No Thermostat Action II

[mike7a10]

Good News/Bad News. Repulled the thermostat and found it to be the original Holley. It was stuck in the thermostat housing pretty good and once removed I found it was clogged with (I think) old plant material. Once reseated and after replacing the output hose, the engine ran great and the engine warmed up nicely. (That's the good news.) Interestingly, I have been hearing a ticking in the motor and I believe that the thermostat has been partially clogged since I bought my boat about 6 months ago. Now that the engine is warming up as it is supposed to, I don't hear the ticking and I believe that the cool engine temp was causing valves to click, etc.

Now however, (the bad news) the engine (for the first time ever) conked out on me in reverse while backing out of the slip (twice & heart stopping)and then after running for a while to test the repair, it conked out again when I quickly pulled back on the throttle in forward. It started up immediately each time. It seems that if I move the throttle slowly it doesn't conk out... If the throttle is moved quickly it dies.

I think the guy I bought my boat from had not fixed the cool engine problem and probably adjusted the carburetor settings for the cool engine. I am going to adjust the set screw (needle valve) a bit to see if that helps. The only problem is when it is in neutral warming up it runs great at 800 rpm and no sputtering, etc. So does anyone have a suggestion as to how to check for lean/rich settings at the dock with the engine running or is this something that I will have to experiment with over time. That seems a bit goofy. Also, does this sound like a lean setting or rich setting issue to anyone? Any info anyone may have would be appreciated.

[Bill Bickley]

Your symptoms do sound like the fuel mixture is a bit too lean. Sometimes a very lean idle mixture can result in an engine faltering when the throttle is brought too quickly to idle or accelerated too quickly out of idle. You might try turning the idle mixture adjustment on top of the carburetor inward (clockwise) an arbitrary half-turn to see if you notice any improvement.

You might also try pulling the choke about halfway out to see if the situation improves. If it does, you will have confirmed a lean mixture.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[mike7a10]

Thanks Bill. I will try the choke suggestion to see if that helps. If so, I will adjust the carburetor accordingly. Probably can't do that until this weekend. Thanks again! Mike