Help on 135 Fitch RAM

[MTN]

Model # E135FPLSIF
Serial # G 04899677

I bought this boat about two months ago and this motor has run flawlessly until yesterday. I may have brought this on myself. I had a gallon of pre-mixed gas (32:1) that I needed to get rid of so I put it in my gas tank. I also put and 8 oz. bottle of Evinrude 2 Plus 4 Fuel Conditioner and topped off my fuel tank. I had the boat out Saturday and Sunday (I added this stuff to my tank Saturday night). The motor ran fine on Saturday and I started to run weird on Sunday. Sunday morning it started missing a little bit at full throttle but I didn’t notice any difference in power from before, but by Sunday afternoon I was missing quite a bit, would barely get on plane and lost about 15 mph on the top end. Did I screw something up by putting the premixed gas into the gas tank? I can’t see putting that little of premixed gas can make a difference (that makes the fuel in the tank about 1,152:1) Could I have gotten some bad gas? Could my spark plugs have gone bad from one day to the next? Please help with what this could possible be.

Could someone also run the history of this motor also?

Thank you,
MTN



Modified by MTN at 5:57 PM 7/11/2007

[RUSTY63]

Well, if all you did was add this fuel and oil and it started running bad I would think that may have caused the problem.

The only claim filed was for a Power Distribution Panel (PDP) on 10-24-01.

[Sportwin]

I would remove the spin-on fuel filter on the engine carefully and dump the contents into a clear glass jar for inspection. Let it sit for a bit and see what it turns into (i.e. nice fresh gas, gas with debris floating or 2 or more layers of liquids).
The 2+4 could've caused some crud in the fuel tank to turn loose and get trapped in the filter.
You'll need a new filter and gasket to replace the one you removed.

If you don't find anything there, you'll need to get it to a good Evinrude tech and have him test the fuel pressure (low and high psi). It's possible the lift pump diaphram has been damaged by the "fuel cocktail".

While it's in there, have him do a compression test, spark test and cylinder drop test.

[MTN]

I drained all of the fuel out of my tank, changed the fuel filter and the spark plugs. The motor is running as smooth as ever now but the problem is still not fixed. I’m starting to think it’s not the motor but something has happened to the boat. I noticed that the skeg is slightly bent, the bottom is about an 1/4â€? from being straight. I tried a new prop without any change. I also noticed that at full throttle and fully trimmed I’ve got a rooster tail that is probably 2’ above my motor when before I didn’t have a rooster tail at all. After seeing that I felt the motor and there is probably a little less that an inch of play if I lift it up and down. Is this normal?

Thanks you for reading such a lengthy post. Any help would really be appreciated. As you can probably already tell boats are a relatively new thing to me.

Thanks,
MTN

[RUSTY63]

Lets get back to the original problem... does the motor still miss?

[MTN]

Not that I can tell. Seems to be running very smoothly if that makes sense.

[RUSTY63]

If you damaged the original prop and you changed props there will most likely be some changes in the way the boat performs, as for the play when you lift up, this sounds normal.

[MTN]

The original prop was not damaged. I just changed props to make sure.

[MTN]

I have been running through the troubleshooting guide in my engine manual. I started the the ignition system. I checked the spark on all cylinders and it looks good. Next I checked the crankshaft position sensor and the manual says it should be between 350 and 450 ohms resistance. I am getting 150 ohms. Could this be my problem.

[RUSTY63]

If you have followed the Factory service manual and these are your test results, then yes, this could be your problem.

[MTN]

The manual(Clymer) says to "disconnect the orange and black wires from the engine harness connector". On my sensor it has white and black wires that are about six inches long then it connects to orange and black wires with a "quick connector". I tested it at the quick connect. Should I trace the wires back further to another connector or did I do this correctly.

Thanks for your patience.

[RUSTY63]

I would suggest you check the CPS at the connector closest to the CPS.

[MTN]

That's what I did.

Thanks for your help and patience John. Hopefully this will fix the problem and I wont bother you guys for a long while.

[RUSTY63]

No bother, we just try to help.

[MTN]

New CPS did not help. It actually tests @ 150 ohms also. Any other ideas of what to look for?

[RUSTY63]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RUSTY63 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would suggest you check the CPS at the connector closest to the CPS.</TD></TR></TABLE>

???????

[MTN]

If your asking if I checked the sensor at the connector closest to the CPS then, yes I did.

The only thing that I've figured out so far is that I'm not going to be the one to fix this motor, so I took it to the shop. they said it will be 10 days (OUCH) before they can look at it. I'll update as soon as I know anything.

[MTN]

I finally heard for the shop about a diagnosis for my motor. Apparently the fuel injector on cylinder #6 was stuck wide open. A new fuel injector is on order now. I also had the shop check how many hours are on the motor and there is only 35 hrs. on there now. I bought this boat from an estate sale and I could tell it wasn’t used much but I didn’t know it was that little, I’ve put about 25 of those hours on it myself. Hopefully I will be back on the water next week sometime.

I do have another question about the motor though. This motor is a 135. I’ve looked at the online parts catalogs and cannot find the difference between this motor and the 150hp or the 175hp. The one part that is not listed on the parts catalog is the computer. Is the computer the only difference in these motors? What would I have to do to up the horse power up to the 150 or 175 level?

TIA and sorry for such a long post.
MTN

[Bassmeister]

EPA regs won't let ya modify those engines.