Greetings from Long Beach

[Sam]

Jim - you did not mention it and maybe you've done it you might be able to smooth out the engine a little more by a little more tuning of the timing. Tie the boat to the dock, loosen the distributor a bit, rev engine up to about cruising speed, about 1500 rpm or so and slightly rotate the distributor to increase rpm then back off just a little bit - lock down. After this then move downstream to the carb - jet, idle adj etc. Also, resting battery @ 12.43v is ok but not real healthy, ideal 12.65 +. Good luck

[Jim_G]

Hi Sam- yes, I did the power timing you describe. Also adjusted the idle mixture and found idle was strongest at only 1/2 turn out from the seat. Seems pretty lean based on manual which recommends 1 and 1/2 turn to start. But running great!

Thanks for the note.

[Jim_G]

Hi John- Took the flame arrestor off to check choke and looks like it’s working properly. After leaning out the mixture the choke seems to make a bigger difference than before with the idle. At previous mixture setting there wasn’t a difference in idle when choke was on or off. Anyway, I like the new setting.

Thanks!

[Dave Neptune]

Wrong, the idle adjustment screw adjusts AIR (not fuel) so the idle is no where close. At 1/2 turn out there is not enough "air" mixed into the fuel to burn clean and run smooth.
You have a gummed up idle passage. The idle should be around 1 1/2 turns to get enough air into the mix.
Should idle rock solid and smooth at 7/800 and 700 in gear at idle easily.

Dave Neptune

[Jim_G]

Hi Dave- so at 1/2 turn I’m running more rich (not lean) right? I had that thinking backward, thanks for straightening that out.

I have gaskets on the way and plan to take the carb apart and clean everything up along with new polishing filter and new hoses. Also changed water separator filter yesterday and added 5 gallons of gas with MMO added.

Next: clean inside of tank. Seems like this is a dirty fuel problem that surfaces when fuel is low and crap from bottom of the tank gets sucked into the system.

Anything else I’m missing?

[Dave Neptune]

Jim, when you have the carb apart use a fine wire like from a baggie tie stripped of the plastic coating. There are two idle ports that need to be poked and blown out thoroughly!! These ports are near the butterfly when the throttle is closed. One is just above the butterfly plate and the other is just below and they are very tiny and clog easily. The ports are cast and machined into the body of the carb which is soft material so no scraping!

Remove all of the jets and associated tubes carefully and blow out the passages after spraying and or soaking in carb or brake cleaner especially the idle circuit.
Also be very careful setting the float both at the right height and parallel to the carb body. I have found that setting the float lower in the bowl (about a 1/32~1/16 of an inch) to be advantages to idle and powered up.

When closing the carb halves take special care in sealing the "emulsion well" to the top of the carb body. This needs to be a good seal (no sealers and a fresh gasket) to control the air mix in the fuel when powered up. The idle circuit has its own well and jet and the mix is controlled by how much air is introduced by the idle adjusting screw. OPEN IS LEAN CLOSED IS RICH!

Dave Neptune

[Jim_G]

Fantastic! Thanks Dave. Great idea on the twist-ties- I was going to buy a set of wire probes for this but twist ties will work great. Ok, no scraping, thanks for the tip. On float setting, I don’t remember there being a setting so I’ll pay close attention to getting this set correctly. Thanks again for the great notes on this, feeling good! I’ll report back in a week of so.

[Dave Neptune]

No time now but I did post a very complete post describing proper float adjustment with 2 sets of needle nose pliers. You might look it up.

I think Sastanley has found it a few times, not my expertise.

Don't hesitate to ask of something your not sure of!!!

Dave Neptune

[roadnsky]

No time now but I did post a very complete post describing proper float adjustment with 2 sets of needle nose pliers. You might look it up.

I believe HERE is the thread of which Dave speaks.
I've also got the "cliff notes" version...

"When adjusting the float, err to the high side of the setting, which is a lower fuel level.

Hold the top half of the carb upside down with no gasket and the float installed, check the height with a scale (good ruler).
The factory setting is 1 5/32" to the bottom of the float, which is on top and resting against the needle which is resting on the seat.

Two things of import here...
1-Be sure the bottom of the float is parallel with the body (this controls the closing position of the float accurately) of the carb, or as close as possible.
2-When tweaking the tabs use a pair of needle nose or duckbill pliers.
DO NOT PUSH, PULL OR BEND the tabs by holding the float itself. Only hold the brass tabs.
Now you can bend the larger portion that attaches to the float for the parallel adjustment and the little tab that rests on the seat for the height.
This can be a bit frustrating so go slow and easy.
I suggest that if anything, you set the float a bit HIGH @ 1 3/16~1 5/32.

These adjustments are important to control the emulsion wells that mix air into the fuel to break it up! The factory adjustment specs are 1 5/32 +/_ 1/32" which is why you need it to be as parallel as possible. I run mine at 1 7/32 and like the way it performs."

[Jim_G]

Thanks Dave, I’ll research this the float adjustment technique.

Hi Roadnsky- great thread you referenced and thanks for the cliff notes. I’ll study this prior to disassembling the carb. Parts should arrive sometime next week so I’ll report back. Thanks!

[Jim_G]

Just a quick note to follow up on results with Carburetor clean up. Disassembled and general clean up and snaked jets and passages with small wire from twist tie. Everything looked pretty good still from 2018 rebuild. Also adjusted floats and set idle mixture and adjustable main jet to recommended MMI settings. Changed out polishing and water separating filters and new fuel lines. Reinstalled today and started on second try and ran pretty rough for a few minutes but then evened out and seems to run good. Just slight tweaks to idle mixture and main jet.

New alternator charging at 14.5 amps at 1800 rpms and volt meter showing same.

Thanks to everyone on this site, appreciate the help.