Absolutely frustrated with this Mercruiser engine

JayhawkCurtis said:
Be completely honest with the prospective buyer about the problems you are having. I am a firm believer in karma, it will come back to bite you if you aren’t completely forthcoming.
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Without any intent whatsoever to add to the OPs heartburn, I do have to say that I am such a believer in that entire premise that as soon as I read this post, my first thought was "I wonder what he did earlier on that pre-destined this outcome with the current boat?"
 
As stated by myself and some other people but I have yet to read where it was checked the timing jumped one tooth, and yes it will run fine at low rpm's but won't develop power when you get up in rpm's.
 
While admitting I haven’t read every post so maybe i missed it but why not take that whole engine assembly, make a new fishing reef, get a long block with quadrajet? Get rid of all that ECM, injected, too much electrical whiz bang bullsht and get back to boating. (Get off my lawn).
Be a lot cheaper than the loss he will take selling.
I got a friend going through the same thing. 3rd summer, nobody can fix it. But some wanna keep that crap because they get 1/2 mile per gallon better mileage over a carb.
 
Pirate Lady said:
....
I got a friend going through the same thing. 3rd summer, nobody can fix it. But some wanna keep that crap because they get 1/2 mile per gallon better mileage over a carb.
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If that were only the case!! Seeing as the boat might only get 1/2 MPG on plane, getting ANOTHER 1/2MPG would be a pretty substantial improvement and worthy of all the extra work!!!

:D
 
km1125 said:
If that were only the case!! Seeing as the boat might only get 1/2 MPG on plane, getting ANOTHER 1/2MPG would be a pretty substantial improvement and worthy of all the extra work!!!

:D
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Really. 3 years of not being able to use the boat. Ya he saving a LOT of fuel with it sitting in slip going no where. Ya thats a substantial improvement. And the thousands he spent for nothing. Of course he way ahead on this game. Substantial improvement. Get real.
 
km1125 said:
If that were only the case!! Seeing as the boat might only get 1/2 MPG on plane, getting ANOTHER 1/2MPG would be a pretty substantial improvement and worthy of all the extra work!!! :D
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Hypothetically, in a parallel universe, that math as a stand alone premise, would indeed have merit. I doubt very much there is anybody here that would not endure a little grief in order to double their fuel mileage.

However, the OPs problem is that he is hitting a wall at 2k rpm that he can't get beyond. So in his reality being discussed here, the situation is that he can not even get on a plane to start with. I perceived Pirate Lady's comment geared more toward the usability of the boat, not a means of improving gas mileage.

While I was always a carb guy, I do have to admit that I AM liking NOT having a carb in the ER, especially when I look at all of the forced induction venting that Sea Ray didn't design into most of these mid sized hulls.
 
So, a few people are commenting or suggesting that I’d try to be dishonest to a prospective buyer about the boat. Like the person who sold it to me was. I missed the issues with it when I bought it and so did the surveyor I paid almost $1000 to so that he could find any faults I could have missed. I have kept every receipt and even logged all the expenses from this repair on an excel spreadsheet. I also have kept a detailed ships log that includes a section for maintenance where anytime I did any work I wrote it up in the book. Attached to this post you can see a copy of the form I use. All of this is being show and given to any buyer so they are well informed. It also wouldn’t take a genius to find this thread I’m sure. Additionally anyone who might be a prospective buyer will definitely get a sea trial.

For those who say certain tests should be really simple to rig something up. Your probably right and I guess I just lack that creativity. I’m tired and frustrated and just need to move on.

I am also at the end of what I can financially deal with right now and have had to pick up extra shifts just to keep food on the table because I invested way too much into this project. I don’t think it’s far from getting to run great but it’s just further than my reach.
 

