Boat dies when i put in gear

Hi, me again! It seems my mechanic quit (haven't heard back from him). So my friend Laura and I took it upon ourselves to try your advise. We youtubed Top dead center and went from there. We took your firing advise and she sounds really good. (strong!) We cant do the lake test until tomorrow. So fingers crossed! We will let you know after the lake test.    
Thanks again to everyone for their help. Lisa

Thank you so much! It will be a few days before I can get the boat back to the mechanic but i will definitely let you know how it goes. Again thanks to everyone for all the help!

Ken,
Nice trick with the rags in the plug holes. I honestly have never heard of the method. Simple and I like it!! Sure easier that trying to read rocker arm movements!

I have always heard that you can learn something every day of your life and still die stupid!

Now lets see if Lisa's mechanic can follow it???

Good job with the picture Lisa.

Your tag has a firing order of 1 8 4 5 6 2 7 3 (later 302)

but you have the order arranged to be 1 8 7 3 6 2 4 5 (early 302)

You'll notice some clown named KenO did a little experiment the other day and took his
engine with the late firing order and rearranged the wires to see how it ran.

His results were that the engine would idle a little rough and a little slow but sound pretty good actually.

But when it was given any gas after shifting into gear it stalled. This probably sounds familiar to you

You said it didn't run with the later firing order as shown on the tag. I'm not sure why it didn't , but i'd either try that order again. (thats 1 8 4 5 6 2 7 3} or another option would be to pull the plugs and put a little piece of rag over each plug hole, then rotate the engine by hand in the correct rotation direction and see what order the little pieces get blown out of the plug holes. You have to start with #1 at Top Dead Center on the compression stroke.You can find that with a rag over the plug hole

By the time you get to the 3rd plug hole you'll know which firing order you have.

First rag to blow out will be #1 when you find TDC on the compression stroke

Second will be #8

And then it'll be either #4 if you have the later order like your tag says...... or if #7 is next instead of #4 then you have the early firing order which is the way you have it now.

You only really need a rag over the #1 8 4 and 7 holes to figure out the order but if you take all the plugs out, it'll rotate easier by hand.

You can rotate it with a 15/16 socket on the front crankshaft bolt that holds the harmonic balancer on..


Cylinder numbering is

Front of engine
   5                  1

   6                  2

   7                  3

   8                  4

and you want to rotate the engine counterclockwise if you're looking from the FRONT, Or in other words rotate it toward the drivers side of the boat

You might have to read this a few times to digest it, but it'll tell you your firing order

Lisa,
Did you get the FO corrected and have you got the engine running? If not, we would still like to help with the FO but still need the information on the engine marinizer. With your recent site visits,tell us what you have been trying in order to post pictures. We have had other members with problems posting pictures too so don't feel bad. One solution is to email pictures to another member so they can post them for you. Links to members emails including mine are in their profiles. You click on the arrow next to the members screen name and a drop down menu will come up. Have you tried Google Chrome yet? I use it without problems.

Duane in Indy wrote: Distributor will turn CCW on Fords looking down on it no matter which way the crankshaft rotates. Reverse Rotation or not.      That is what screws up most Auto mechanics

Another thing that screws up auto mechanics is the FO is cast into the intake manifold. Same manifold is used on RH or LH rotation engines My 302 was that way and really messes with your mind.

MourningWood wrote: Please also note the direction that the distributor rotor turns. .

Distributor will turn CCW on Fords looking down on it no matter which way the crankshaft rotates. Reverse Rotation or not.      That is what screws up most Auto mechanics

Try Google Chrome for your home page. My old computer would not upload to the "tree" icon either until I open CCF in Google Chrome..
My 88 Barefoot when I first got it.

Lisa,
Are you trying to post pictures from a mobile device? If so, it doesn't work very well. Most will email a picture to themselves and then post it from their home computer.

Sorry about the seller being misinformed and the "mechanic" who has problems with FO's!

The guy who sold me the boat said I had to add lead. Hmm could have saved a LOT of money. The mechanic that suggested wire changes was auto mechanic. I uploaded some pics but can't seem to get em on my profile yet..do they have to be approved first?

LisaO wrote: I have to add lead to the fuel tank.

NO!! The lead "substitute" is a scam with a very high mark up that marinas love to push! Lead did add some lubrication that did save wear on valve faces and valve seats but not much. When it's time for a valve job, that's when hardened seats can be installed. If the "mechanic" pushing the substitute says any more about it, ask him if he remembers white gas or in some areas it was called marine gas. Guess what, it was straight run gas with absolutely NO additives and the old engines with NO hardened valve seats ran fantastic on the stuff!!!

Hi, thanks to everyone for all your help. The boat did run well before the plugs/wires were changed. Problem is that they did not make note of old FO UGG! It was suggested that I change them because they had some hairline splits (damage) to them. I did drain out old fuel and put in new. I have to add lead to the fuel tank.

My question to the OP is the one Pete asked earlier.....how did it run before the plug/wire change?

'Cuz if ran good, then was worked on, and now doesn't run good, chances are very, very good that an error was made in the work done.

Time for part 3 of this experiment.

One of those other voices in my head said "what's wrong with you, not seeing how it takes some load? "

So..... off to the boat, swap wires around again, fire it up, same slowish idle, bump it into gear and it would stay idling and moving.

Give it any gas at all after that and it would backfire and stall every time.

Probably wiped out a power valve with all those backfires but did prove to myself anyways that, yes it will idle but it won't take any load with the swapped firing order

Swapped it back to normal, and drove back to the dock.with no problems.