Tips to starting up an old outboard boat engine that has been sitting?

How long did it take to start pushing water out? Either something is clogged the tube partly and creating to much pressure or it was put back together wrong somewhere and causing something to bind. Or if it took a good bit to get water flowing something isn’t right and you may have got the motor hot and it cut off with the temp sensor, this could be why it won’t restart either it’s still hot.
My little 5hp motor will start squirting water out after 2 pulls if it doesn’t start by then

Oil in the bucket is from oil going through the exhaust which exits the foot.

There should be a couple screws on the side of the foot loosen the lower one and if it’s milky it’s got a bad seal otherwise it’s exhaust.

I’m assuming you changed the plug before trying it? Have you pulled it to see if it’s Fowler? The smaller motors 2 or 4 stroke can act up really easy with a bad plug or Fowled plug.


Either way I’d keep it. If the motor started and ran even for 30 seconds you probably looking at a couple hundred in parts tops to get it going good. A bigger motor even the older ones can cost 750+.


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Yeah, I just saw the prices on engines after I posted that response. I'll definitely be keeping it.

It takes more than two pulls to get water coming out. when it ran it took about 4-5 seconds before water started coming out. The impeller and housing was really rough when I took it apart so maybe some junk got into the cooling system and is slowing stuff down and clogging it up?
 
It could be you should be able to take it back apart and blow compressed air from the side the water comes out to clear out the passages on the motor and down the pickup line to where the impeller is and do it from the impeller side up and that should clean it up.

Depending on the year you may have a temp sensor it may be bad?

A picture of the plate at the front mounting point of the motor would be helpful. You can then google running issues for that model of motor and someone out there will have already been through this.

It should be similar to this picture
f9151659960da3538c0b46c060a63c69.jpg



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Loganwayne said:
It could be you should be able to take it back apart and blow compressed air from the side the water comes out to clear out the passages on the motor and down the pickup line to where the impeller is and do it from the impeller side up and that should clean it up.

Depending on the year you may have a temp sensor it may be bad?

A picture of the plate at the front mounting point of the motor would be helpful. You can then google running issues for that model of motor and someone out there will have already been through this.

It should be similar to this picture
f9151659960da3538c0b46c060a63c69.jpg



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Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks man. Gotta get this going, the boys have gotten the boat almost ready to go. I showed them how to wire, solder and shrink wrap over the weekend. We raided the attic and mounted a lightbar to the front and some LED lights to the interior. They got some marine carpet to put on the inside too. Just need to get that engine going and it is ready for the water!
 
If you have Facebook they have whole groups of people that work on smaller outboards that will help if you post the picture I did. Give a rundown on what it’s doing and what you have done so far and they will usually be able to give you some good insight.

They have saved me some money when I thought the coil went out but it was the plug even though it had low hours on it they said to change it anyways and that’s what it ended up being


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Loganwayne said:
If you have Facebook they have whole groups of people that work on smaller outboards that will help if you post the picture I did. Give a rundown on what it’s doing and what you have done so far and they will usually be able to give you some good insight.

They have saved me some money when I thought the coil went out but it was the plug even though it had low hours on it they said to change it anyways and that’s what it ended up being


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Thanks, I'll check that out.
 
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