On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 19:06:52 -0700, "Nancy"
wrote:

I'm reposting the original post here as a reminder of what all I was having
happen. We finally found the cause of the problem after MUCH searching.

Things that've been done in order:
Replace fuel/water filter
Replace filter inside carborator
Replace the coil
Tune up the engine, (plugs, wires, distributer cap, rotor, set timing)
(change oil and filters)
Visually inspect the fuel pick-up tube. No holes, no corrosion, no leaks
when would blow into it.
Rebuild the Carborator (had about 1/2" of sludge inside it throughout)
After each of these things, the problem persisted. Each of them needed
doing (except perhaps the coil, but doesn't hurt to have an extra back up on
the boat anyway). We put the rebuilt carborator on this morning figuring
that would solve the problem, only to have it start back in with the exact
same symptoms as soon as we got underway.
So, we decided to check out the entire fuel system starting at the tank and
working forward. Swapped fuel lines on the engines so they were coming off
of the others pick-up tube. Ran out, and sure enough the problem moved to
the other engine. Pulled out the pick-up tube, and reinspected it, with no
visable deformities noted. Figured maybe to rule out a possible problem
inside the tank below the tube, we swapped the tubes and put the fuel lines
back on right...and again, the problem remained with the other engine. (the
engine that had always worked perfectly). Sooooo, we replaced the tube, and
the problem went away. After putting some leverage on the old tube, we
found that the "L" at the top of the tube seperated inside of the threads,
and that was where it was leaking air.

Soooo, after all of this, the problem was an air leak in the tube right
inside of the threads so you couldn't easily see it.

Thanks so much to all of you for your ideas and suggestions of things to
try. Just thought I'd post the final solution for anyone else who might run
into something similar in the future.

Much appreciated.


"Nancy" no-spam.ask.me.and.we.can.talk.com wrote in message
...
Hi all,

First I must apologize for my abrupt leaving a couple of weeks ago. I was
under a lot of stressors in life, and just let too many things get to me.

Now, onto the problem of my boat.

Boat is a 30' Sportcraft with twin 350 inboards.
Both engines start up and run perfectly with no problems. Have been out
salmon trolling all day (at idle speeds), come in and had no problems.
This
past weekend I went out on a long range tuna hunt. (got 24 albacore off of
the Oregon coast, but that's another story. :-) ) Boat ran great going
out, trolled at 6-9kts all day. On the way back in however, after a quick
refuel (carried 40 gal. of gas in cans), about 24 miles offshore, the
port
engine began cutting out and stalling. Ended up coming in on one leg
basically, with the port engine at idle speed only at best.

I figured the problem was some crap in the fuel filter, so changed that
out,
and a few days later went out and did a short 15-20 minute trial run to
test
it...problem seemingly solved, engine ran at full speed with no problems.

Yesterday, I take some friends back out to the tuna grounds (only got 21
fish, but were not out as long either :-D ). Both engines run perfectly,
troll a good portion of the day and running back in the port engine begins
cutting out again. I found that I could shut it down, let it sit for a
few
minutes running on just the starboard engine, and then restart it and it
would run for a minute or two again then stall out again. It acts like
it's
running out of gas. No sputtering, no smoke, not hot, just cuts out.

Both engines run off the same gas tank, the tank is built into the transom
and I've not visually inspected it yet (not sure I can get access to it
with
any ease at all). But if it were a problem with the gas, or the tank, it
should be in both engines I would think. If it were a problem with the
engine only when it's warm, I would think running it for even 30-40
minutes
at speed would get it warm enough to present the problem. I took it out
today on the water and it ran perfectly for about 45 minutes. The ONLY
thing I've done is gas it up yesterday when we got back into port.

I have no real clue what to check next. It SEEMS to present when the fuel
tank gets down to a certain level, but without running it all day, to run
it
down again, I have no real way to check that again...

Any ideas or suggestions of what to look for next? Carborator? Fuel
Pump?

Thanks much for any suggestions anyone could offer up.

Nancy



Thanks, Nancy. It's *always* good to know (learn).
noah

Courtesy of Lee Yeaton,
See the boats of rec.boats
www.TheBayGuide.com/rec.boats