Today we had the first true hick-up of our 4.3 L GM motor (369 hrs). We have had a skipping issue for the last week or so, only when powering up through the 1600-2000 rpm range and then it would clear right up and run. Today it started fluttering at idle early and then around 11am it started fluttering bad at full power. For the last week or so it’s intermittent nature had me believing water in the fuel, and hoping it would clear up. Today it went south, and fast. We shut it down at 11 and decided we needed to figure it out. Went home and gathered everything to change the fuel filter, drained a cup of fuel off the bottom of the tank and saw very little signs of water or debris in either sample. Changed the filter with no positive effect, but on the contrary negative. It wouldn’t start and run, kicking and bucking and backfiring. Finally around 2 I got ahold of the service department (I called at 11 and asked for a return call) and this was their answer. “Oh yea we have been having this issue on quite a few machines” (me:why the “f” don’t you tell us about it, owners that is). “It’s the distributor cab and rotor”. (Me: aren’t we in 2018, didn’t those go away in the 90’s).
Come to find out they put old school technology on these marine engines for some reason or another... so they know of the issue, warranty right.... “no we aren’t covering those parts under warranty”. What??? Known issue, due to the out dated technology you used.... I’ll say it again, WHAT?????.
Another trip to Napa a few buck and a 45 min repair and she runs like a kitten again. I guess I’m not so much pissed off at the machine but the dealer for not passing on a problem they have been commonly finding (service tech currently has 3 machines waiting for distributors and now mine too). A simple notice saying “hey, might want to service this, we are working on a solution” could have saved me a half day of screwing around. On top of all that, we went through the machine 2 weeks ago and could have taken care of it then on our service day!
Moral of the story; gas engine is recommended to have cap and rotor every 400 hrs (as you see I didn’t even make that), mine will see new at 200, until they fix the problem.
As you can see the corrosion is rather bad. Supposedly there is a vent on the bottom of the distributor that allows air in for some reason. And here in PA it’s not dry air!
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