New Boat Questions - The basics

[Sardinia306Canyon]

I’ll add five more gallons tomorrow to see if Incan get her to start for me.

I suggest you to disconnect the fuel hose/es ad run the engine from a portable tank to make sure you have good and clean fuel. Make also sure you don't have a fuel shutoff valve closed.

Honestly i would toss the old electronics, as ex owner added the Dragonfly the old depth sounder may not work.
Particularly old GPS and plotters have a very limited position accuracy and may loose continuously the Almanach what lead to very long start up sequences as the Almanach need to be downloaded from the Satellites to make the GPS system to work.
You may keep the DragonFly if you don't mind to have a - for fishing - rather limited depth sounder.
Chris

 

[FreedomCrawler]

I’ll search again today but didn’t see a fuel shutoff valve anywhere. I’ll confirm though.

I figured the electronics were old but figured it may be worth keeping them just to have something for now. If they work then at least it gives me a starting point. I really don’t even know what I would change them out to. I do know having a garmin with a touch screen that did maps would be great. However I do have an iPad that I assume I could mount up and do the exact same thing ?
Outside of that a solid fishfinder/depth gauge would be great but I’m only going to be in the bay. Figured I’d get the boat and trailer solid first and then go down the electronics path using this setup for now.

 

[DennisG01]

Freedom - as I mentioned above, repalce your impeller before doing anything. You don't know how long it's sat and if a vane breaks off, it can clog the cooling passageways and then you have to hours taking things apart to find it.

Do as Sardinia said - use a portable tank to run the engine for now. Do you get fuel spraying into the carb from the squirters when pumping the throttle (engine off)?

Morale of the story - don't rush to get the engine going until you do some preventative stuff or you might make things worse. Did you check the engine oil? Gear oil can wait a bit.

 

[FreedomCrawler]

Freedom - as I mentioned above, repalce your impeller before doing anything. You don't know how long it's sat and if a vane breaks off, it can clog the cooling passageways and then you have to hours taking things apart to find it.

Do as Sardinia said - use a portable tank to run the engine for now. Do you get fuel spraying into the carb from the squirters when pumping the throttle (engine off)?

Morale of the story - don't rush to get the engine going until you do some preventative stuff or you might make things worse. Did you check the engine oil? Gear oil can wait a bit.

Will do. Impeller is on top of my short list.

Ran through everything engine fluids wise and made sure it was good to go. Went to add more fuel and within a gallon is started flowing out of the vent tube and then out of where I was putting in gas. Which was extremely odd as the fuel tank was reading empty and sounded extremely hollow.

Did some quick research on vent lines being clogged and that being the issue so gently cycled some air through the vent line. It eventually pushed up the filler cap and I took the air off which allowed the gas to recede from where it was topped off at the filler. Put about a quarter gallon back in before it started to want to overflow again though.

Figured maybe cycling the engine again might help so I Double checked everything and one thing that kept throwing me off was lack of choke. So I checked everything again but this time gave it some throttle a few times to prime the engine like an old vehicle. Turned the key and it pretty much started immediately.

Ran for a good fifteen seconds or so but then died again. Checked the filler and the gas was still almost topped off.

So I’m not sure what the issue is but fuel will not go through the filler into the tank. It makes me think the vent line is the issue.
Just thinking out loud at this point:
- I pushed air through the vent line (extremely gently with a tire air pump) and it pushed through enough to make the filler neck fuel tip off.
- I can prime the engine with the throttle to give it fuel and it starts temporarily.
- Fuel will not continue to pump into the engine after it’s running for a bit.
- I can get it to start over and over again by giving it some throttle.
- Fuel is still topped off in the filler neck, it won’t go down into the fuel tank.

 

[FreedomCrawler]

Where the fuel is sitting at the filler neck. PSI while running. Sounds great and running smooth when it does. Just dies quickly. First instinct is usually fuel pump except that the fuel in the filler neck is making me think that’s not the issue

 

[DennisG01]

How do you know that the tank isn't full? Meaning, you need to physically verify it. A gas gauge is not realiable. Even if the vent was clogged, the fuel would bubble down into the tank - it would just take a few minutes. Fill tubes are not known to get clogged unless something foreign is in there.

Did you have the fill cap off during the trial starts/running?

Run it on a portable tank.

Run it on a portable tank.

Oh, did way say that already?

But, again, you're taking a chance with that impeller. Not one that I would take, but hey, it's your time and effort.

If you don't have the parts to change the impeller right now, just pop the drive off and stick a hose into the water port.

 

[FreedomCrawler]

How do you know that the tank isn't full? Meaning, you need to physically verify it. A gas gauge is not realiable. Even if the vent was clogged, the fuel would bubble down into the tank - it would just take a few minutes. Fill tubes are not known to get clogged unless something foreign is in there.

Did you have the fill cap off during the trial starts/running?

Run it on a portable tank.

Run it on a portable tank.

