Happy Fathers' Day all you fathers!
Today we had three generations on Weetamoe, the youngest being two and a half year old twins, and we thought we'd take a short motor tour to get them acclimated. The engine started and idled normally and all gauges, oil pressure, temperature and ammeter, reported normal conditions. After casting off, we cruised out of the mooring field at 1500 rpm and I increased rpm to 1900 after entering Salem Sound. 1900 is as high as our engine will go when forward is engaged. We have the Indigo prop on a Pearson 35.
Everything was totally normal until quite suddenly the engine almost quit, and probably would have quit, except I throttled back to 1000 rpm and it seemed then to run normally again. I increased engine speed slowly and again it almost quit. We turned around and went back to the mooring at 1000 rpm. I didn't think it wise to run the risk of needing assistance with the little ones aboard.
Back on the mooring, with the reversing gear in neutral, I slowly increased engine speed from idle, around 700 rpm, past 1000 rpm, and when approaching 1500 rpm it started to die again.
I am theorizing:
1. Fuel starvation from an unknown cause.
2. Air infiltration at higher rpm in an unknown location.
3. Failing electric fuel pump.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. We are planning a trip down east to Casco Bay the week after next and I probably won't have any time to do much myself between now and then. There's a guy in Marblehead with a lot of Atomic 4 experience that I probably will have to have make repairs, but this site always has a wealth of information and experience that may prove helpful to him if not to me.
Thanks.
Mark S
Today we had three generations on Weetamoe, the youngest being two and a half year old twins, and we thought we'd take a short motor tour to get them acclimated. The engine started and idled normally and all gauges, oil pressure, temperature and ammeter, reported normal conditions. After casting off, we cruised out of the mooring field at 1500 rpm and I increased rpm to 1900 after entering Salem Sound. 1900 is as high as our engine will go when forward is engaged. We have the Indigo prop on a Pearson 35.
Everything was totally normal until quite suddenly the engine almost quit, and probably would have quit, except I throttled back to 1000 rpm and it seemed then to run normally again. I increased engine speed slowly and again it almost quit. We turned around and went back to the mooring at 1000 rpm. I didn't think it wise to run the risk of needing assistance with the little ones aboard.
Back on the mooring, with the reversing gear in neutral, I slowly increased engine speed from idle, around 700 rpm, past 1000 rpm, and when approaching 1500 rpm it started to die again.
I am theorizing:
1. Fuel starvation from an unknown cause.
2. Air infiltration at higher rpm in an unknown location.
3. Failing electric fuel pump.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. We are planning a trip down east to Casco Bay the week after next and I probably won't have any time to do much myself between now and then. There's a guy in Marblehead with a lot of Atomic 4 experience that I probably will have to have make repairs, but this site always has a wealth of information and experience that may prove helpful to him if not to me.
Thanks.
Mark S
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