Way2slow

The black deposits is not uncommon, that could be from running rich. The crappy running is a problem and could lead to a major breakdown if not corrected. Here's something you might want to look at also: PROBLEM: Internal water cavity leaking into #1 cylinder. Engine: 1991 & up carbureted 150/175 HP 60 degree V-6 Evinrude and Johnson outboards (6V-6 Eagle) Description: Approximately 25% of the 6V-6 blocks we test will show a leak into the #1 cylinder from the center water cavity underneath the regulator/rectifier. In certain cases, a leaking engine may develop a knock at around 3500 rpms. The sparkplug may also show signs of water, and the cylinder head's combustion chamber, piston dome, and/or exhaust port may show signs of being steam cleaned by water. It is important to note that some engines in the early stages of leaking may not show the mentioned symptoms and can only be detected by pressure testing the block. Cause: The leak develops from a thin section in the block.Due to engine vibration, varying pressures, expanding and contracting, the aluminum cracks over time and causes water to leak from behind the sleeve. Repair & Results: MarFab can provide its dealers with a remanufactured block or powerhead, or can repair the leaking block by welding and re-sleeving.MarFab has been repairing 6V-6 leaker blocks since early 2002. Blocks are pressure tested after all work is performed to ensure proper repair has been made.

I wouldn't trust that dealer to sell me a row boat. Sounds like one of the sterotype, used car salesmen. Tell you anything to sell you. As mentioned, they didn't even make the E-tec during that year model. I don't think you can even put the E-tec powerhead on a Ram mid section without doing some major modifications to the exhaust adapter. As for the Ficht and Ram DFI motors. The Ficht was the motor that put the final nail in OMC's coffin. There were major problems with the first fichts, V-4s and 60 degree V-6's. The first 90 degree V-6's (200/225 hp) had a major problem with fuel lines leaking at the injectors and blowing motors/boats up. They came out with a USCG mandated update to fix that problem. That's the only factory recall or update done at the expense of OMC. At the end of 2000, OMC closed the doors and in March 2001 BRP took over. They made wholesale QA improvements to the ficht motor, throwing away about 90% of the inventory that came from OMC. They made some needed improvements to the injectors and some upgrades to the ECM, and changed the name from a Ficht to a Ram. The 2001 model motor was a better motor than the 1999/2000 but it was really about 2003 before they got most of the bugs out of the ECM. I think it was about 2001 when they went to the 3.3 litre motor. I know they were making the blocks in 2000 because I got one BRP tossed. There have been approx 50 upgrades since the 1999 ECM. However, to get these updates, you have to buy a new ECM or pay approx $1,000 to somebody like DFI to have them performed The Etec is the latest version of the ficht/Ram. It's still basically the same motor, they just did improvements on the injectors, and used a different piston and combustion chamber design so it can run a lot hotter EGT's to make it burn cleaner. Having a motor that has all the updates just means it has had to USCG mandated recall update. That's the only one.

SeaFoam, the only way to go!!!!! If you run your motor regularly, 1/2 oz per gallon is fine. Every fith tank, add one ounce per gallon to help decarb the motor.

My first step would to ensure the butteflies are fully open at WOT.

Yea, I know of several things that can cause the problem, the obvious in tank pickup has already be mentioned but I'm already turned off from wanting to get involved in this post.

Bad battery, bad cable connection at battery, starter or ground. These could all be checked with a voltmeter and checking the voltage drop. Could be a dragging starter or internal problem in engine. The flywheel should be turning 250 rpm to generate the proper spark to start the engine. Until you find the cause of the slow cranking speed, it's probably not going to start with the starter. Many of the small motors have a pull rope slot in the top of the flywheel (even the electric start ones). If it spins over good with a rope, that probably means the inside of the motor is good and your'e problem is electrical.

I luv it when about 1/2 of the people that post questions are refered to another site for help. I guess that means we have a bunch of idiots on here that can't help a person with a simple problem. Granted, their are sites that can offer better help with the highly technical aspects of certain motors/problems better, but an aparent simple fuel pickup problem and he's told to go elswhere.

I would strongly suggest you check with the charger manufactor. Some DO NOT like for you to mix battery types. AGM's and flooded cell batteries have different charging characteristics.

I run four, one on each side of the bow and each side of the stern. You will never see enough drain on the battery to be concerned about, even if fishing all night with all four on. I almost always use fluorescent line if I'm using the lights. They make 17lb test fluorescent line look like rope. When fishing top water or spinner baits I rarely use them. These I usually fish on a moon lit night and don't want any light of any kind on. That only messes up your night vision. I use a small red LED headband lite when I must have lite for tieing knots etc but very sparingly.

I find very few have grease fittings that will actually allow for greasing the cables in a way that it will get the grease into the cable where it needs to get. I make up a home brew of lubes (WD40, brake fluid and Lubriplate 105) to work into the cables but that's usually just a temp fix. I might suggest looking into changing it to hydraulic steering. If you have dual cables and have to pay a shop to replace them, that can be fairly expensive, close to the cost of a hydraulic system.