Oh, did way say that already?

But, again, you're taking a chance with that impeller. Not one that I would take, but hey, it's your time and effort.

If you don't have the parts to change the impeller right now, just pop the drive off and stick a hose into the water port.

Fill cap was off and on during the trial runs. I did it with both.

I don’t have a portable tank or that would have been my go to for troubleshooting. Working with what I have, understood completely there’s always better ways.

 

[DennisG01]

Ok, since the fill cap was off, that eliminates any venting issues as being the problem. This is assuming the gas tank is full, for now.

Borrow a tank - or get creative?

In lieu of that, siphon some gas from the bottom of the tank into a clear glass jar and let it set for a bit. This is to check fuel quality. Use the sender access - be ready for fuel spillage if the tank is full (or over filled as the case may be right now).

 

[FreedomCrawler]

Ok, since the fill cap was off, that eliminates any venting issues as being the problem. This is assuming the gas tank is full, for now.

Borrow a tank - or get creative?

In lieu of that, siphon some gas from the bottom of the tank into a clear glass jar and let it set for a bit. This is to check fuel quality. Use the sender access - be ready for fuel spillage if the tank is full (or over filled as the case may be right now).

I ended up calling it for the day. I can’t keep the boat at my place for more than a day or two hooked up to my truck thanks to the HOA. So brought it over from the boat yard with the plans to make sure it ran and run through it.
Took it back to the marina this afternoon.

To your point I want to get the impeller replaced. The last time I had it running for a few seconds I tried to confirm if it was spitting water back out and didn’t see anything. So I’m going to replace that first and most likely replace the fuel pump next.

I’m going to assume the gas tank is full as well at this point. Until I can confirm otherwise I’m leaning towards it being full as well.

West marine was less helpful than an autozone getting the right impeller earlier today so I’ll get that in order this week and the fuel pump. Even if the fuel pump is fine I figure swapping it out for peace of mind can’t hurt.

 

[DennisG01]

HOA's.... yuck.

West Marine? Wrong Marine....

Get the impeller "kit". You won't know if you need the housing/wear plates till you get in there - might as well start fresh rather than waiting on another shipping delay.

For reference... anything "Quicksilver" branded is the same as Mercruiser - it's just packaged differently since Mercruiser branded items are meant to only be sold at a certified shop. I own a shop - they are the exact same product.

Homework:

How do the bellows look? Google for these if you don't know what they are... they keep your boat from sinking (well, the exhaust bellows doesn't matter... but the shift and shaft bellows sure as heck do!)

You're probably going to need a fuel sender - but diagnose, first. Plenty of info on this site and the net about that - super easy.

How do the plugs and cap look?

 

[FreedomCrawler]

HOA's.... yuck.

West Marine? Wrong Marine....

Get the impeller "kit". You won't know if you need the housing/wear plates till you get in there - might as well start fresh rather than waiting on another shipping delay.

For reference... anything "Quicksilver" branded is the same as Mercruiser - it's just packaged differently since Mercruiser branded items are meant to only be sold at a certified shop. I own a shop - they are the exact same product.

Homework:

How do the bellows look? Google for these if you don't know what they are... they keep your boat from sinking (well, the exhaust bellows doesn't matter... but the shift and shaft bellows sure as heck do!)

You're probably going to need a fuel sender - but diagnose, first. Plenty of info on this site and the net about that - super easy.

How do the plugs and cap look?

Plugs, cap and rotor I was hoping to wait until I pulled it back out from storing for the winter. So for reference all I wanted to do was be able to use the boat a few times through November, just kind of test and tune and at least get it out on the water. Store it after that into the spring and do a full tune then. That way it’s fresh when I’m starting to use it vs tune up and store it for winter.

Figured doing a tune up after I pulled it back out was better than doing a tune up before it sits for months. That’s why I’m waiting to replace the batteries too. Was going to do batteries, tune up and such right when I pulled it out.

Over winter do research on electronics and fun stuff since it was just sitting.

Goal for next weekend is the impeller kit like you mentioned fuel pump/sender. See what happens after that and where I’m at.

Since I’m waiting this week anyways, also figured I’d bring up the trailer. When I hooked it up to my truck it was surprised to see it not linking up. So went underneath it to check it out. Looks like the front axle rotors hadn’t been used in a while and the rears were missing completely. So no trailer brakes. Good shit. That’s also in my over winter list as well. Looks like I’ll need to rebuild the fronts and source the rests.

It’s nice to be able to wrench a bit after us being stationed in Hawaii though. So I don’t mind that part, just prefer to wrench on modifications vs maintenance or broken items. Still a good time though.

 

[DennisG01]

What do you mean by "linking up"? Aren't they surge brakes? It would be EXTREMELY rare to see EOH brakes on this size trailer. How's the master cylinder?

The backing plate is there on the rear axle - but it's looking in pretty sad shape... is everything solid?

Does MD require brakes on both axles?