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The boat hasbeen down and out for the last 10 days. Last Saturday I went to the lakeand backed the trailer into the water, started the boat and it fired up. It wasa little rough which was definitely not normal but this was a darn cold day inColorado. I revved it a little bit and it found a good strong idle. I backed it off the trailer and tied it off to the dock and shut it down. After about 15 minutes I came back to head out to ski and the boat would notstart. It has a normal crank with good voltage readings at the gauge. Ichecked the fuel pressure and show 39 psi at the rail. I checked the spark with a spark plug testerand have spark. I also pulled out a plugto smell for gasoline and have gasoline. The boat just will not start. Iwent home and swapped a few parts with spares to see if anything would get itto fire. Tried different coil, ignition module, drained the FCC and found nowater. I let it sit overnight and putthe battery charger on to get a full charge again. The next morning same thing. It turns over but will not start. I have fuel and spark why won’t this thingstart. I tried the WOT(wide openthrottle) start and no luck either. Atthis point I am really getting frustrated. No codes are showing on the systemeither. I decide to take it to amechanic. It sits for a couple of daysand he tries to get it to go with no luck. He thinks it is either the Ignition Module or ECM. So I buy yet another Ignition Module and runit over. He puts it in on the spot andstill won’t start. So has to be the ECMhe thinks. I ordered an ECM and itarrived today. That’s a littlefrustrating story as well. PCM sent me aused ECM that is the 290 model instead of the 300. I am not happy about paying $600 for a usedpart or for a PCM that has a known idle flare issue. But regardless I have to try it out. I put it in the boat thinking she’ll fireright up. Nothing, Nada, Dead as before.Well that was a waste of $600 for a used part that not only is wrong but didn’tfix my issue. Not to mention the $100 on the mechanic. I spent all day trying things checking wiresfor cuts, looking for ground issues, cleaning connectors. Finally I give up andcall a buddy and chat. We got talkingabout what the mechanic did and why he thought the ECM was at fault. Themechanic thought the injectors were getting turned on and then left on and thatis why he thought it was the ECM. Themotor is simply getting flooded. Neitherthe mechanic nor I can find a bad ground issue. The injector signal is prettybasic using only 3 wires and they go directly to the ECM 60 pin connector. I doknow the plugs are getting wet because I have tried way too many times to startthe engine with no go and pulled them to see how wet they were. So my buddy suggests taking out the injectorsto see if they are spraying all the time. So I pull the fuel injector rail on the 5-8 side of the engine. I go to crank the engine to watch for gasspraying out of the injectors. Theinjectors did spray but in short bursts about the same speed as the spark plugtester light. But get this the darn boatstarts with the entire rail pulled and all of the injectors out of cylinders5-8. So that was scary. I shut it downand now am stumped. What gremlins are inmy engine? I put it all backtogether. All same parts, originalECM. Nothing new. The darn boat fires up and starts just finenow. What the heck happened and how doesit start now?
Did I bang theIdle Air Controller around enough to maybe free it. Maybe it was stuck shut and wouldn’t let anyair in. But the WOT start attempts shouldhave worked around lack of air.
Did some darnwire just magically reconnect or break free from something it was stuck on?
Spark is tooweak? New coil, ignition module, distributor,coil wire, plugs are this season, cap and rotor are new. How the heck do you get weak spark with a newcoil, coil wire and plugs? Timing isdead on at 5 degrees BTC.
Heck I eventook apart the entire wiring harness after it started to look for shorts in thewires. I didn’t find any shorts or cutsin any of the housing today.
Good thing isthe boat is starting! Bad part is why isit now starting and how long before it just dies again?
** copy and paste from Word lost many of the spaces. Strange
Did I bang theIdle Air Controller around enough to maybe free it. Maybe it was stuck shut and wouldn’t let anyair in. But the WOT start attempts shouldhave worked around lack of air.
Did some darnwire just magically reconnect or break free from something it was stuck on?
Spark is tooweak? New coil, ignition module, distributor,coil wire, plugs are this season, cap and rotor are new. How the heck do you get weak spark with a newcoil, coil wire and plugs? Timing isdead on at 5 degrees BTC.
Heck I eventook apart the entire wiring harness after it started to look for shorts in thewires. I didn’t find any shorts or cutsin any of the housing today.
Good thing isthe boat is starting! Bad part is why isit now starting and how long before it just dies again?
** copy and paste from Word lost many of the spaces. Strange
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