkplugs helped there.
My two issues are these.
1. Why is it so hard to start the first time? Could I be flooding it out by priming it to much?
2. When I go from idle to WOT (either slow or fast), it sounds like it has a hesitation, almost like it is missing a random spark, then it will finally clear (about 10-20 seconds) and smooth out and run fine.
Any help with these two issues would be greatly appreciated.
