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Trying to keep what could be a very long story from becoming one, an acquaintance bought a 1978 Columbia 8.3 sight unseen, from e-Bay. Because he doesn't know hardly anything about sailing and I am familiar with the Atomic 4 engine, he asked me to help him move it about 50 miles from where it was on the hard to the marina he was going to keep it in.
Well, let's just say the boat "needs work" and leave it at that. We ended up not going on our sail, but I did at least prove that the engine will run.
He had told me that he had cranked the engine, but it didn't start. It's been sitting on the hard for at least a year (and I'm theorizing it's likely been on the hard for several years). I told him a few days ago to buy a new set of plugs and told him what to buy.
Good thing I told him to buy new plugs, because it needed them.
I spent about two hours performing a differential diagnosis on the engine. It cranked just fine and seemed to have good compression, so I figured it was either spark or gas. Turned out to be both. I cleaned the points and took the secondary wire off the coil and held it near the block to check for spark, and it made a nice big fat spark, so I knew that was working. I swapped in the new plugs and when I shot some starting fluid in there, it made a little "VVRRROM!" and then died, so I figured, "OK, we've got spark; now I need to get the gas going.
I took the carb off and opened it up to find it had some thick, varnishy gas residue in the bowl and gunk here and there. If I had had the luxury of more time and proper facilities (like a well-lit workbench and a good assortment of tools), I'm sure I could have done a much better job of taking the carb completely apart and cleaning it all out. But as it was, I did what I could with what I had, down there in the dark and stinky engine compartment of the boat, on my hands and knees, sweating my brains out.
There is a brass cylindrical housing in the fuel line, mounted on a bulkhead inside the engine compartment - I'm assuming it's some kind of filter housing. I opened it up and found it had no filter element in it (probably is supposed to, guess) and discovered that it and the fuel line were absolutely bone dry. No way the electric fuel pump was going to be able to suck gas all the way from the tank, so I poured some gas right into that brass cylinder until it was completely full. I figured since it was above the level of the pump, if I could get some flowing down to the pump, it should be able to create enough suction to start the gas flowing.
I also carefully poured fresh gas into the carb bowl and reassembled the carb and hung it back on the engine, doing the best I could to keep the gas in the bowl. I figured I needed to get enough gas in there so that the engine would run at least a few seconds - long enough to get the oil pressure up enough to let the fuel pump kick on and start sucking gas down the line.
So he's up in the cockpit turning the key and I'm down there squirting ether into the intake trying to get it to start. Crank, crank, crank, POP! Backfire. Crank, crank, crank, crank, stumble, rumble, POP! Repeat.
We did that for quite a while and it kept getting closer and closer to trying to start.
I then opened up the spark plugs and squirted a little ether directly into each cylinder.
Then we went back to cranking and it went rumble, stumble, rumble, stumble, poppita, poppita, sputter sputter, POP! wabbida wabbida, POP! wabbida wabbida wabbida POP! sputter stumble rumble POP! wabbida wabbida wabbida wabbida wabbida VVVVVRRRRRROOOOOOOMMMMMMM whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr kachunkkachunkachunkachunka.....
And away she went!
We had some whoopin' and hollerin', because it was a hot day and I had been down there on my hands and knees, fretting and cursing, for 2 hours, as we cranked the engine and it sputtered and spit and kept sounding like it was juuuuuuust about to catch and start. Well finally, it did.
We let it run for probably an hour, and it sounded just like an A4 is supposed to sound.
BUT - it would run ok if you kept the throttle up, but it you tried to kick it down to a regular idle, it would eventually just conk out. Plus there's something going on with the reversing gear because shifting the lever either forward or back is much harder than it ought to be and neutral seemed nearly nonexistent. I really just did not have the time (nor the inclination) to start digging around with that nonsense.
When we nudged the lever into gear to pull it out of the slip, the engine conked out. No matter what we did, we just couldn't keep it running.
There's the "oh ha ha" funny bit of the story where we ended up adrift in the middle of the Susquehanna River (i.e., shipping channel where giant, stone-laden barges cruise back and forth) and after getting the engine to stumble to life four or five times and then die again, I finally made an executive decision and tossed the anchor out and called the marina to tow us back into the slip. Suffice to say I was freaking out. We were drifting totally helpless out there, and it's a big river with a lot of traffic.
Anyhow, I feel confident that the idling problem lies within the carburetor. I did what I could down inside the boat with the tools and time I had (heck, I figure I did pretty well just getting the engine to run at all).
But we ran out of day, and I told him he was going to need to go ahead and get the boatyard mechanic to spend the time to get it running properly. I sure didn't have the time to do it (I'm confident I could, given the time and property facilities, but - I didn't!).
