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Old 09-12-2018, 10:26 AM
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TomG TomG is offline
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A couple things to offer:

If you have water in the oil, that's no bueno. As Neil said, a pressure check of cooling system is really important since the previous winter layup is of dubious quality. There are numerous threads on the subject and it's rather easy to accomplish (the hard part is really access to the engine). Water could also be coming in from the exhaust. It looks like you have very little drop in the water entry point into the dry section of the exhaust. If the shaft seals are worn in the water pump, water can get from there as well. Without a proper winter layup especially if you are in a colder climate, you really need to check the integrity of the cooling system. And that gate valve gives me the heebie-jeebies.

If the carb fuel bowl was gnarly, cleaning the carb is well-advised. The ports and passages are very tiny and easily clogged if the fuel gets contaminated. You mentioned fuel dripping. Dripping fuel is more no bueno than milky oil. If the fuel was pretty bad in the bowl, it could be the float valve is clogged, dirty, not seating, degraded and this is where the leak is coming from. It could be a bad gasket or even the drain plug could be leaking. This simply has to be fixed before cranking the engine. Having resurrected my A-4 from dormancy, I would highly recommend removing and rebuilding the carb. It's actually a rather enjoyable zen-like experience and can be done away from the boat. MMI sells the rebuild kit with instructions.

Fuel. If the boat has sat for a while, take a close look at the fuel system and fuel tank condition and quality of the fuel.

These little A-4s are marvelous little engines and can weather a lot of abuse. They do insist on a few things - good spark, good compression, and good fuel. A serious fuel filtering system will pay handsome dividends. I use a Racor water/fuel seperator filter prior to the fuel pump and a polishing filter prior to the carb.

You are inheriting all the previous maintenance done and not done. Given what you've shared, my first action before any other is checking the cooling system. If that passes the test, then I'd try to figure out where the water is coming from. After that, I would rebuild the carb and check the fuel system.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.
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