Henry Rifle Forums

Set out on my first boat trip of the year. Motor was iffy. Lasted about a half hour. Fortunately, was near the dock. Used trolling motor to get back. Merc seemed to be running hot. Checked it over, found nothing wrong. It fired up, and I decided to blow the cobwebs out of it. That lasted about 100 yards. Limped back to dock and pulled the boat out of the water.

I used my standard regular unleaded gas, but with a generic’2 stroke’ oil. Is this possibly my problem? This motor is amazingly reliable.

were you using fresh gas .. .. was the impeller working ..

Ethanol is a killer! Was it stored with stabilizer?

Stored empty. Fresh, regular gas. Dang it. Will do a carb clean tomorrow.

Cofisher wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:46 pm

Stored empty. Fresh, regular gas. Dang it. Will do a carb clean tomorrow.

Hopefully it will be an easy clean out! Get some high octane 100% gasoline, clean the plugs, and I bet you'll be good to go catch that keeper.
Good luck my friend!!

What year and HP is the motor? Did the flow from the tell tale appear to be normal?
My 175hp Merc Black Max had a high temp bypass valve that held water in the power head to raise the water temp high enough to
prevent plug fouling. The water temp would fall quickly when you ran the motor at operating speed. If that bypass valve got hung up
it would shut down the motor to protect it from over temp.

You could also have an issue with the fuel mixture in the carb. I'm always amazed how things seem to go to he!! when they aren't used.

Again...blame the fuel quality....ethanol!!!
Every internal combustion engine needs to be stored properly though.

Tell 'em Mark.
I've been guilty.

RP

Vaquero wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:23 pm

Tell 'em Mark.
I've been guilty.

RP

We all have and I include myself. Guess Ya gotta fail, to learn.
They just need to remove that crap from our fuel. Not as though they can't afford to do it; especially NOW!
No more ethanol, no more ethanol....and so on and so on!!!!!!

The Merc is a little one. 3.3 horse. I took it apart today. Cleaned the carb and tank/lines. Checked the spark plug, it looked like it ran hot. I regapped and put it back.

I know not to use ethanol. Not an issue. But, I may have mixed the oil incorrectly. I will get the approved oil and fresh gas. And try again.

Thanks for the help y’all. I’ll post when I get it going.