HELP!!Yamaha trouble

[caymanscott]

Hello and greetings to fellow Triumph owners. My family and I have moved to the Cayman Islands this year. We are avid fishermen and purchased a 2005 Triumph 15 ft cc with a Yamaha 50 on it to fish the waters of North Sound-love the boat, hate the engine-here is what happens-start up is OK, idles and I can take it out of the marina, go up on a plane and as soon as I throttle back it dies and will not start again for quite a while-I had the kids out last week and we had to call harbour patrol to come and get us-it is not safe in these waters-the level of incompetance at the marinas here is unbelievable and basically their method of diagnosing and correcting problems is to just replace parts until it works(at 65 bucks an hour). so far nothing-any ideas-I am ready to switch to an Etec or something-had one of those in the Keys and it always worked.
Thanks in advance.

[Jan from Humboldt]

Are you treating your fuel? Carbs or injectors? Do you have a water fuel seperating filter on your boat?

[caymanscott]

Hi-Thanks for your interest, Jan-I actually have 2 fuel/water separators installed now and have drained the fuel system and tried new gas. the engine is not fuel injected and this a.m. I was fiddling around with it and discovered that it runs a lot better if it is exactly parallel to the water, as soon as you raise or lower it from this position, it doesnt idle smoothly.Still stalls after throttling back, however.

[Putershark]

That still sounds air / fuel related to me.. I would drain off the fuel inside the carb bowl and make sure that the float in the bowl is set correct (most are set to be level when the bowl is off and looking at the float) for it sounds as if the float is not letting in "enough" fuel (or it has junk in it) before the bowl goes dry.

I would also use some throttle body cleaner and make sure that all the idle air bleeds and the carb is clean

Also make sure that all the bolts for the carb and intake manifold are sung.I would also make sure that you are not dealing with either a cracked vacuum line or a spark plug wire that is grounding out...

Let us know how you make out

[caymanscott]

Thanks again for all the tips, and I will check all these things out this week-

[CHESBAY2]

Check the fuel intake inside the fuel tank.I had one crack on me and would suck air when I got on the throttle and the engine would cut off.Easy to check by hooking up a remote 6 gal. fuel tank and see if this takes care of the problem.Good luck!

[NJWardy]

I hear ya on the incomp part of many marinas. I had a Yami Waverunner and it was CRAP. Spent all kinds of money to fix a 2002 Four Stroke that was only 3 years old. Same deal, bogged out and dies. They kept replacing parts...rebuilt the engine...$2k later...still not fixed then held my boat captive until I paid. They wanted payment before they woudl try and fix it again. The problem was that there was only 2 other Yami dealers in all of Southern NJ. None came highly recommended. I sold the thing after finding a motorcycle place that stated: if it is a combustion engine, we can fix it. And they did, first time out.

[caymanscott]

Many thanks, all you corresponders-I have compiled a list of projects for the marina and we are going to go through each suggestion until we find what is wrong-hopefully I have enough $$! How bad can it be-its only a 50 hp Yamaha! Down here, the fishermen all use these outboards and go all the way to Belize in a flimsy Jamaican Canoe with one strapped on the back, so I am certain we will hit on the correct solution eventually.I will keep you all posted.

[Jan from Humboldt]

Scott I had trouble with a brand new 40HP Yamaha caused by the ethanol mix fuel we switched to here in California back in 2005. It seems the ethanol absorbs some extra moisture and it in turn causes some minor corrison in the carbs which is seen as a white snottlike substance or when dry, a white powder it clogs the crap out of the low end jets.

I was told by Yamaha to do the water fuel seperating filter with a ten micron element and switch to an enzyme based fuel stabilizer.

In my case all I could find was some stuff called Star Tron for Diesel fuel, I started using it at the rate of one oz per ten gallons of fuel as well as Ring Free Decarbonizer at the same doseage (Sea Foam works great too).

The reason I use the decarbonizer is we troll for salmon here and it's a lot of low rpm time (11-1200rpm) on the engine and with the cold water we are operating in it tends to load them up as the engine is not heating up to a proper operating temprature.

Bottom line I have not had a lick of trouble since I started using the stuff, have a check done to the carbs and see if there's white crap in them and if so try using Star Tron, it might help.

I swear by the stuff although it won't regrow hair or cure a rainny day I sure like what it does to my motor.