In 04 I had to have my 1999 Johnson 150HP carbonated engine rebuilt. The job the engine shop did was flawless and the engine ran better than ever. After the break in time I took it back for the check up and it was just great. I live in San Antonio, Texas and the boat was in Palmetto, Fl. My wife and I try to get down about once a month and fish on the Manatee River for Snook. I may have put about 50 hours on the rebuilt on the next 18 months. We decided to bring the boat back to San Antonio in June 07. I did not get any time to use the boat and would try to put the water ears on about once ever 2-3 months and run the engine. Now here is my problem - last month (March 08) I took the cowling off the engine and noticed that the what I guess is the #6 spark plug wire was off the plug (looking at the rear of the engine it was the bottom right) thinking I had maybe knocked the wire off when removing the cowling I replace the the wire but could not figure out why the wire was not on and kept wondering how long had it been off. I have a buyer for the boat and decided to take to the lake yesterday and just check all the systems. While warming the engine still on the trailer I noticed a considerable amount of oil spots floating on the water behind the boat - the engine seemed to be running ok just a lot of smoke. I decided not to launch the boat and take it to a dealer, of which I did yesterday.

Now after all the pondering over the spark plug wire I have decided that back in July 04 after the break in the shop failed to put this wire on after they completed the compression check and I put the additional hours (about 50) on the engine with it firing only on 5 pistons. Can anyone tell me if the oil and smoke was only coming from the #6 where is has been build up from not have any spark and is the engine pretty much toast.

Bottom line no matter how good the shop is I will always have them pull the cowling and go over with me the items they worked on - had I have done this we would have seen the spark plug wire off at this time.

Thanks
Charlie