"Rebuilt", that can mean anything the seller wants you to beleive. A couple of years ago a friend bought a boat/motor from a used car lot. The owners son was a mechanic for one of the boat dealers in that town. Laid a big sales pitch on about how he had rebuilt the motor, had been using the boat and was thinking about keeping it for himself. Even did a "cold" compression test while the friend watched. Told him 80# was normal for that motor and as long as they were within 10# they were good. A couple of weeks later he asked me to go with him to the lake and see why it was so slow to get on plane. First thing right off the bat, the steering cables were so bad I could barely turn it. Second, the steering bracket was on wrong to it would barely turn to the left but turned real sharp to the right. Third, the four blade prop had a long chunk missing from one blade. The motor acted like it was low on power so we took it to my house. I warmed it up, did a leakdown test and a couple of the cylinder were over 50%. I pulled the heads, the cylinders were junk and had a couple of pistons that had chunks missing where they had burned down the side, but it had new rings. A junk motor, he put new rings in so it would have cold compression and called it rebuilt. My friends only saving grace was he had them put the motor was freshly rebuilt on the bill of sale. They screwed up trying to make things look good and put the motor was recently remanufactored. He took them to small claims court the with the help of another dealers mechanic and the judge awarded my friend a newly remanufactor powerhead to be installed by a neutral party and the guy that sold it would pay the whole bill. Rebuilt or not, the motor is still only worth very little more that what that year model motor is worth in good used condition. As soon as you buy it, that's all it is, a good used motor. That's provided it was "properly" rebuilt to start with. If it's a DFI motor motor, be extremely careful. There's a lot of things that can cause them to blow and not many mechanics that really know how to fix them so they are subject to blow again in a short time. A very expensive lesson learned.

Not going to get into what's the best battery because you can ask 10 people and get 10 different answers, each swearing their's is the best. As for cycle count, a discharge and recharge equals one cycle. Yes, some batteries have a lot higher cycle count than others. Wally World batteries are at the bottom of the chain, Trojan's and Deka's are at the top of the chain. There are a few others that give good life also but it won't be a cheap battery. AGM's give a high cycle count but not worth the extra dollars or the loss of run time. The same size AGM will have as much as 25% less run time as a good flooded cell battery. Lead acid batteries do not develop a memory. The less the battery is discharged, the higher the cycle count you will get from it. For max practical life from any lead acid battery, use a large enough battery that you only disharge it to 50%. Discharge to 75% will give even higher cycle count, but it's not very pratical to think you are only going to fish long enough to come back in with 75% left in your battery. NEVER discharge one below 30%, that will cause the plates to start flaking and coming appart.

Most people are won't pay the $150+ that a good charger will cost, so as a minimum make sure you at least get one that's a SMART or Intelli charger. These will be microprocessor controlled and should go into a float mode at the end. Some of the cheaper of those are usually not worth taking out of the box but they are still much better than those Automatics. All those do is let a battery die a slow death. The charger should also be of a size that is at least 10% of that rated Ah capacity of your battery.

14ft jons are normally extremely easy to sell for a few hundred dollars. Goodwill will take it and give you a receipt for the value (say it's worth $800 and if on a trailer say $1,200) so you can tax deduct it. Depending on your income, sometimes the tax deduction can be worth more than you can sell it for.

Never buy a boat/motor without having it checked out by a competent mechanic. Also, never buy a boat without running it on the water first. Anyone that won't allow you to do this, you should walk away from. Many times you do run into the problem that shops are too busy to check one in a reasonable time so it's better to find a friend or someone you know that is very competent that can go with you to look at the boat and take it to the lake with you. I have done this for a number of my friends and you should find most (other than professional's) don't mind doing it.

I would start with the basics, do a proper linc and sinc. For this you will need a manual, understand everything they a talking about and don't leave out anything or try to take any short cuts. The next step take you a little deeper, remove the carbs and do a good cleaning on them, then do be sure to do a proper sinc when reinstalling them. The next step is to check the recirculation valves. These are oneway check valves in the intake that keep fuel puddles from buiding and dumping large droplets into the cylinder. It absolutely will not idle smooth if any of them are bad. If none of this makes since to you, take it to a dealer.

It's not going to hurt anything if the tail pipe is under water. As for leaving it running, that's up to you. Personnaly, I never switch my vehicle off while loading or unloading my boat. I figure, while it's running, I don't have to worry about the grimlins doing some strange thing to keep it from starting at a worse possible time. As the old saying goes "Things Happens" and usually at the worse possible time. Another thing, I would never use 4H in soft sand. 4H is only useful for slick, hard surfaces. There is a much greater chance to slip a tire and it doesn't take but a 1/2 turn for it dig a hole that will stick you. Anytime I'm in soft material, I use 4L and locked in second gear. Unless you have a massive amount of torque and hp, the engine will not have enough power to pull in 4H, and 4L, low gear will not give you enough tire speed if you start bogging down and need to pour the power to it to get through.

