Intermittent inability to plane the boat

[TownsendsFJR1300]

It's sounding now as if when warm/hot, he's dropping a cylinder or two... I would be leaning towards electrical.

OP, do you have a spark tester or timing light you can place on the engine WHEN it's acting up?

[DennisG01]

Was hoping for the "easy" answer - but if there's nothing physical slowing you down, the only variable left is the engine. Even though it's not always the "final" test, a compression test could point you in a direction. What I mean by "final" is that if all cylinders check out (do it cold and hot), it doesn't 100% mean everything is OK. But there is a possibility that the test DOES find and issue.

I like the spark test idea, too. Easy to do on the water and may point you in the direction of the problem. I would "think" that if you were missing a cylinder or two on a 90HP that you'd notice a difference in the running sound of the engine? But still worth checking into.

Sort of along the lines of what Zara asked about... when you are able to get on plane, can you get full power out of the engine and get well into your MAX RPM range? How long have you had the boat?

[99yam40]

I just reread this thread and noticed you mentioned one up and three up.
does this mean one person and then three people?

Where were these people when you had problems planing?
if a lot of weight in the back , did you try to move more weight up forward ?

you need to balance the boat.
a 3 or 400 lb person located in different spots on a boat will make a big difference in how the boat handles.

move people around or other heavy objects.
I have seen too many people riding in the bow pushing the bow down and am sure the motor was not getting up to speed with the bow plowing like that on plan.
but too much weight in the back and the boat struggles to break over onto plane and that also caused the motor to struggle.

were all of the plugs wet when you pulled them or just some of them?

[Sheff 69]

I just reread this thread and noticed you mentioned one up and three up.
does this mean one person and then three people?

Where were these people when you had problems planing?
if a lot of weight in the back , did you try to move more weight up forward ?

you need to balance the boat.
a 3 or 400 lb person located in different spots on a boat will make a big difference in how the boat handles.

move people around or other heavy objects.
I have seen too many people riding in the bow pushing the bow down and am sure the motor was not getting up to speed with the bow plowing like that on plan.
but too much weight in the back and the boat struggles to break over onto plane and that also caused the motor to struggle.

were all of the plugs wet when you pulled them or just some of them?

Sorry I was off line line so long.
I have been trying to encourage our over staying family guests to go home over the holidays.
Anyone know a sure fire cure for that?

Anyway, 99Yam hit it the nail right on the head.
I have since gone out and played with moving people around and that was the problem.
I feel dumb not thinking of that.
In my instances where I had problems, going out in the morning- down wind in light air, I had one sit on the front storage compartment, one on the center console seat, and me on the helm. Worked great planed easily.
Coming home, wind picked up more chop, wet ride. Front passenger moved back to join the center console passenger. Could not get on plane.
That happened both times I had the problem.
Moving the weight around cured my problem.

I couldn't believe the difference the weight distribution makes, especially on my 17' boat.

In answer to 99Yam, yes all of the plugs were wet, I suspect that having to idle about 1/4 mile back into the marina probably screws up my plug readings.
Does screwing the idle screws in, lean out the mixture, or the opposite?

Thank you all for helping out.

I now have a spare prop. Duuuh!

John

[zenoahphobic]

Overstaying guests.
Usually the lack of hot water or a blocked sewerage system works.
If they have not already created these problems, you could turn off the hot water, or if that doesn't work the bad smell does the trick. Just drain one of your S or P traps so that the odorous gases enter the house.
Sorry couldn't resist, just spent a week with extended family at holiday house. They emptied one tank of water and half the other, stuffed the toilet with paper (didn't want to flush at night that would set the water pump off disturbing others). When they ran out of water, I switched to stained water tank. I had to explain to them that water didn't just come down from the sky!

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Anyway, 99Yam hit it the nail right on the head.
I have since gone out and played with moving people around and that was the problem.
I feel dumb not thinking of that.
In my instances where I had problems, going out in the morning- down wind in light air, I had one sit on the front storage compartment, one on the center console seat, and me on the helm. Worked great planed easily.
Coming home, wind picked up more chop, wet ride. Front passenger moved back to join the center console passenger. Could not get on plane.
That happened both times I had the problem.
Moving the weight around cured my problem.

I couldn't believe the difference the weight distribution makes, especially on my 17' boat.

In answer to 99Yam, yes all of the plugs were wet, I suspect that having to idle about 1/4 mile back into the marina probably screws up my plug readings.
Does screwing the idle screws in, lean out the mixture, or the opposite?

Thank you all for helping out.

