Help Please...

[Camoman]

So it starts last week when I go to take the boat out and after taking an eternity to start it spews out smoke like never before. I know its normal on startup for a two-stroke to put out a little smoke but this was coming out for about 5 or 10 mins and especially when i gave her some throttle. So i called it a day and put it back on the trailer..no fishing that day. Started it up again when we got home and it started straight away and hardly any smoke, even with throttle. so im thinking this is weird and ill try her again in a week.

So today I fell like taking the boat out for a flick and figure i better start her up and she how it runs. after many attempts it just wouldn't kick over. so i look at the motor and notice an excessive amount of oil coming out of this port shown below.. i cleaned it up and notice that there is fuel in the mix there aswell. so i try one more time and it starts drippin out again but doesn't kick over..

serial plate. its a Mercury 2 stroke 40hp, 2001 built, oil injected.

so can anybody shed some light on what would cause the oil/fuel to leak from this port in excessive amounts. (im talking a continual drip whilst i try to kick it over). Considering the excessive smoking last week I can at least draw the conclusion that the leak would continue whilst the motor is running..

just looking for some advice before i take it to the doctor..

[pelican]

You possibly have no problem. I would run it up to operating temp at home on muffs or in a bin and see if more oil and fuel come out or it stops. If no huge amount of oil or fuel comes out or odd noises all is probably ok

Have a good look under the cowl to make sure there is no leak from a loose clamp but it wouldn't result in it coming from down there anyway.

When a motor gets flooded it will be hard to start and a pool of fuel ( not the vapor it would be when hot and running) and oil can form in the crankcase. When it eventually starts the motor has this fuel and also the fuel coming through the carby to burn up. It doesn't all burn up.

Pooling can also happen in the exhaust , leg if it is flushed at an angle where excess oil can't drain easily

If it seems OK then when next out on the water a reasonable run on a higher throttle setting will be good for it. Try and check the temerature of the motor as pooling happens more if the motor isn't reaching operating temperature. A contributing cause could be flushing for a log time and long periods at low speed especially with a thermostat not working properly.

Keep a spare set of plugs handy and a spanner as you may foul the plugs. Check them afer the long run to see taht they are OK.Light grey and dry is what you are looking for on the colour at the tip of the plug

If the oil fuel problem still exists you may have a fuel pump , carby or oil injector problem that needs to be looked at.

Edited November 1, 2008 by pelican

[dangles]

agree with pel on this one, if its not currently starting, try replacing/cleaning the plugs first.

[Camoman]

Well had another look this morning. Lower two of the three sparkys are super fouled up. But the top one is completely clean.

It did start first up and ran OK for a bit. Still a bit of fuel coming from the exhaust port. But when I tried to start up again just 5 mins later it wont go. Gonna clean up the plugs and see what goes.

[Camoman]

One of the cylinders (the one that has the clean plug) is not firing at all. To me this explains why there is a large proportion of unburnt fuel and oil in the exhaust since 1/3 of that which goes in to the motor is not being burnt.

Its not the plug since when i swap plugs the same cylinder is still buggered. Might be the ECM module but I replaced that about 3 months ago when I found that one cylinder wasn't firing. So maybe its something before the ECM module.

So i'll take her to teh doc since thats where my knowledge ends.

Thanks for your help

Edited November 2, 2008 by Camoman

[pelican]

Good on you for diagnosing it. i wonder if it really needed the ECM months ago ????

[Camoman]

Good on you for diagnosing it. i wonder if it really needed the ECM months ago ????

Thats what im now wondering... however at the time when I replaced it, it started running on all 3 cylinders again and I got my power back. I noticed a lack of power the last 2 times I went out but did not check it. So its possible something is causing the ecm failure. I guess, and at least I hope all will be revealed when I get it serviced.