XR6 crank no start

[Spanky]

Looking for some suggestions or guidance. I have a 2004 Ranger 185 with a Merc 150 xr6. I hate to admit this,but the boat has been sitting since 2011. I got involved with baseball with my son and ended up being a coach, umpire and president of our youth baseball league as well as coaching in high school and travel ball.

I spent the last month bring the boat back to life by replacing the tires, batteries, brakes and actuator on the boat. As far as the engine, which has no more then 50 hours on it and looks brand new inside, here is what I have done: new NGK plugs, water pump rebuild, rebuild the fuel pump, drained the old gas, replaced all the fuel hoses and filters from the tank to the engine (which included a new water separating filter and Quicksilver primer bulb), rebuilt and cleaned the three carbs and checked the 3 fuses under the cowling.

I hooked the muffs up and turned the warter on to start it up, went thru the normal routine for a cold start - make sure the engine was level, turned the key to run and primed for 10 seconds, advanced the fast idle half way and tried to start it and got crank but not even a hint of starting. I tried for 15 minutes and gave up. Any thoughts or ideals of what to check?

[EuropeanAM]

2.5L models in the next forum down.

Lanyard switch in the RUN position?

[Spanky]

Switch is up in the RUN position.

[basscatcher12]

I have the same once, kinda tricky to start. First make sure you have the engine level, then pump the fuel bulb until it is completely hard. When you go to start it, push the key in a few times first, it gives it bursts of gas. Then just make sure you give it some throttle when starting, it should go.

[JOE54]

got spark ????? enrichner working hoses routed correctly, more info in v6 section sir

[EuropeanAM]

Basics: Compression, SPARK, and Fuel.

Make sure you have spark at the spark plugs.

[Spanky]

Update: this morning I started going thru the basics with the spark, fuel and compression test. I pulled the fuel line off after the fuel pump and inline filter just before it feed carb #1. I got good flow to the carbs. Next was the enricher valve. I can hear the click when activated with the key. I also took offthe top hose just to make sure it had a good supply from the bowl at carb #1 and it did. I took the bottom hose off to make sure it was flowing back into carbs 2 and 3. All was good there and the hose were hooked up correctly going to carb 2 then looping down ro carb 3.

Next I did a spark test by removing each plug and grounding it to the block. All 6 had good spark.

I have a buddy coming over Friday to do a compression test. I am not too concerned on that part being that the engine has very low hours on it. The only thing I can think of is the fuel isn’t getting to the cylinders. When I pulled the plugs and inspected them, I didn’t smell any gas on them.

[aarchdale]

On my dads once we lerned to push the key in for about 10 seconds it helped a ton.

[Spanky]

Problem solved. When I drianed the tank, apparently I didn’t get all of the 10 year old gas out of tank. I added 20 gallons of fresh gas and disconnected the fuel supply before the water pump and took out about 3 gallons of the nasty stuff until I got good looking gas. Let the gas settle and took a little bit more just to be sure.

Hooked the fuel lines back up and took off the carb bowl screws and primed the system until the bowls were clear of the bad gas and tried to start it. Fored right up on the first try. SMH

[EuropeanAM]

Problem solved. When I drianed the tank, apparently I didn’t get all of the 10 year old gas out of tank. I added 20 gallons of fresh gas and disconnected the fuel supply before the water pump and took out about 3 gallons of the nasty stuff until I got good looking gas. Let the gas settle and took a little bit more just to be sure.

Hooked the fuel lines back up and took off the carb bowl screws and primed the system until the bowls were clear of the bad gas and tried to start it. Fored right up on the first try. SMH

I'm just guessing you meant you removed the line before the fuel pump.

Keep in mind, the fuel supply line is not a suitable method for removing all of the contaminated/old gas from the tank. The pickup tube stands up from the bottom of the tank (often 3/4" or even slightly more). That remaining stuff in that dark corner of the tank is the nastiest of all.