Engine Starting Issue

[jboardman]

I've seen a few posts on this subject. The family was using our boat all last week on vacation. In the middle of the week, it took a few key turns to start the engine. It usually starts right away on the first key turn. Most times it started right up, but every so often it wouldn't start up right away. Something definitely not normal. Ran sea foam through about 1/2 a tank. Seemed to worked but then it did it again. Changed the fuel filter. That seemed to do the trick but at the end of the day. It happened again. A few times I had to wait about 2-3 minutes before it started. Any good suggestions. I was guessing the fuel pump but don't want to spend the $$ if that's not it.

09 XLV with the 325 Assault MPI

[ninedriver]

Is it happening after engine has been run for a while....vapor lock?

[patrick232]

Next time you have it out run your blower to pull some heat from the engine bay. If this works it was vapor lock

[moombahighrider]

It sounds likely it was vapor lock, but we need more detail about the situations where it doesn't start to try to deduce it:
How long where you running and what where you doing before the problem?
How long did you sit in the water with the motor off directly before the problem presented itself?
What did it sound like when you tried to get it running?
Is it the same type of situation everytime you have this problem?

In my experience, running the blower only helps to dissipate the issue if it is run for a long time (while sitting, after running) to prevent a potential issue. It has never been enough to fix the vapor lock issue once it presents itself. I agree that it helps, but it will take a lot of waiting on my boat before it would start again. The best/ quickest remedy I have found is to pour a bottle of water on the fuel pump once or twice to cool it down enough for the vapor lock to dissipate.

[jboardman]

It mostly happened after wakeboarding and changing riders. Stopped the engine, switched riders, and then had trouble restarting. It didn't happen every time. Just about every 5th or 6th time. Engine just turned 195 hours on it and I've never had an issue. It wasn't real hot last week and I've never experienced vapor lock in any of my previous boats. I thought it usually happens in real hot weather.

[TeamAllen]

If it is vapor lock, it is mostly due to the addition of ethanol in the fuel. It vaporizes at a lower temp. Just using a different gas station can make a difference.

[parrothd]

We've told him that repeatedly

[jboardman]

I only use premium 91 octane. No ethanol in the fuel.

[parrothd]

Whoops was replying to someone else.. Lol

[TeamAllen]

I'm not arguing with you, just want to make sure it's ethanol free. If it is, you are lucky.
Just because it's premium fuel doesn't mean it's pure gas. http://www.bellperformance.com/blog/bid/110140/Does-premium-gas-have-ethanol-in-it
See if the station you use is on the list. http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=KS

[jboardman]

If it doesn't say "contains no ethanol", I don't use it. Unless there's false advertising, I've never put ethanol in my tank. I'll try running the blower more often during labor day weekend and see if that helps. If it continues, I'll look into the vapor lock prevention kit. If anyone has installed the kit, please let me know if that fixed the problem. Thanks!!