One Hobby Too Far

After doing a Seafoam de-carb on the motor, how did it go?

The answer is no change. Throttle up and it chokes. Throttle back and it dies. It idles just fine.

So, next thing to check is fuel. I looked at the SELOC manual and a few online videos and the fuel pump didn’t seem to hard to rebiild. The parts kit was under $20, so might as well rebuild it.

One of the things that has concerned me about the boat’s motor is the very low compression it has. When I tested it right after I bought it, each of the cylinders was reaching only about 80 psi, when it should be up about 120 psi. Granted this is an old boat, and who knows how it was cared for? The important thing is that each of the cylinders is close to each other in compression.

When I was researching boat repairs, I came across many different YouTube videos about shocking the engine with Seafoam to remove carbon and unstick the rings. Since it is a detergent it would also clean any other internal components.

What’s the point of having a boat if you don’t take her out now and again? She might feel lonely and neglected.

We had talked about taking the boat out as a family a week or so prior to the events of May 30th. The original plan was to take a week off and visit the beach, but unfortunately Covid took that from us. It was going to end up a staycation and we might as well spend a day of it on a lake.

I was getting a little stir crazy after a week and a half of sitting around resting and recovering. Overall, I was finally settling into my new normal life and I felt better than I had in months. I asked my wife if she thought it would be ok if we went out on the lake for a couple of hours. Just go out and cruise around and have some lunch. We would leave the fishing poles at home this trip.