Hey all,
I have a 95 Johnson Fast Strike 150HP (do not have model/serial # with me) and has been acting a little funky this year but especially the past few weeks. First of all, this entire season it has been a little harder to cold start than normal (with fishing more frequently as well) and is much smokier on start up as well. And even though I have been fishing more frequently, my oil consumption has seemingly been much higher than normal (already went through 6 gallons this season, normal year is 4 or so from March-November - I havent fished that much more than normal) which would coincide with the higher smoke and burning more oil.
The new issue is more recent and has been similar to the "heat soak" symptoms I have seen described here for years. It cold starts and accelerates normal and then runs fine on the initial trip but as the day progresses, it will crank right up every time but try to accelerate and it bogs down and kills. Try it 6-8 times in a row then will take off and run great. This issue has been sporadic as well. You can stop and fish 5 spots then on the 6th one, the symptoms flare up. Then you are good to go for a little while again. The primer bulb stays semi-firm and I have been able to get the boat to accelerate better when I have a buddy pump the bulb as I throttle up. When it starts having its issues, I have tried pushing the key primer in on acceleration and hasn't made much difference. I have also tried to high idle then take off and that hasn't helped tons either. Sometimes the motor does just bog down and die when I put it in gear also when it is having its fits - I don't even get to the throttle up part. So the symptoms sound somewhat like the common heat soak issue but not entirely (it does seem to happen on warm sunny days more but has been cloudy and cooler sometimes too). I have had this motor for 7 years and never experienced anything like this. I have not tried the idle adjustment yet that was recommended.
My only other thought (and agreement from a mechanic friend of mine) is that my VRO pump is finally giving up the ghost with the increased oil usage as well as the seemingly fuel delivery problems (especially with pumping the bulb while taking off and pushing more fuel into motor helping). I know the VRO is a combo oil/fuel pump and culprit of issues with these older motors but before I spend $400 on a new one and putting it in, I would like to get input from BBC if they think that this could be a logical thing and ways to find out if the VRO is the true root of the problem.
As far as other components on motor, water pump was replaced 2 years ago, carbs were replaced 3 years ago (fuel bulb and line replaced then too), stator/flywheel replaced last year (that one was expensive) and power packs last replaced last year too.
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Originally Posted by 316jughead
