AR 230 H.O no start when hot

[euro_e30]

Motors started just fine on land, launched boat and ran great , drove for about 15-20 min then beached at the sand bar and hung out for 3 or so hrs when ready to start one motor started and the other wouldn’t start, would just crank over and smelt like fuel , got on the trailer and same issue on land wouldn’t start smelled like fuel. Pulled the plugs and they were soaked in fuel . Any ideas what may be causing this ? This is the second time this has happened

thanks in advance

 

[Acard7]

Change the spark plugs, whenever I have starting issues with my AR230 I swap plugs and that fixes it. I change my plugs every year after I burn off fogging oil from winterization, just my personal preference!

 

[David Martin]

You are on the right track.............wet plugs tells you Fuel injectors are working.....Just add spark and air and she will run. Spark is easy pull plugs..........disconnect fuel injector connectors...put in old plug in the coils and turn her over and make sure you have a good hot spark. Then put in a new plug and check spark difference. You do need to put a grounding wire on the plug to check spark.

Most of the times it's what Acard7 called out weak plugs and need new.

 

[Julian]

Fine advice so far. Lastly, if your fuel injectors are simply pumping in too much fuel, you may have a bad ECU. These do go on these older boats, and they flood the engine with gas, sometimes damaging the engine. I'd have to brush off my search skills to recall how you diagnose if it is the ECU....not sure YDS tells you or not.

 

[euro_e30]

Thanks for the input guys I always do fresh oil and plugs after I get her running for the season may be 5 hrs or so in the new plugs odd that they would foul already. New plugs are on there way I will swap them out.

@Julian if you are able to help diagnose that it is not the ecu that would be helpful (hopefully it’s just the plugs ! )

 

[zipper]

I know @Babin Farms recently had ecu issues he diagnosed and fixed.

 

[Babin Farms]

Do you have access to yds? You may be able to see if you’re getting spark and when the injectors are delivering fuel. If not and you think it’s the ECU I would swap with the other engine and see if it follows the ECU or stays with the engine. It’s not the easiest to swap out but it’ll be the best way to determine if the ECU is bad or not.

 

[euro_e30]

I don’t not have access to yds, I will see how the plugs play out otherwise I will swap the ecu if the plugs don’t fix it and go from there, wasn’t sure if you can just swap the ecu or if they were specific for each motor etc

 

[Beachbummer]

You may have a leaky injector vs Bad ECU. if it happens again, humble suggestion to troubleshoot...Open it Wide and crank for a few second (say 5) it won't start since the ECU won't fire at WOT but it will move air and hopefully clear your rich start condition if it's a leak, and allow it to start easier when you try again coming back from Wide Open to Idle.

When the ECU is stuck open with an injector generally the engine also runs poorly at lower RPMs and there's so much fuel it eventually makes it back to the oil sump and oil cooler. (hasn't happened to me yet, but I've followed some of the threads)

 

[Beachbummer]

There was another recent thread where the issue was a bad stator and pick up coil... as these engines age the board is seeing new issues here and there that were not as common, so decent troubleshooting is key as the engine age increases.

 

[euro_e30]

You may have a leaky injector vs Bad ECU. if it happens again, humble suggestion to troubleshoot...Open it Wide and crank for a few second (say 5) it won't start since the ECU won't fire at WOT but it will move air and hopefully clear your rich start condition if it's a leak, and allow it to start easier when you try again coming back from Wide Open to Idle.

When the ECU is stuck open with an injector generally the engine also runs poorly at lower RPMs and there's so much fuel it eventually makes it back to the oil sump and oil cooler. (hasn't happened to me yet, but I've followed some of the threads)

appreciate the input once i get it started it idles good at low so it may be a leaky injector, i will give it a shot, correct me if im wrong but in order to crank it in WOT you have to push in the black button on the side of the throttle and push the throttle down and then try to crank?

 

[Beachbummer]

that's right, that's how you bring the throttle up while keeping the reverse gate down, and the boat should still crank, as you are still in "neutral"

 

[euro_e30]

would it be more of an ecu prone issue if i pulled the plugs and all of the plugs were wet or that doesn't matter necessarily?

 

[euro_e30]

think my plan of attack will be to put new plugs in this wednesday, swap the ecu and take her out for a spin and i can then report back

 

[David Martin]

Read the plugs they will tell you how the engine is during. The great thing about twin engine is you have a proper running engine to compare. Keep it simple and pull the plugs list them in order and compare them to good engine.............they will tell you rich, lean, hot ect............also the plugs will show you electrode gap differences ect.

The differences or similarity of the plugs will lead you down the right path.....

 

[Beachbummer]

Don't swap the ECU until you try plugs first. It's not trivial to swap.

 

[euro_e30]

I was thinking about that will swap plugs tonight

 

[euro_e30]

Just threw in new plugs started right up , hooked it up to the hose so I could flush that motor out (never could do it yerterday) ran fine shut it off to go park it in my storage lot and went to start it once again and now it’s just cranks as if it’s flooding again. Pulled the new plugs and there soaked , also when I had it running for a few seconds before I turned the hose water on a lot of fuel came out of the exhaust

any ideas ?

 

[David Martin]

Check your oil..........is it over full and it might smell of fuel...........could send a sample to Johnstone lab to see how much fuel is in the oil ,,,,but more than likely you can smell a problem. Fuel injectors that are corroded at the needle valve will stream a lot of raw fuel into a cyl and wets the plugs. this fuel ends up in the oil and your exhaust sooner or later.

Had this in my own boat all injectors were vary rich with 2 plugs had wet fuel when pulled......easy fix.

Opps forgot to add this is a common problem with boats due to the long non use hours, fuel stabilizer helps a lot in storage but sometimes with age a 2005 she just needs a good injector cleaning.

 

[euro_e30]

Check your oil..........is it over full and it might smell of fuel...........could send a sample to Johnstone lab to see how much fuel is in the oil ,,,,but more than likely you can smell a problem. Fuel injectors that are corroded at the needle valve will stream a lot of raw fuel into a cyl and wets the plugs. this fuel ends up in the oil and your exhaust sooner or later.

Had this in my own boat all injectors were vary rich with 2 plugs had wet fuel when pulled......easy fix.

Opps forgot to add this is a common problem with boats due to the long non use hours, fuel stabilizer helps a lot in storage but sometimes with age a 2005 she just needs a good injector cleaning.

oil looked higher than the port motor and i believe i could smell fuel in it so i want to safe it definitely has fuel in it, did you clean your injectors your self? send them out, or purchase new ones if this was the issue for me?