What now?

jasoncooperpcola

jasoncooperpcola

God
I got my V back from the shop yesterday, and acccording to the mechanic repairs would cost around $800 at least. He said that my 1983 Johnson VRO 150 has no more than 75 lbs compression in any cylinder., the lower unit has water in it, so that would have to be repaired. We are fishing a kingfish tournament in September. So i have three or four options. 1st is a new motor. He said he could sell me a new E-Tec for a TOTAL of $11,750 AFTER rigging, controls, harnesses, oil tank, oil, etc. Thats a savings of $3000 compared to what I was quoted last! My second option is to try to make through the tournament with the current motor. He said i'd have to change the lower unit oil everytime i go out to be on the safe side and hopefully we'll win some money (or a new boat ;D ). And my last option is to sell my V-20 and use the money from it to get a lower unit for my 250 Sportsman. So what do yall think is best?
 
Well first thing I would try to do is a decarb, Carboned up motors will give low compression, and I don't know how much you trust you guy but I have seen & heard of more then a few motors get change for something simple as a decarb!

2nd when was the last time you change the lower unit oil? And did you replace the washers on the drain screws?
I didn't one time and got water in the lower unit.

Could be simple?? But if you can stop the lower unit from leaking then nurse the motor you might make it thur.

Skools is are in house OMC guy here, if he doesn't show here soon PM him and see what he says.
 
that's a really old cross flow motor most likely worn out either buy a good used newer motor, does your motor have the red plug inside for the controls? if so you can run any Johnson /Evinrude up to 1996with no adapter but can run the newer ones up to 2001 with the adapter. that will save you alot of money without needing controls.
 
Do the foot thing with seals and lube.
If done incorrectly the compression test will be way off.
Do you trust your mechanic?
If it were me, I'd relube the foot, see how the motor acts and use it based on performance and poor mouth to the mechanic that you plan to refit as soon as you get the money.
 
My Merc 150 tested low and un even on a compression check by the certified tech, brought it home, my 75 year old fisherman/boat experienced buddy brought over some stuff to decard the engine like MJ says and we did a job on the engine.
So much in there I white fogged my whole neighborhood for half an hour. When all was said and done compression was back up to close to normal, a little lower than a stock fresh engine would be. Ran like a monster after that because we also cleaned out the carbs while we were at it.
Also there are thousands of engines out there that run every year with low compression as they age. The big problem is if you have 1or 2 cylinders that are real low. So low compression should not be keeping you from the water.
The lower unit has water in it. Could be as others have said and someone did not replace the washers on the drain and fill screws, or they replaced just one(like happened to mine) or they over tightened one or both and cracked or split one of them.
So check it out, if they are ok and you are actually leaking from a prop seal or you may be leaking from an improperly torqued reinstall of the lower unit.
If it is the seals that have to be replaced then you can do two things, pick up a little jar of SealLube from New Tech or whatever prodet you have in your area for the job and add it to your lower unit oil, if it is a slow leak seal type of theing it will close them up good and you can finish the season on it.
Or you can lay out the cash for a new motor if you got it to run with, that is always a nice option to have. But I would not miss the tournament due to the issues stated unless the motor is dying or stuttering on you then I would not take the chance but if it runs good just a little low on the upper end power wise go for it ;)
 
I read your comment under the "Fuel Consumption" thread where you are getting 1 mpg out of the VRO. I don't have the experience to say if that will improve much with cleaning the engine up. Unless it were to improve significantly I'd think of replacing the outboard.

Fuel costs don't seem to be going down.
 
Yamaha ring free will work wonders...but, I'd also be shopping for a newer motor. Good luck with the tournament.
 
Step,

You take the carbs off the motor ;D Geesh! ;D ;)

J/K... It's when you use some sort of solvent to remove the built up carbon in the motor/carbs...
 
Haven't had carbon build up on outboards but in auto's the basic principal is scoot water into the intake while running at moderate rpm's. This will create a white emission out the exhaust and cloud the neighborhood.
Done incorrectly it will warp or bend valves. The premis for store bought decarbon additives is much safer. The additive is petroleum based and the oils attach to the carbon and fall off. This process is identical to fuel injector cleaners.
 
