Hello All,
While motoring to port in a flat calm yesterday afternoon, I mentioned to my wife that the motor was "purring like a kitten"... You already know where this is going, or I wouldn't be posting. It wasn't 15 seconds later (I'm not kidding!) that she started to stumble and cough. I finessed the throttle for a few more seconds, and then she died. Before I get to my question, I have some more info to share. This same thing happened last week on the way out of the harbor. We sheeted in and sailed off, and didn't try the motor until 5 days later upon entering the harbor again, at which time it started on the first crank (the norm). Both times that this has happened the motor has been at operating temp (about 165), and had been running for 30-45 minutes without issue. This made me suspicious of the coil, which I swapped for a spare, but the issue persists. She has a fresh tune up (points, plugs, rotor, condenser), AND I rebuilt both the carb and fuel pump last summer. Yesterday after cranking for about 5 seconds without firing, I pulled a plug and expected to see some gas. Plug was dry. Hmmm. Shouldn't there be some gas on it? My sediment bowl was full of clean fuel. I have a water separator filter, but no inline fuel filter before the sediment bowl.
The ONLY change I can think of is the addition of 5 gallons of 10% ethanol gas to my tank, previously holding about 5 gallons of ethanol-free. This was about a week before the first incident. Apparently ethanol-free fuel is no longer available in our area...
Do you all have some ideas to help me resolve the issue, and could the new fuel possibly be the culprit. I wouldn't think so, but not sure.
If more info would help diagnose, ask away please! Thank you for looking! Regards, Rob
While motoring to port in a flat calm yesterday afternoon, I mentioned to my wife that the motor was "purring like a kitten"... You already know where this is going, or I wouldn't be posting. It wasn't 15 seconds later (I'm not kidding!) that she started to stumble and cough. I finessed the throttle for a few more seconds, and then she died. Before I get to my question, I have some more info to share. This same thing happened last week on the way out of the harbor. We sheeted in and sailed off, and didn't try the motor until 5 days later upon entering the harbor again, at which time it started on the first crank (the norm). Both times that this has happened the motor has been at operating temp (about 165), and had been running for 30-45 minutes without issue. This made me suspicious of the coil, which I swapped for a spare, but the issue persists. She has a fresh tune up (points, plugs, rotor, condenser), AND I rebuilt both the carb and fuel pump last summer. Yesterday after cranking for about 5 seconds without firing, I pulled a plug and expected to see some gas. Plug was dry. Hmmm. Shouldn't there be some gas on it? My sediment bowl was full of clean fuel. I have a water separator filter, but no inline fuel filter before the sediment bowl.
The ONLY change I can think of is the addition of 5 gallons of 10% ethanol gas to my tank, previously holding about 5 gallons of ethanol-free. This was about a week before the first incident. Apparently ethanol-free fuel is no longer available in our area...
Do you all have some ideas to help me resolve the issue, and could the new fuel possibly be the culprit. I wouldn't think so, but not sure.
If more info would help diagnose, ask away please! Thank you for looking! Regards, Rob
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