I now have a spare prop. Duuuh!

John

Glad it's "fixed"!

Kudos to 99Yam

Screwing in (clockwise), LEANS out the mix..

[99yam40]

Overstaying guests.
Usually the lack of hot water or a blocked sewerage system works.
If they have not already created these problems, you could turn off the hot water, or if that doesn't work the bad smell does the trick. Just drain one of your S or P traps so that the odorous gases enter the house.
Sorry couldn't resist, just spent a week with extended family at holiday house. They emptied one tank of water and half the other, stuffed the toilet with paper (didn't want to flush at night that would set the water pump off disturbing others). When they ran out of water, I switched to stained water tank. I had to explain to them that water didn't just come down from the sky!

sounds to me that the water does come down from the sky and you probably just catch it and store it in tanks.

way back in the good old day they built cisterns around here to catch rain.
nothing but flat land around here on the coast, and most rivers and creeks are brackish.
drilling water well has come a long way in the last 200 years.

where is your Holiday house?
up in the mountains or rocky ground where wells are hard to drill?

Sheff, good to here is was a simple fix, but if you have power T&T, adjusting/ playing with that some to help lower the bow and then readjust once on plane or maybe tabs or a tail would help you in those situations

[zenoahphobic]

sounds to me that the water does come down from the sky and you probably just catch it and store it in tanks.

way back in the good old day they built cisterns around here to catch rain.
nothing but flat land around here on the coast, and most rivers and creeks are brackish.
drilling water well has come a long way in the last 200 years.

where is your Holiday house?
up in the mountains or rocky ground where wells are hard to drill?

Sheff, good to here is was a simple fix, but if you have power T&T, adjusting/ playing with that some to help lower the bow and then readjust once on plane or maybe tabs or a tail would help you in those situations

The holiday house is actually on the coast near a saltwater lake system. Bore water is plentiful but has high mineral content. Unfortunately the rainfall is fairly low and never seems to rain when you need it. Therefore the water supply tends to be finite. Some years ago I installed several smaller capacity tanks, after having experienced arriving one day after the three and a half hours drive, to discover the only steel tank was empty. It emptied itself through a pin hole. You can never be sure when a tank will fail by the inevitable rusting. Now they are plastic (polyethylene) but they are still vulnerable. And a very small leak adds up very quickly in days or months; it almost seems impossible to keep the plumbing including the pump from leaking a small bit. Ball valves at each tank can be left on or someone turns them on when we are not there.

[pstephens46]

The holiday house is actually on the coast near a saltwater lake system. Bore water is plentiful but has high mineral content. Unfortunately the rainfall is fairly low and never seems to rain when you need it. Therefore the water supply tends to be finite. Some years ago I installed several smaller capacity tanks, after having experienced arriving one day after the three and a half hours drive, to discover the only steel tank was empty. It emptied itself through a pin hole. You can never be sure when a tank will fail by the inevitable rusting. Now they are plastic (polyethylene) but they are still vulnerable. And a very small leak adds up very quickly in days or months; it almost seems impossible to keep the plumbing including the pump from leaking a small bit. Ball valves at each tank can be left on or someone turns them on when we are not there.

So your good potable water is trucked in?

[99yam40]

I would have to think why would someone turn on valves when you are not there.
I get it, did someone forget to turn them off or did someone come while you were gone and turn them back on for some purpose.
I have found things not the same as what I remember leaving them sometimes at the farm land house, but have no idea how that happened.
maybe someone knows lock combinations to get in, or our minds are loosing it

[pstephens46]

I would have to think why would someone turn on valves when you are not there.
I get it, did someone forget to turn them off or did someone come while you were gone and turn them back on for some purpose.
I have found things not the same as what I remember leaving them sometimes at the farm land house, but have no idea how that happened

Neighbor ran out of water and stopped by...

[zenoahphobic]

All three above.
I believe someone is making nice money trucking in potable water. This town was, still is, much of a holiday town that sees huge influx of people in the summer. Most city slickers are huge water wasters and just assume water will always come out of a tap, they don't even realise where it comes from..
My father's neighbour helped himself to his water to mix his mortar when building his house. That neighbour had no remorse, believed that that water belonged to everyone.
The story extends when a low pressure sewerage system was imposed on us using resident's water. Came one time and found a whole tank empty; they obviously used some of it to fill their installed ground tank and used the rest no doubt to fill their tanker! Recently when my plumber installed the connection plumbing he left the ball valve open. Denials all round of course.
They don't see this as theft, they don't even see that perhaps they should ask first.