My 8hp Merc ran fine last week and will not crank this week!

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flatbottomman

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I'm so confused. My 2011 Mercury 8hp four stroke ran great last week. I took it out today, and it would not even act like it wants to crank. I did, however, have a few things happen between then and now that may, or may not, have caused this. First, earlier in the week, I pulled the boat out of the garage. I had the fuel tank vent closed, and I noticed gas was was running out of the foot. I looked and the gas tank had plumped up nicely. Today, when I put the boat in the water, the transmission was in forward, and I could not get it to shift into neutral. Because of this, it would not pull start. I had to manually rotate the prop by hand and then it shifted into neutral nicely. I checked that gas was flowing through the fuel line from the tank to engine, I also checked to make sure there was a spark. The engine seemed to have compression. The engine did not do anything to seem like it wanted to start.

Does anyone have any ideas?
 
Given that it ran fine last week and the fuel thing, I'd first check the oil level, a high level may indicate fuel has made its way into the crankcase if that's good, take the plugs out, disconnect the fuel and pull it over a bunch to clear any fuel that may have flooded the engine. Using the plugs in the wire caps, you can check the spark at this point by grounding against the engine and pull it over. Once the engine has had some fresh air run through it, replace plugs, connect fuel and try it out.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk
 
Weldorthemagnificent said:
Given that it ran fine last week and the fuel thing, I'd first check the oil level, a high level may indicate fuel has made its way into the crankcase if that's good, take the plugs out, disconnect the fuel and pull it over a bunch to clear any fuel that may have flooded the engine. Using the plugs in the wire caps, you can check the spark at this point by grounding against the engine and pull it over. Once the engine has had some fresh air run through it, replace plugs, connect fuel and try it out.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

X2. It sounds like it may be flooded with fuel.
 
I pulled the dipstick and oil/gas came squirting our. So yep, gas in oil. I drained the oil/gas, refilled it with fresh oil, and it cranked up on the first pull. I let it run for a few minutes and changed the oil again. I think we’re all good now.

Can Ijust leave the fuel tank vent open all the time to prevent this?
 
I do both. I leave the vent cracked open a bit and disconnect the hose from the engine.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk
 

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