You'll have to make that decision, but it's normally preferable to knock out all of those related maintenance items together, at the same time.
You'll have to make that decision, but it's normally preferable to knock out all of those related maintenance items together, at the same time.
Dual Mercury Master Technician- for Mercury Outboards, Mercruiser and Mercury Racing at European Marine in Greenville, SC.
Still consider myself a "Marine Apprentice" after 47 years (learn something new every day).
Mercury Parts, Mercury Outboards, Smartcraft & Accessories, Injector Service, TDR Reeds- BBC Sponsor
Update: I have finally gotten my MercMonitor installed so looking forward to getting out this week to mess around with it, I’m really curious what kind of water psi I’ll be getting with the new water pump. As far as the overheating goes, both times I noticed it happen in the past month involved a long stretch of high idle speeds getting through a busy cove. Is here a certain RPM I should keep the motor under when idling around or graphing not on plane? I’ve heard not to idle excessively, but how does this apply to graphing or trolling? Could it be that the engine is overheating by running at too high of an RPM from the extra load pushing water at 8mph without the added water psi from the boat being on plane? Related to the cooling issue, my girlfriend said she got to thinking, and wasn’t sure if she removed the exhaust bridge silicone dam when she replaced the pump, is this something worth dropping the lower unit again to remove the old silicone and add a new bead? Not sure if this could be related to the issue or not, or if it’s going to require yet another set of water pump gaskets just to resilicone.
As for the rough idle, the stalling had gotten significantly worse/more frequent as of late so I stopped taking it out until I get around to changing spark plugs, hopefully this week, I’ll be able to provide some pictures of the old plugs. The motor acts as if it’s idling too slow and then suddenly rpm’s drop low enough it dies. New filters (air and fuel) are on their way soon hopefully, and I’ll see where I’m at then. No codes so far on the Mercmonitor, but I haven’t attempted to actually start the motor yet.
It has come to my attention that per the Mercury owners manual, it is suggested to keep the motor trimmed high enough at idle speeds as to keep the exhaust/idle relief port out of the water. Could this be a source of my issue? I was never aware of this, so more often than not I have the motor trimmed completely down from idle up to planing speeds.
Running pushing water really hard generates a considerable amount of heat. Respectfully, this engine wasn't designed as a trolling motor or to be idling around for hours while graphing. We know you're going to do it, but you do need to keep it to a minimum, and make sure the engine sees a commensurate amount of on-plane RPM time.
8MPH is probably pushing hard... I'm not familar with trolling or graphing at that speed.
The idle relief port does need to be above the surface of the water for best running quality and holeshot. Preferably 1" above the surface.
Dual Mercury Master Technician- for Mercury Outboards, Mercruiser and Mercury Racing at European Marine in Greenville, SC.
Still consider myself a "Marine Apprentice" after 47 years (learn something new every day).
Mercury Parts, Mercury Outboards, Smartcraft & Accessories, Injector Service, TDR Reeds- BBC Sponsor
Got it, so I’m guessing the troll control of the Mercmonitor should be used sparingly if at all….8mph was maybe a little extreme, but do I need to be concerned about trolling with the engine in gear with no additional throttle? Often times when it’s real windy, I’ll troll into the wind with the motor in gear, and the trolling motor set on autopilot to keep the bow tracking straight. Would this be an issue? Normally its an hour or so of trolling followed by a 10 min WOT run to the next spot. I’ve fairly recently started trolling so this isn’t something I’ve done a lot of.
Granted I still consider myself very much a newbie, I always thought for best holeshot the motor needed to be trimmed completely down at take off? Could this be the source of my rough/slow idle and otherwise rough running when cold? In the 4 years I’ve owned the boat, if I’m not on plane or idling shallow enough I’m worried about grounding, I have my motor full down when putting around.
Maybe coincidental as it was also about the same time I started trolling more, but I swapped fuel cocktails from Quickleen and Stabil to Quickleen and Quickcare and it seems to have made it run rougher. I swapped cocktails by running the tank as low as I felt comfortable, then half full with ethanol free gas no additives, and when that was gone I started issuing the new mix.
