not starting after winter lay up

[ronsue42c@gmail.com]

New engine to me last year, ran fine, winterized with antifreeze. Been trying to start this spring for a couple weeks. Engine turning over, but just cranks. Water pump working as water out exhaust. Drained carb. & got clean gas. However, when I take boat cover off, I don't smell gas, like I did last year each time I used boat. New plugs & wires. Put multimeter on pos. & neg. of coil, turned key - showed about 4 volts & decreasing. Electronic ignition & coil are quite old. How do I check coil & distributor cap. Any other ideas?

[Mo]

1..First off: Should not be smelling gas in the boat when you open it... that needs to be sorted out, the source found and corrected. That's your first job.
Check all filter connections and seals, all joints and connections for gas...and of course the carb. Find out where that smell is coming from and ensure that boat is vented from fumes. ENSURE shut off valve on fuel line is open position.
2. turn off the intake water valve until you get it running. Once running open it right away.
3. Check for spark.
4. Check that choke works full swing of operation...closed to start.
5. If that checks out and it still won't start... it's time to pull the plugs and have a look. If you see a droplet on the plug that's water..at this point you would clean and dry and see point #6 before you reinstall them. Nice and wet, smelling like gas...that's good. Dry means no gas.
6. While you have the plug out put your thumb over the hole and have someone turn over the engine...it's a quick indication of compression. Your thumb should be popped as compressed air lifts it off...that should happen and you hear the air. Puff.
7. OK, you get it started and open the water intake valve....there should be no change in engine, no miss etc, no stalling. If the engine stalls after you open the water intake you need to pull the plugs 1by1 and check them again for water...if there is water on them at that point then the high suspicion is an exhaust manifold rupture...not so rare in cold climates where antifreeze didn't make it into the chambers.

FYI: not a common problem but it does happen occasionally: there can be a "quasie" smell of gas in the boat if the diaphragm has ruptured on a mechanical fuel pump. To check this pull the dipstick and smell...if there's a hint of gas smell on that dipstick, the oil is thin, and may or may not be an increase in oil level...usually the oil level will become more evident as the condition progresses. Just something to check. It can also cause hard to start conditions, no start conditions, and starving for fuel issues.

[Easy Rider]

If you've being cranking it over for a couple of weeks and you're getting water out the exhaust I'd be checking the oil to see if you've being accidently getting some back flow of water into the crankcase. Keep the water intake shut off until it starts. See Mo's point #2. Very important.

[ndutton]

Ronsue, the coil post marked negative is not a ground. It's where the wire from the distributor attaches that switches the coil on and off about 20 times per second at idle and roughly 70 times per second at cruising speed. Voltage measurements using that post are not helpful in diagnoses.

[ronsue42c@gmail.com]

Thanks for advice...will get back on it end of the week. (Had to clean carburetor & replace fuel line on lawn mower - isn't ethanol great! will now use non-ethanol in mower, just like Atomic 4) Just so you know, engine is in a 16' Dyer Glamour Girl on trailer, I am using water hose at intake strainer.

[Mo]

RE: water hose. You don't want to hook the hose up directly to the intake. Need to have the engine draw the water via the impeller and pump, not under pressure from the house. You may be pouring the hose into the strainer, that is OK, but not hooked directly to the engine.