2005 Rinker Captiva 192 4.3L Fuel/Throttle Issues

mjo03mjo03 Member Posts: 1
Good morning everyone,

I recently bought a 2005 Rinker Captiva 192 with the 4.3L Mercruiser.  The previous owner had it about 8 months and had a few things fixed and worked on a lot of the things himself.  Well... I took the boat out for the first time and it ran fine.  After a couple of hours, we docked at an island and relaxed.  When I got back in the boat and started to take off, I could not open the throttle up to get on plane.  I would have to slowly drop the throttle back and then it would speed back up.  The motor sounded like it was struggling as well.  It was pretty frustrating so I took it out and ran to the store and replaced the fuel filter, checked for any fuel leaks.

What I did notice was there was about a quarter of an inch of water at the bottom of a bottle of water that I poured the fuel from the fuel filter in.  I didn't think it was too big of a deal and took the boat out the next day.  Everything was fine for the first part of the day, but after stopping for lunch.. we had about a 4 mile ride back to the dock.  Anything over 3000 rpms would cause the engine to completely slow and come to a halt.  So there was a lot of cussing and throttling back to neutral and back and forth to get the boat back the dock.  

Before I take it into a mechanic, does anyone have any suggestions on what steps I should take next to fix this issue?  Thanks, and may the boat gods shine down on me.  

DO


Comments

  • Aqua_AuraAqua_Aura Member Posts: 2,625 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2020
    If you have water in your fuel either replace the fuel or mix in a fuel stabilizer to break up the water molecules and burn it off. 

    I used stabil marine for my water problem in the fuel I had. When I powered up engine would stumble and ran like it needed a tune up. I checked the fuel and it had water droplets so I added the stabilizer which broke it all down and mixed into the fuel and burned it off until I had room to add more fuel. 

    Also if you haven't already I would go through everything else as well for a tune up. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, filters Etc. 
    1997 Bayliner 3988
  • Lake_BumLake_Bum Member Posts: 990 ✭✭✭✭
    Start with treating the fuel with either Seafoam, or marine Sta-Bil, as it addresses the ethanol issue in fuel.  Draining as much out of your tank is preferable, but not as easy.  Add fresh fuel in addition to treating the bad once you have room. 
    Another thing that I've seen happen, is your fuel pump could be collapsing the fuel lines, that have been weakened due to Ethanol deterioration.  That one is harder to find, as the lines rot from the inside out.  Ethanol is probably the WORST thing to have in boats, because it will eventually have phase separation from sitting stagnant. 
    2000 Captiva 232 
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