Not starting after running and getting warm

Jdills1371 · May 13, 2018

2000 eclipse with the scorpion 330.

About 2 weeks ago, me and the wife went out on a day date since I was off work on a Tuesday. Boat started fine off the trailer. Started fine off the dock. After about an hour of riding, we beaches up and hung out on the swim platform for about 3 hours. Got ready to head home, pushed off the bank started up and she died. Swam her bank to the bank and it didn’t wanna start. Let her sit for about 10 minutes, while trying start start some and she wouldn’t fire. Then a magical thing happened and she fired right up and ran great. After getting home it sat at the pier for about 4 hours. Went to take the kids on a ride and same thing. Didn’t wanna start.

I changed spark plugs and replaced the fuel water separator. Took the boat out a few time since then and today, ran fine

Today same scenario. Went out for mother’s day, had the parents with me. Rode for about an hour, anchored out and swam for about 2 hours went to start and was doing the same thing not wanting to fire. It would fire every few cranks and die out. then magically she fired right up and ran out right until we got home

ideas?!? Where can I start checking

Shaka · May 13, 2018

How did it act when you were trying to start it?

Jdills1371 · May 13, 2018

Like it wanted to start. Sometimes when turning over it would fire and act really sluggish and die. Other times it would just turn over.

Pildo · May 14, 2018

There is a filter under the idle control valve that could need cleaned or replaced. Also could be the valve itself. I have an extra valve that still works if you want to give it a try.

woodman4 · May 14, 2018

Sounds like it might be a vapor lock issue to me. Very common on those engines around that year. Same thing used to happen to us all the time when we had our Eclipse. We got into the habit of always lifting the cover and letting the boat idle for a couple minutes before we shut it off, and then leaving the cover up while parked to let it cool off as much as possible. Some people also say they run the blower for a couple minutes before shutting down and before starting back up. One other thing you can do if you absolutely have to, on one of the fuel rails there is a valve (schrader?) that looks like the stem for a bicycle tire. It’s there so you can hook a gauge to it and see what your fuel pressure is. If you pull the cap off of it and push in on the valve stem, you will more than likely get a lot of air to shoot out of there. That will help clear the fuel rails out so you can get fuel back in them. Just be careful if you do that because that air/gas comes out of there pretty quick and can make a mess, also can be dangerous if something happens to spark right after you do it, that’s why I say only do that if you’ve tried everything else. It helps to hold a cup or something in front of it to try and catch any gas that comes out.

I now have a 98 elite which has the 350 mag mpi, and haven’t had any issues with it vapor locking yet. One thing I’ve done different with this boat is running nothing but non-ethanol has in it. I read somewhere that this helps a ton but I really don’t know why. Worth a shot though if you have some available near you.

Shaka · May 14, 2018

Next time this happens I'd pull a spark plug, engage the starter, and see if any water comes out the plug hole. Repeat for the other plugs. Something similar happened to me and it turns out that one of my manifolds was leaking water into the cylinders. Changed the manifolds and the problem was gone.

woodman4 · May 14, 2018

3 hours ago, Shaka said:

Next time this happens I'd pull a spark plug, engage the starter, and see if any water comes out the plug hole. Repeat for the other plugs. Something similar happened to me and it turns out that one of my manifolds was leaking water into the cylinders. Changed the manifolds and the problem was gone.

Did you have to change the risers when you did this? I’ve heard people say the risers have started leaking and in turn caused the manifolds to do the same thing. And yes it will produce symptoms similar to the ones you are having.