Thanks!
Motor must be trimmed completely down all the way for holeshot.
Putting around trolling the motor should be leveled out, or up just a touch.
Troll Control is limited in how high or low it can adjust throttle. Biggest thing is not to push so much water that it's overcoming the cooling water supply at that specific speed. Most commonly notable if towing another boat or dragging a lot of fishing gear (trolling).
Make sure you're using 1oz per gallon of EACH (that differs from the instructions found on the Quickare bottle).
Dual Mercury Master Technician- for Mercury Outboards, Mercruiser and Mercury Racing at European Marine in Greenville, SC.
Still consider myself a "Marine Apprentice" after 47 years (learn something new every day).
Mercury Parts, Mercury Outboards, Smartcraft & Accessories, Injector Service, TDR Reeds- BBC Sponsor
As promised here are the pic of the spark plugs… should be in order from top to bottom. They all look about the same to me, except the bottom plug does have what looks like heat damage on the inner ceramic as can be seen on the other two. The top plug also had a little bit of gunk near the base of the arm. The threads seem excessively oily, is there anything I can use to clean this up? Is it even a concern in the first place or can I just screw in new plugs?
Looks like they posted out of order, as posted it goes middle, bottom, top.
Just want to clarify, is this really 1oz per gallon of fuel each or is it 1oz per 5 gallons of fuel each?Originally Posted by EuropeanAM
Don't know about Quickare as I don't use it but Quickstor and Quickleen are 1oz to 5gals.
_______
Phil
'09 Hewescraft ProV
'09 150 Optimax
Okay, I will increase the amount of additive to 1oz per 5 gal, I had been following the bottle directions which I think says 1oz per 10gal for quickare, and 1oz per 5 for quickleen. As far as the spark plugs, do they look normal? I don’t really know what I’m looking for so I’d be curious to know what to look out for. I’ve been holding out installing the new plugs until I know if the oily threads are a concern. Trying to be extra cautious here, I’m real tired of chasing my tail around trying to get this engine to run right so I want to make sure stuff is being done properly to eliminate any potential variables when troubleshooting.
Plugs look like normal patterns for a 3-cylinder Optimax.
Dual Mercury Master Technician- for Mercury Outboards, Mercruiser and Mercury Racing at European Marine in Greenville, SC.
Still consider myself a "Marine Apprentice" after 47 years (learn something new every day).
Mercury Parts, Mercury Outboards, Smartcraft & Accessories, Injector Service, TDR Reeds- BBC Sponsor
Okay, I’m going to just install the new plugs tonight then, should have some news tomorrow after I get back from the lake, I’m excited to mess with the Mercmonitor, hoping it’ll give me so insight into what’s going on.
Currently out on the water and the boat seems to be running rough as ever. Stalled probably 5-6 times trying to get off the trailer, and now 4 times after starting it back up to move spots. No alarms on the mercmonitor, watching the rpm it fluctuates between 500-700 and occasionally dropping in to the 400s and then dying. If it give it enough throttle to stay around 700, it runs just fine. I also noticed the cooling seems to be working fine, getting up to 138 and then stabilizing with 5 psi at idle. However, when I get on plane it drops to 90. Lake temp is 70, is this normal?
Yes.
What’s next as far as troubleshooting then? It seemed like it always idled fine after coming of plane, but it’s stalled multiple times every time I started it and really struggled to idle smoothly.
What did you gap the plugs to?
What is the fuel pressure?
Plugs gapped at .033, I haven’t measured fuel pressure, what is required to do that?
glycerin filled gages that cam measure 160 psi
.................................................. ...the scariest thing in life is the unknown ...................................
Something like this? https://www.harborfreight.com/230-ps...uge-64558.html
Im guessing I would also need this for the adapter hose. https://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-i...ter-58760.html
Why glycerin vs dry gauge? What’s the process for testing?
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