Engine sounds/runs great but very very slow acceleration

06Rinker270

Little backstory...
Memorial day weekend ran the boat with 4 on board, 1/4 fuel, no water and little black water.  We were loaded with all the necessities for a great day on the water.  First time I noticed the boat was running sluggish.  Engine sounded great and normal, but took me a long time to get going.  I am still learning the fundaments of trimming drive and trim tabs but I now the difference between the 270s slow hull shot and being even slower than normal.

Month goes buy without using the boat and sitting in water.  July 4th weekend I go out and she is even slower.  This time I am by myself with a full tank of gas.  I went out to play with trimming the drive and playing with trim tabs. Again, engine sounds great, RPMS seem normal, gps says I am going above 20 but speedometer says barely hitting 10 and boy it felt slow.  Speedo normally works, worked Memorial weekend.  Hull shot and felt like I was going no where.    

I have new fuel filters and oil filters.  New manifolds and elbows.

My thoughts are this and please tell me opinions.    1) Engine needs a tune up, not sure last time it had one. 2) Bent prop 3) I took off props last season and put them on correctly with correct alignment.  Can they shift out of place?  4) Boat sat for a month but can there be that much build up that quickly to cause boat to be extremely sluggish?  I plan to haul out next weekend to inspect hull and props.

Thanks everyone for reading and opinions.  Been a great season so far cant wait to continue. 

rasbury

gosh, I'd say if the plugs and wires have not been replaced since the boat was new, that would be a place to start. Another thing I keep hearing is to clean out the spark arrestor which I have yet to do, thanks for the reminder. You have covered the fuel filters. If the plugs don't bring it back to life then the only other thing I could think is to check the fuel pressure.....spark, air and fuel. I'd say there is no way for the props to move anywhere...bent would sure be a performance killer....others will chime in I'm sure. Lower unit good, have not hit anything recently? 

Black_Diamond

Growth on the bottom can do that. Sounds like a tune up is in order anyways. 

LaRea

Debris lodged in the outdrive (driftwood, rope etc.)?  A bent prop would cause a lot of vibration.  You'd know it right away.

06Rinker270

Thank you for the comments guys.  

I am thinking something must be lodged in props or wrapped around.  Its crazy, I slowly move throttle forward when accelerate and engine sounds and acts as always, but I go nowhere(I mean I do move but nothing like in the past).  As if the props just are not spinning correctly.

There is no vibration that I am noticing.  

Tune up - spark plugs, wires, all hoses(going to fuel line as well), will change oil and filter just to do it.  What else?

frenchship

If you have anything other than a bravo 111 check your prop hubs could be slipping 

06Rinker270

@frenchship I have a bravo III.  Does that slip?

frenchship

No that I know of, unless noise coming out of your Bravo 111

raybo3

Make sure both outdrives are all the way down. My outdrive trims run a 2 very different speeds. Sometimes when I put the drives down (my port side) is much slower and its not always all the way down so I have a much harder time getting on plane. Now I make sure it all the way down because I have to hold that button for that drive much longer............

06Rinker270

@raybo I thought that could have been the issue, as sometimes when I come off plane hitting the no wake zone I leave it up.  Put it all the way down and it still same issue.  Unfortunately my drive gauge stopped working at the beginning of the season and I have not had it fixed.

Another note...I was out practicing trimming and I noticed things did start to get a little better but never to optimum performance. 

frenchship

Good point ray the drive as to be all the way down to get a good acceleration. 06 that would be easy to check that your drives goes all the way down, don't really just on your gauge.

06Rinker270

I really on the noise the trim makes when I am all the way down, the trim makes a higher pitch sound immediately once its down.  How else do you check?

rasbury

You get a little wetqq

Dream_Inn

Bottom Growth, period.  I can bet on this one big time!

NavyCTRC

Bottom growth? A spun propeller hub?  Something is caught in propeller, wrapped around the hub?

