I am the new owner of a ranger 29 sailboat with an Atomic 4 engine. First off, it has been expertly maintained it seems and everything from stem to stern is spotless. Including the engine. I am here for peace of mind though. My wife and I were on our first sailing venture into Corpus Christi bay by ourselves yesterday and as luck would have it the wind was way too strong and in our face for the return 20 mile trip to our slip, so we motored. In the choppy ship channel going into 20 knots of wind I was getting 4.5-5 knots so I probably shouldn't complain but as we turned into the intercoastal waterway and on the last 4 miles to home and it got calmer where I could better feel and hear the engine I can swear the RPM was dropping about 200 RPM maybe then it would come back up. It did it several times and I started getting concerned but it ran fine and got us home.
Temp stayed right on 160 the entire trip, oil pressure was about 25. I had fresh 93 octane in the tank which I made sure was clean of rust and water free before filling it. Oil was just changed with castrol 10w30, I know it's supposed to be 30 wt and I will fix that this week. I just adjusted the forward engagement on it and gave the turnbuckle a couple turns for a better reverse on the cable because it was not getting reverse on my first trip into our slip. That works perfect now. It has a folding 2 blade prop which was cleaned 6 weeks ago. No unusual vibrations or anything.
Sorry if I am being overly cautious or paranoid. I have an old farmall here on our farm too, a Super C, and the engine is very similar. When that one won't hold RPM I have a problem. I don't believe the A4 has a governor but it still worries me a bit. Should I check anything or could it be normal?
Oh, it has an electronic ignition of unknown brand so far. fuel water separator and is raw water cooled. It's original to the boat which is a 74 model. Previous owner only ran 2 gallons of fuel through it in the past year so it hasn't been used much at all in the past 7 years at least. Only records I can find on engine work is a new water pump and impeller about 10 years ago. Another new impeller last year too. And the electronic ignition and complete tune up about 3 months ago. That RPM dropping was just really weird. I don't have a tach though on the engine so maybe it was just the varrying load on it by the wind coming on and off as we passed all the little islands. I don't know.
Temp stayed right on 160 the entire trip, oil pressure was about 25. I had fresh 93 octane in the tank which I made sure was clean of rust and water free before filling it. Oil was just changed with castrol 10w30, I know it's supposed to be 30 wt and I will fix that this week. I just adjusted the forward engagement on it and gave the turnbuckle a couple turns for a better reverse on the cable because it was not getting reverse on my first trip into our slip. That works perfect now. It has a folding 2 blade prop which was cleaned 6 weeks ago. No unusual vibrations or anything.
Sorry if I am being overly cautious or paranoid. I have an old farmall here on our farm too, a Super C, and the engine is very similar. When that one won't hold RPM I have a problem. I don't believe the A4 has a governor but it still worries me a bit. Should I check anything or could it be normal?
Oh, it has an electronic ignition of unknown brand so far. fuel water separator and is raw water cooled. It's original to the boat which is a 74 model. Previous owner only ran 2 gallons of fuel through it in the past year so it hasn't been used much at all in the past 7 years at least. Only records I can find on engine work is a new water pump and impeller about 10 years ago. Another new impeller last year too. And the electronic ignition and complete tune up about 3 months ago. That RPM dropping was just really weird. I don't have a tach though on the engine so maybe it was just the varrying load on it by the wind coming on and off as we passed all the little islands. I don't know.
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