[yellowfintuna83]

this boat was bought by my father in 1980, we have used up untill about 2005, at least 10 times a year. it has sat for all those three years because the engine would not start. this last fall i ripped out the whole interior(sp), so its just bare fiberglass and wood, the wood is in great condition for the age, and no cracks in the fiberglass. then i grabbed one of our old steel gass cans and cleaned it out, filled her up with good clean gas and oil, plugged her in and turned the key, and nothing. pulled off the hood, pulled spark plugs cleaned them and screwed them back in. turned the key and varooooom, there she goes. she fired up nice and loud for the nieghbors, put her in gear to see if she would shift, all good there too.

should i take it somewhere to have someone go through it and see if there is any other problems in the engine? cause i still have some work to do on it. i have to patch a tiny hole in the keel, and put in some vinyl flooring and seats.

 

[DBAppraiser]

Yellowfin, I would put new Champion plugs in, change the lower unit oil and install a new water pump impeller. Then throw a can of Seafoam in the tank and take it to a nearby lake and run it for an hour. If all goes well, then you are set. However, after sitting for 3 years it is a good bet that the carbs will need a rebuild.

 

[fishing bear]

I have heard that you need to replace the rubber fuel lines for the carburetor on older outboards. The new fuel additives will eat them up.
I don't know if this is true but you might check it out.

 

[OB-1]

Yellowfin, One of the topics we covered when I went through the factory repair school for Evinrude & Johnson was the effect of the new oxygenated fuels on outboards. One of the things that had to be done was replace the old fuel lines with new, also it was very common to have to rebuild the carbs as the old gaskets and the finish on the floats were not designed to tolerate the alcohol in the fuels. If the motor has been sitting for any length of time you should replace the water pump impeller if you have not done so yet. It probably wouldn't hurt to perform a "Sync and Lync" on the motor. This boils down to making sure that the carb linkages are all properly adjusted and that the motor is getting full spark advance.