Engine trouble

[Michael Lyons]

I have a 1995, Nitro-160TF Rick clunn Edition with a Mercury 3 cylinder, carbed, 60 HP engine.



Since Xmas I have overhauled the carb's by removing and completely rebuilding them, removed gas tank from boat and replaced all hoses. Removed the tank hardware and cleaned and replaced what I felt needed it. Ran the equal of "gumout" three times through the tank prior to reassembling the tank.



2 weeks ago the boat was placed in the water and except for running a little rough for about 10 minutes, it straightend out and ran just fine the rest of the day. This trip was a maintenance cruise with a little fishing.



Yesterday, It was very difficult to keep running when cold. It would start up after choking it, then sounded like it starved out. I had pumped up the bulb prior to launch. It took a couple minutes of slowly advancing the throttle to keep it running. After a few minutes, it ran fine, WOT ran at top speed without a problem, slowed down, trolled with the engine for a little while, NO problem. Used the trolling moter and then tried to run the big motor, same as when first placed in the water, ran rough, "coughed" a couple times, warmed up then ran fine. I did adjust the carbs idle mixture as explained in the Mercury manual after it warmed up prior to the first test this year.



I am slightly confused on what to look for>



I plan on attempting re-adjusting the carbs at idle again. did like the manual says the first time..



Has anyone else had a similar type engine act this way?? And what do you do to fix it??



Thanks for any help or advice,



Michael

 

[mike chip]

hey mike,

i have a 1996 merc 60 and when it had a simialar condition i ran a can of bg44k through the tank and once a year after that and it has never returned. I think in my case it was carbon build up. bg44k is kind of expensive ($20) But it might do the trick.

mike

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Also,

Would check the fuel pump diaphram to make sure it does not have a hole in it. My last boat had the same sort of problem and it was the combo of the carbs and the pump.



Carlos

 

[Bruce Freeman]

My 1988 60hp does not like to run when cold, but once you get it running it is great all day long. You may want to replace the primer bulb. I had to 2 years ago because it was looseing the prime and the engine would stall and cough and spit (I could get it to smooth out by holding the key in choke mode for short periods of time) Good Luck

BF

P.S Did you remember to check/set your float level?