Anyhow, it was a long, hot day, and we did a whole of other work on the boat, but I felt pretty good about actually getting the dormant engine fired up and running. I have no way of knowing how long it had sat dormant, but it clearly was at least a year, if not longer.
Well, let's just say the boat "needs work" and leave it at that. We ended up not going on our sail, but I did at least prove that the engine will run.
He had told me that he had cranked the engine, but it didn't start. It's been sitting on the hard for at least a year (and I'm theorizing it's likely been on the hard for several years). I told him a few days ago to buy a new set of plugs and told him what to buy.
Good thing I told him to buy new plugs, because it needed them.
I spent about two hours performing a differential diagnosis on the engine. It cranked just fine and seemed to have good compression, so I figured it was either spark or gas. Turned out to be both. I cleaned the points and took the secondary wire off the coil and held it near the block to check for spark, and it made a nice big fat spark, so I knew that was working. I swapped in the new plugs and when I shot some starting fluid in there, it made a little "VVRRROM!" and then died, so I figured, "OK, we've got spark; now I need to get the gas going.
I took the carb off and opened it up to find it had some thick, varnishy gas residue in the bowl and gunk here and there. If I had had the luxury of more time and proper facilities (like a well-lit workbench and a good assortment of tools), I'm sure I could have done a much better job of taking the carb completely apart and cleaning it all out. But as it was, I did what I could with what I had, down there in the dark and stinky engine compartment of the boat, on my hands and knees, sweating my brains out.
There is a brass cylindrical housing in the fuel line, mounted on a bulkhead inside the engine compartment - I'm assuming it's some kind of filter housing. I opened it up and found it had no filter element in it (probably is supposed to, guess) and discovered that it and the fuel line were absolutely bone dry. No way the electric fuel pump was going to be able to suck gas all the way from the tank, so I poured some gas right into that brass cylinder until it was completely full. I figured since it was above the level of the pump, if I could get some flowing down to the pump, it should be able to create enough suction to start the gas flowing.
I also carefully poured fresh gas into the carb bowl and reassembled the carb and hung it back on the engine, doing the best I could to keep the gas in the bowl. I figured I needed to get enough gas in there so that the engine would run at least a few seconds - long enough to get the oil pressure up enough to let the fuel pump kick on and start sucking gas down the line.
So he's up in the cockpit turning the key and I'm down there squirting ether into the intake trying to get it to start. Crank, crank, crank, POP! Backfire. Crank, crank, crank, crank, stumble, rumble, POP! Repeat.
We did that for quite a while and it kept getting closer and closer to trying to start.
I then opened up the spark plugs and squirted a little ether directly into each cylinder.
Then we went back to cranking and it went rumble, stumble, rumble, stumble, poppita, poppita, sputter sputter, POP! wabbida wabbida, POP! wabbida wabbida wabbida POP! sputter stumble rumble POP! wabbida wabbida wabbida wabbida wabbida VVVVVRRRRRROOOOOOOMMMMMMM whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr kachunkkachunkachunkachunka.....
And away she went!
We had some whoopin' and hollerin', because it was a hot day and I had been down there on my hands and knees, fretting and cursing, for 2 hours, as we cranked the engine and it sputtered and spit and kept sounding like it was juuuuuuust about to catch and start. Well finally, it did.
We let it run for probably an hour, and it sounded just like an A4 is supposed to sound.
BUT - it would run ok if you kept the throttle up, but it you tried to kick it down to a regular idle, it would eventually just conk out. Plus there's something going on with the reversing gear because shifting the lever either forward or back is much harder than it ought to be and neutral seemed nearly nonexistent. I really just did not have the time (nor the inclination) to start digging around with that nonsense.
When we nudged the lever into gear to pull it out of the slip, the engine conked out. No matter what we did, we just couldn't keep it running.
There's the "oh ha ha" funny bit of the story where we ended up adrift in the middle of the Susquehanna River (i.e., shipping channel where giant, stone-laden barges cruise back and forth) and after getting the engine to stumble to life four or five times and then die again, I finally made an executive decision and tossed the anchor out and called the marina to tow us back into the slip. Suffice to say I was freaking out. We were drifting totally helpless out there, and it's a big river with a lot of traffic.
Anyhow, I feel confident that the idling problem lies within the carburetor. I did what I could down inside the boat with the tools and time I had (heck, I figure I did pretty well just getting the engine to run at all).
But we ran out of day, and I told him he was going to need to go ahead and get the boatyard mechanic to spend the time to get it running properly. I sure didn't have the time to do it (I'm confident I could, given the time and property facilities, but - I didn't!).
Anyhow, it was a long, hot day, and we did a whole of other work on the boat, but I felt pretty good about actually getting the dormant engine fired up and running. I have no way of knowing how long it had sat dormant, but it clearly was at least a year, if not longer.
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