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86 enchanter stalling

S

SonnyCrockett78

New member
Hey I have a 86 Enchanter 350 I/O 260 hp, was running great since I bought it a month or two ago, now it stumbles like its running out of fuel. Changed the filter in quadrajet was dirty clogged up, seemed to help but as soon as temp came up started to stall, back out of throttle and it catches itself, thought it was fuel pump so changed that ran great but now doing same thing, checked the tank vent that's not clogged, no screen in tank supply, only other thing I can think to do is rebuild the carb, has anyone had this problem? Any ideas/fixes? Don't want to keep throwing money at this problem. Thanks!!
 
Check fuel pressure while engine is operating. Be careful when working on fuel system. You will have to plumb in a fuel pressure gauge near the carb. A steady pressure will indicate clear lines and a properly functioning pump. A low reading or falling reading as engine speed and/or load increases indicates an obstruction in the line or a faulty pump.
 
Have not checked the timing , I don't think it is timing could be but I don't know, it runs fine at first then starts acting up, it feels as if it runs out of fuel, the only thing I can think is the needle in the carb is screwed up and its running the bowl out of fuel at full throttle
 
Are you sure there isn't a screen in the fuel tank tube? We had a problem one time and the screen was lodged 1/2 up the tube and totally clogged. I'd totally disassemble the tube from the tank and blow some air through it to make sure nothing comes out.
 
Changing the lines, pump, and filters does not mean that the problem has been fixed or located. Troubleshooting is as much an art as a science. Read that as experience. Do not throw parts and money and time at your problem in a random manner. Check fuel pressure with a gauge to find out which direction your troubleshooting journey is going to take. Think about this one for a moment: The point setting in the distributor is less than it should be due to wear. This effects the timing. You advance the idle speed screw on the carb to compensate, thereby raising the throttle plates above the idle ports in the throttle bore causing you to adjust the idle mixture screws and so on until it wont run properly. Do not be this guy. Tune up in the proper order will be paramount to getting the optimum performance from your machine. I just repaired a Ranger truck recently. Client was seeing gear oil leaking from pinion seal and changed it twice and replaced the yoke thinking that the sealing surface was bad. I asked him if he had checked the breather for any obstructions. He stated in the affirmative. I removed the breather tube and cleaned all of the crap out of it and reinstalled it in a matter of minutes. He looked rather sheepish when he saw all of the debris come out. He swears up and down that he blew through it with compressed air. I spoke with him on a follow up call this afternoon. Guess what? No more leak.
 
SonnyCrockett78 said:
It has to be a fuel issue , it'll run fine and then just act up
Click to expand...

Sounds fuel related, but I wouldnt completely rule out the ignition system until I atleast checked spark when its acting up. The stock distributor pick up sensors (stud type or short wire lead type) are known to fail after heating up.

If you have access to a small portable fuel tank, sometimes its easier to fill it with FRESH gas and plumb to fuel pump...easy way to retest boat on water and eliminate any fuel tank, pickup, or bad gas problems. If you think its running out of fuel in carb, you can even have someone pump the primer bulb and see if it stays running. I use one at work all the time, comes in very handy in narrowing down the problem
 
Seems to be fixed guys, Jumbofordman was spot on with the clogged screen in the pickup tube from the tank, I had already pulled it and didn't see any screen, blew through it and seemed fine, double checked this morning screen was up towards the top of tube. Put air on it and cleaned this big chunk of crap out with a screwdriver, put it back together and put the boat in the water. Wow total different. Thanks for all the help, this is a great site with a wealth of info and knowledge. :thumb:
 
Yeah definitely a good thing to remember, could have saved me money, oh well got a brand new fuel pump and new lines out of it. I originally checked that first, then the water separator filter, then the carb filter. Didn't see the screen in the tube and air went through it put the screwdriver up there and tapped it on workbench and bam a big nasty chunk of whatever came out, blew through it again and could hear the difference. Probably why it ran then didn't.
 
To expand on our problem my buddy has a Baja Jet boat (late 70's 19' bowrider) with a 454. We ran it a few times when he first bought it, then finally one time we went out and it would only go to 3200 rpm, no matter what. Both of us being car mechanics, we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out why it just stopped revving up there. We, too, had already pulled the fuel pickup from the tank and didn't see any clogs. Finally, I insisted we pull it out again, and blew some air through it and a huge chunk of crap came out. Boat ran great from that point on (until we ate a piston)

One of my first cars had this problem, too. A 69 Bug, when I stuck a set of dual carbs on it all of a sudden it started running poorly. Blamed it on the carbs for a couple of months until someone told me about the filter that gets rusted up in the tank. Just pulled the filter off, car ran just fine.

Also someone gave me a Toyota Tercel because it would stall out after driving a mile or so. I pulled the tank, and there was some black gooey substance coating the fuel pipe. I removed it with acetone - no more problems. I drove the car for a year, then some girl ran into it, her insurance paid me $1200, and I sold the car unrepaired for another $300.

So the moral of this story is if you ever have a sudden power loss that seems unexplainable, check your fuel pipe in your tank. Next place to check is the carb for sediment in the bowl (on things with carbs, FI has largely eliminated this problem on cars.) It's generally pretty easy to determine fuel or ignition. Fuel problems cause sputters, or just limits power to a certain point. Ignition problems usually just cuts out suddenly.
 
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