Tuesday question! Boat edition

run higher octane and see if that stops it

How old is the fuel? What do the plugs like? Have you pulled plug wires to see if you have a dead cylinder or ignition issues?

Premium, non ethanol

Check for a dead cylinder if fuel is fresh enough.

1) Don't know, I'd have to ask him. He takes care of his shit so I assume he drained the tank after the last use of the year.

2) i didn't pull plugs last night

3) didn't pull plug wires either.

Boat ran fine when parked. I'll ask him these questions when he calls me back.

Fucker ain't answering his phone. I'll be back with more info shortly.

Randomly moving stuff or using tools to time it correctly? The OMC I just got says in the manual that it will diesel if it's timed for 93 and you run 89 or worse in it.

.

Mercruiser distributors are different than pretty much everything out there in that era. The timing needs to be set with the engine at or under 700 rpm. You set it at 8 degrees advance and tighten her down. The distributor advances thru the little brain box tied to it with I think 4 wires. There is no advance inside the distributor. It’s all done electronically thru the little box. If you have it idling above I think 750 rpm the box has already started to advance the timing.

Fuel is from a few months ago, with stabil in it.
Engine has 240hrs.
Compression test was done when he bought it, 1yr ago. Compression was good.
Plug wires look good, haven't looked at the plugs.

That's good to know. Thanks for the input.

By dieseling, what exactly do you mean. Around chere it means running after shutoff

It does around here to buddy, so yes.

Uncle found a couple loose wires. I asked, "to what?"
him: fuck if I know but it's good now! throwing a timing light on it now since we fucked with the distributor..

He says it shuts off fine, starts fine. All is good.

Thanks for the input dickbags!

I put an HEI on my Merc 4.3, 1/3 of the cost and got rid of that hassle.