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Hoplite808 said:
So, a few people are commenting or suggesting that I’d try to be dishonest to a prospective buyer about the boat. Like the person who sold it to me was. I missed the issues with it when I bought it and so did the surveyor I paid almost $1000 to so that he could find any faults I could have missed. I have kept every receipt and even logged all the expenses from this repair on an excel spreadsheet. I also have kept a detailed ships log that includes a section for maintenance where anytime I did any work I wrote it up in the book. Attached to this post you can see a copy of the form I use. All of this is being show and given to any buyer so they are well informed. It also wouldn’t take a genius to find this thread I’m sure. Additionally anyone who might be a prospective buyer will definitely get a sea trial.

For those who say certain tests should be really simple to rig something up. Your probably right and I guess I just lack that creativity. I’m tired and frustrated and just need to move on.

I am also at the end of what I can financially deal with right now and have had to pick up extra shifts just to keep food on the table because I invested way too much into this project. I don’t think it’s far from getting to run great but it’s just further than my reach.
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I feel so bad for you and your plight. I bought an older boat that had sat for over four years, and dropped many boat bucks and two years of work into it. The final frustration was many, many hours wasted trying to get the genset to run. I was to the point where I would have been content to burn it down to the waterline and start over, but the genset suddenly decided to run (???). I hope you're able to find a buyer with the ability to pick up and run with it.
 
Ok, so a mechanic friend of mine loaned me a noid light set and I remembered finally that I had these vacuum gauges from when I had a Yamaha motorcycle that need the four carburetors on it constantly synced so it would run right. I disconnected the vacuum line for the fuel pressure regulator which only caused the fuel pressure to go up slightly. Now if my friend will show up to help me for a bit I can try have him steer while I get readings from the gauges and watch the noid lights.

In this photo the engine is running at idle.

IMG_5731.jpeg
 
Hoplite808 said:
.... I disconnected the vacuum line for the fuel pressure regulator which only caused the fuel pressure to go up slightly.
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Well, that's a good sign that it actually changed.

It should have caused the pressure to go up about 6-7PSI when you disconnected it. You should leave it connected though, and just "T" into it to hook up your vacuum gauge. Otherwise the engine would be running pretty rich at low throttle settings.
 
The MAP pressure seems high for an idling engine. It’s already 1/2 way to barometric pressure. Mine is usually less than 10 Hgi when idling. You can try disconnecting the map sensor and let it run off of table values.
 
Scott215 said:
I don't think total timing would stop it from going over 2,000 RPM it wouldn't make any power but it should rev up past that advance just comes in to make the power curve at a higher RPM pulls it out for less detonation
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Years ago, when I worked on fork lifts for a living, we would retard the distributor while opening the throttle. It was a way of removing carbon from the combustion chamber. You would have the throttle wide open and the engine running barely above idle. Chunks of glowing carbon coming out the exhaust but definitely no where close to running anywhere near normal RPM's.
 
OP. If you can find the camshaft specs you could check cam timing without pulling the timing cover. It would require removal of the intake to measure when the lifter starts moving along with a degree wheel on the crankshaft or degree tape on it's circumference.
 
My friend was able to make it albeit quite late in the day. But I was able to determine several things. First, it’s time to throw away my vacuum gauges as they have sat for too long in the back of the tool box and no longer work right. Second, both injector banks fired throughout the entire throttle range and since my friend was driving I was able to take the flame arrestor off and spray some carb cleaner while at 100% throttle and in gear. It made no difference. Fuel pressure floated between 40-45 psi while running with the pressure regulator off and then maintained about 37 when I reconnected it. So whatever this is it’s not the fuel system.

I’m going to try one more thing since the yacht broker has basically told me that unless it’s running perfectly no one will spend a dime on it here. So I either fix it or I have to give it away. I’m going to try swapping out the cap, rotor, pick up coil, and ignition advance module. Maybe I got something defective from the Amazon parts I put into that during the rebuild. It’s the only thing left since fuel system is good and I’m sure the mechanical parts of the block are also good. Problem is shipping costs twice as much as the parts for the slowest cheapest shipping offered. Going to see if I can source it through west marine to come in with their shipment. Might take 4-6 weeks but it won’t cost me anything extra I think.
 
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