06Rinker270

@Dream_Inn I hope you are right!  But running that bad after only sitting one month?  Seems excessive 

MDboater

Did you verify that the trim tab actuator are both working? 

Dream_Inn

@06Rinker270 , put it this way, my boat was in the water for the past 17 days.  10 of them was a trip we did, so the boat moved every few days.  The next 7 it sat in the water for a couple repairs to get looked at (heck, even got moved by a towboat accidently - a totally different story).  Point is, after that time, I noticed a big difference in performance.  The difference was about 4k in RPM - I had to do 4100 for what I can normally get a 3700.  When I got back to my lift, I cleaned the bottom (it is bottom painted) and noticed there was definitely a good coating on the bottom.

raybo3

A few years ago my boat sat for 3 weeks without using it. I took it for a ride and the boat would barely move. I was like WTF is wrong. Thought I had a major problem. Took it to my marine mechanic (who I bought it from and store for the winter) and he hauled it out. I had a complete bottom paint failure. My boat was loaded with barnacles which we never get at my yacht club because of the strong current. Point is it only took 3 weeks for that to happen. Maybe you need to go in the water and take a look at the bottom.  

06Rinker270

@MDboater yes just replaced one of them, both work.  Trim works.

I hope that is the issue @Dream_Inn.  I could also have the wrong bottom paint for my area as boats sit way longer and I dont hear them complaining.  @raybo3 what you are describing sounds exactly like what I am dealing with.  I am going to use one of my marina boat lifts this weekend to check it out.   I normally dont allow the boat to sit that long but I had this thing they call a wedding and took away from all the boating fun.  Back to normalcy, this time with an admiral. 

Thanks for the help everyone.  Ill post with an update after the weekend.  Its going to be  a hot one. 

Dream_Inn

Patrick, you know, a nice long ride up to Still Pond would help clean it off!  Just say'n.  We could also have a little champagne to celebrate the newly married!

06Rinker270

I know I know I need to get up there.  I love the Annapolis area, actually where the wedding was.  

A couple slipped next to us do a month long trip to 1 marina every  year to get out of Colonial Beach.  I think next year I am going to do that, and make it to Annapolis.  Such a wonderful place to be a boater.  

06Rinker270

So after putting her in a lift you can see how fouled the drive was.  Is this because I sat for too long or because my drive paint failed or both?  I scrapped what I could off and boat ran 90% better.  Still not hitting numbers that I'm hearing from others.  WOT I hit about 29.  Next will be a tune up. 

frenchship

Did you clean the bottom complete.......

reneechris14

06 rinker270 a couple of years ago I had same issues.my fuel pick up was gummed up.had right fuel pressure at rail (43) but up on plane it would drop down,I pulled antishion value blew compressed air.at first had some back presser then it let go and could here bubbling out fuel fill.just a suggestion mine is an 02 think it's ethanol built up.

Handymans342

The bottom dont look too bad. I think you have the wrong bottom paint for your area. 

Handymans342

Also, you should paint the drives with the same paint. 

Black_Diamond

Beware painting the outdrive with anti-foul that has copper in it. Will destroy the outdrive. 

LaRea

Looks like you had a lot of fouling on the leading edges of the props.  That's bad.  Fouling there will hurt performance for sure.

And -- jeez, are your anodes are almost gone already?  That's unsat.  

06Rinker270

So I sprayed my props with prop speed.  Memorial weekend was in a little too shallow of water and I think the sand/mud took the paint off as it's just on the edges.  The fouling is only on the steel where the paint is gone.  So that stuff works.

I thought so also about the anodes.  Tech put them on.  Why is there so much fouling on the anodes?  Also there was a TON of barnacles under one of my tabs and on the white stripe around the drive where it's not painted.

Drive was painted lasted year with Trilux drive paint.  

Beaides power wash what is the best way to get them off?  Those SOBs tore my hands up.

LaRea

If the anodes are gone after two months, you have the wrong metal (and/or a stray current problem in your slip).