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99 Ficht 225 loosing power
Pro-Line 2950
Twin 1999 Evinrude Ficht 225 ~ 1,000 hours each
Had faulty oil pump at end of 2013 season.
Oil pump changed before splashing.
MMU comuter replaced 2 years ago
Flowscan installed.
Splashed on Saturday
Starting of motor was a little rough, took a little throttle in neutral to get all the cylinders fired up. This is not unusual though. Nice idle after that.
Cruised down the river to open water (about 10 minutes) at almost idle, 5 MPH ish. Everything was fine.
When leaving no wake zone, upon throttling up, the engine began to sputter, buck and show lower RPM. I could feel the engine was running very rough.
Max attainable RPM 2,200. At full throttle really stalled and bucked. RMP and power jumping up and down. According to flow scan reading, engine wouldn't go over 4 gph.
Tanks were very empty over the winter (30 gal in each 150 gal tank)
Returned to harbor and added 50 gal of fresh (89 octane) gas to each tank.
Gas didn't change anything.
Replaced the racor 10m filter for the broken motor. Didn't see any water but tried a new filter anyway. No improvement.
Decide it still might be gas so traveled to my marina across the harbor.
Along the way I determined that the engine started running better, got it up closer to 3,500 RPM. If I opened the throttle wide it generally exhibited the bad behavior but if I set the throttle to a mid position and played with it, the motor would run smoothly, albeit at a much reduced power and RPM. If I pulled the throttle back to idle for a minute or so and then opened it up, the RPM and power would jump to normal for about 1 second then drop back to 2,200-3,300
2 days later, feeling (perhaps hoping) it is still a fuel problem I replace the flowscan sensor with a known working one suspecting a possible clog. No improvement.
Switched the fuel tank for the bad motor to the other tank (I have 2 150 gal tanks with a cut-over switch). The switch operates on the tank side of the fuel filter/separator and flowscan sensor.
Seemed to improve a bit or it just could have been from running the engine for 30 minutes. Eventually got it up to doing 4,000 RPM. Ran pretty smooth but that was at WOT (normally that would be 5,500 - 6,000 RPM).
Coming back to the dock the motor began to shut off and needed a restart at headway speed several times.
Things still to try:
Swapping gas lines between motors (this would be on the engine side of the filter / flowscan).
Could try with a 6 gal external tank.
Could perhaps should replace internal fuel filter in the engine.
Could it be an air hole in the gas line between the engine and where I swapped lines? How do you test for that? Pump the bulb primer and look for gas?
Could it be the fuel pump? What are the symptoms and how do you test? If it's not too too major a project is it worth switching fuel pump with my good engine to see if problem moves?
Could it be the dreaded computer causing this problem?
Any of this sound like I might have powerhead problems? Doesn't sound like the last time I blew one but should I do a compression test?
What other thoughts do you have?
Thanks!
Capt. Dave
Twin 1999 Evinrude Ficht 225 ~ 1,000 hours each
Had faulty oil pump at end of 2013 season.
Oil pump changed before splashing.
MMU comuter replaced 2 years ago
Flowscan installed.
Splashed on Saturday
Starting of motor was a little rough, took a little throttle in neutral to get all the cylinders fired up. This is not unusual though. Nice idle after that.
Cruised down the river to open water (about 10 minutes) at almost idle, 5 MPH ish. Everything was fine.
When leaving no wake zone, upon throttling up, the engine began to sputter, buck and show lower RPM. I could feel the engine was running very rough.
Max attainable RPM 2,200. At full throttle really stalled and bucked. RMP and power jumping up and down. According to flow scan reading, engine wouldn't go over 4 gph.
Tanks were very empty over the winter (30 gal in each 150 gal tank)
Returned to harbor and added 50 gal of fresh (89 octane) gas to each tank.
Gas didn't change anything.
Replaced the racor 10m filter for the broken motor. Didn't see any water but tried a new filter anyway. No improvement.
Decide it still might be gas so traveled to my marina across the harbor.
Along the way I determined that the engine started running better, got it up closer to 3,500 RPM. If I opened the throttle wide it generally exhibited the bad behavior but if I set the throttle to a mid position and played with it, the motor would run smoothly, albeit at a much reduced power and RPM. If I pulled the throttle back to idle for a minute or so and then opened it up, the RPM and power would jump to normal for about 1 second then drop back to 2,200-3,300
2 days later, feeling (perhaps hoping) it is still a fuel problem I replace the flowscan sensor with a known working one suspecting a possible clog. No improvement.
Switched the fuel tank for the bad motor to the other tank (I have 2 150 gal tanks with a cut-over switch). The switch operates on the tank side of the fuel filter/separator and flowscan sensor.
Seemed to improve a bit or it just could have been from running the engine for 30 minutes. Eventually got it up to doing 4,000 RPM. Ran pretty smooth but that was at WOT (normally that would be 5,500 - 6,000 RPM).
Coming back to the dock the motor began to shut off and needed a restart at headway speed several times.
Things still to try:
Swapping gas lines between motors (this would be on the engine side of the filter / flowscan).
Could try with a 6 gal external tank.
Could perhaps should replace internal fuel filter in the engine.
Could it be an air hole in the gas line between the engine and where I swapped lines? How do you test for that? Pump the bulb primer and look for gas?
Could it be the fuel pump? What are the symptoms and how do you test? If it's not too too major a project is it worth switching fuel pump with my good engine to see if problem moves?
Could it be the dreaded computer causing this problem?
Any of this sound like I might have powerhead problems? Doesn't sound like the last time I blew one but should I do a compression test?
What other thoughts do you have?
Thanks!
Capt. Dave
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