If you're talking about making the section in front of the winch support swing around to the side, I would just look at some trailers that do that. Mine does but it's more of a pain to add a photo than I care to go through. Look at some trailers for boats 20' or longer. That used to be common on them.

Deka, group 27 dual purpose for cranking Deka, group 31 deep cycle for TM.

If on a deck for something like a jon boat to mount your TM, I just use pressure treated plywood. I cut my carpet to the rough size I want it, apply a good coat of DAP/Weldwood contact cement on the back of the carpet and the all the plywood sufaces I want it to stick. I wrap the carpet around the edges and fold under about two inches, where I also have contact cement. I cut and tuck the corners so the wood is not exposed and then use #12 tappered head stainless screws to attach it. Once sunk in, the screws are almost invisible and the carpet is going nowhere. When doing the floor or recessed deck of a bass boat, I cut the carpet pieces a little over side, contact glue both surfaces, tuck it in real tight with a heavy putty knife and cut the edges with a carpet knife for a nice tight fit. If working in a tight area where you don't want the carpet to stick before getting it in place, like inside storage boxes, just place wax paper over the surface your trying to get the carpet into. Once the carpet is in place, slide the wax paper out and press the carpet in place. Just don't put pressure on the wax paper, or it will make it difficut to get out. Just remember, the name says it all, let the two surface with cement touch, and they are usually there to stay. I always use contact cement. It holds, until you rip the carpet up to replace it again, it does not requier any clamping and waiting to dry when doing cover lids, just fold it around press it in place and go. My first boat I did years ago, I used outdoor carpet glue. What a flipping nightmare getting everything stuck down where it would stay. Since then, nothing but DAP/Weldwood original formula contact cement. Also, when doing a whole boat with lids and a bunch of pieces of carpet, make sure you cut everything on the same bias/grain/weave, if not, it will look like it's two toned carpet. The light will reflect off the weave patterns differently.

With any motor that has not been run for a while, the first thing do is pull and clean the carbs. With that motor I would then rebuild fuel pump and purge any old gas from lines and tank. My next step is to change the lube in the lower unit. The next thing I would do is pull the water pump and install a rebuild kit. Be sure to grease the drive shaft spline when reinstalling the LU. This is pretty much my standard routine on any motor I don't know anything about or any of mine that has sat for a couple of years.

Four blade props do help the hole shot a little, but because of the extra blade surface (drag) they usually reduce top end speed by a couple of mph. I've have both, but have never really seen a big increase in hole shot with a 4 blade over a three blade. I also always have my props custom tuned for my boat/motor combination so that could have a little to do with it. Even having one tuned though, you still loose top end with a four blade prop. Many dealers will let you leave a deposit and try a prop before you buy it (with the understanding you ARE going to buy one). I would suggest trying a 19" Laser II and see if it gets you close to 5,700. You can always get it close and then have it tuned, but you're looking at approx another $300 to have one tuned. I have all mine tuned but most people don't put enough importance in the prop to consider that. However, when you look at the fact the prop is on the only thing that connects the motors power to the water, why wouldn't you. Of course I'm also running a hellavalot more hp and speed so I tend to gain a little more from a perfectly matched prop.

A 20 will most likely be a waste of time and money. Each inch of pitch will only give you approx 150 rpm. Not sure how the merc props run but you should be looking at 17, 18 or 19 max. Also, not just any prop, I would stronly recommend you try a LaserII or similar prop. You want a high rake prop for max performance.

A hydrofoil will help, even more so it has the right size prop. If you think you wanna try one, go with the SE Sport 200 or 300, which ever is recommended for your size motor. Right now, it's way over prop'd. The best money you're going to spend up front is a good stainless prop that a lot smaller pitch than what you have. That motor only turning 5,200 rpm at WOT is killing any chance of having a good hole shot, regardless of what you do. OOps, if you happen to see the Merc LaserII prop I just had a link to ebay on, forget it. I just read the description and it was a left hand prop. No good for your use. A good LaserII in a 19" or possibly a 17" would make life much better on the water for you though. This time of the year, you really want your rpm within 100 - 200 of max with your normal load. You don't really want to go over right now because when it air and water gets cold again, you will gain a couple of hundred rpm.

First, don't assume a lower pitch prop will take away top speed, the right prop may actually increase top speed. If the rpm is very much lower than the max recommended rpm, you could be loading the motor to the point it's not making peak hp, so going to a smaller pitch, high performance type prop could give you a few more mph. Yes, a jackplate can help tune the setup, but it may not do anything to help the hole shot, unless you go to a hydraulic plate. Then you can drop it down deep for hole shot and bring it up to tweek for top speed. Just be sure you have a good, working water pressure guage when you install a jackplate. NO to the mods. They will void any warrenty and with that small of a motor on a heavy boat, you would never see enough gain to make any mods worth while.