SEAFOAM is your friend, remember this. Get you 1 bottle of SEAFOAM(available at most any autoparts store or WAL-MART), 5 gallons of gas, and the proper amount of oil if it's a 2-stroker(yes 4-strokes require de-carboning, even more so than 2-strokers). Mix 1 bottle of the SEAFOAM with the 5 gallons of gas and oil(if needed), and put this in a small gas tank on deck. Unhook your fuel line from the main tank and hook it up to the portable tank with the magic elixir inside. Run engine for 5 minutes on the mix at or below 1500 RPM's(some like to do this with no load on the engine, others with a load on it), let it sit for 15 minutes with the engine off. Repeat this process until you notice a drastic decrease in the amount of smoke that comes out when you re-start it(usually 2 times, but as many as 5 if severely carboned up). There are many methods for doing a de-carb, but this method is regarded as the easiest to do with the least amount of chance of engine damage being done(yes, carbon can damage an engine if it is removed too quickly). Maybe one day I'll do a video of me doing a de-carb the old fashion way ;D(smoke, lot's of smoke).
 
What Ferm says is a good way to do a general over all cleaning but the kind of decarb you need to do is very easy.

First find out if your VRO has the injector tube for doing it. Eveinrudes and Johnsons after a certain year have a tube with a little screw on piece on the end that screws down onto a can of de-carb you buy in the store. Find out if you have this feature on the side of your carbs, if you do follow the can directions for set up
Second if you have the tube use it and set it up, if not you use the spray on kind of can instead. First run your engine on the hose for a couple of minutes to warm it up. Then tilt your engine up as far as you can go, pull off your caps for the plugs and remove them. spray a little decarb in each cylinder to saturate it. Put the plugs back in but do not put the caps on yet. Turn the engine over a few times just to get everything in there coated.
Walk away for ten to 30 minutes.
When you come back lower the engine, put the caps back on the plugs, hook up your water hose.
Pull off your air filter box, usually held on with rubber type stretchies or maybe a few wing nuts whatever used your engine.
You should be able to look right into the carbs.
Start your engine, it will idle very rough and may give you trouble starting at first. Let that sucker choke out or idle poor but get it started giving it a little choke if needed and let it run and you will look like a WhiteSnake video minus Tawney Kitaen for about 4-5 minutes.
After it clears rev the engine a little, remember you are on a hose so no long high rpm blasts.
When it is running clear you take your spray can, either hooked up to the outlet discussed earlier or if not you will be useing the little squirt straw that comes with it.
Now if you are muy taliented you can use the throttle lever alongside the engine (throttle linkage) or have someone help you at the binnacle control and what you will do is build up rpms to about 2G's and you will see the carbs open a little. Spray that decarb directly into the carbs, a good shot into each one, it will try to stall, as it sputters and loses rpms back off with the spray and let it catch up with itself. Keep an eye for Tawney Kitaen at this point :D
You keep doing it to you finish off that can, sometimes you won't be able to do all the carbs at the same time before it starts stalling, in that case do one at a time or whatever you need to do.
After you finish killing every bug in the county, and the engine is running with clear exhaust and normal idle shut her down, let it cool down, pull the plugs and install new ones if you got them or give the ones you got a good cleaning and make sure they are gapped right if they are not stud type.
If you do this most of the crap that is in that engine will be gone. Worst case scenario is you go thru the process twice. But if that does not correct your compression ratios enough then it is time for an overhaul.
On a side note, I would check my own compression before I dumped that engine. Mechanics, even good honest ones make mistakes, and a large percentage of them want to sell you something, build you something or charge you big buck repairs and will exagerate the situation.
 
Thanks everybody for the helpul hints! i did decarb it this afternoon, although it was before Willy's post so i couldn't try what he said. I used Valvetech Engine De-Carb. We plan to take the boat out in the morning for a test run. I'm beginning to think that the 15 1/2" prop on the motor is too big cause of how much gas we burn. When i was reading a Boat US catalog i discovered that the motor should have a 14 1/2" prop on it, and luckily the 14 1/2" prop on my Yamaha fit it! So we plan to test the fuel economy on it each prop and see what works best. And i also do think the mechanic told me a bunch of BS. I'll know when i drain the lower unit fluid in the morning and after we take it out. If that doesn't work i might just end up putting a Yamaha 150 25" shaft on a jack plate on it! ;D But for right now the motor is running dam good :D
 
Thats fine, you may find it works for ou like it is, but if you keep the engine go thru the process I stated above and you will be surprised at the gains and how much stuff gets burned out.
 
Hey, someone with "skills" post Willy and Ferms decarb methods in the "how to" section.
 
Well I found out a Johnson prop fits on a Yamaha but a Yamaha prop doesn't fit on a Johnson. My dad didn't feel good this morning so we didn't get to test run the motor. And then i found out that the King Mackeral tournament got canceled. :( So today has sucked so far. But wait I am getting a new bow for hunting season! ;D
 
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