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Cold Starting

Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: General Forums
Forum Name: The Boat Shed
Forum Description: Discuss all things boating.
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=133771
Printed Date: 21 Sep 2026 at 3:08pm


Topic: Cold Starting
Posted By: pjc
Subject: Cold Starting
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 9:48am
Ok suppose to be out chasing Gurnard today.
On recent purchase have found the older motor hard to start to almost flatten battery,so not to make an ass of myself elected to find out why.
Come across this site and bingo there lay the answers. Started following their procedure and 2 turns it splutted in to life.

https://forums.iboats.com/forum/engine-repair-and-maintenance/engine-frequently-asked-questions-faq/231251-johnson-evinrude-cold-start-procedures" rel="nofollow - https://forums.iboats.com/forum/engine-repair-and-maintenance/engine-frequently-asked-questions-faq/231251-johnson-evinrude-cold-start-procedures

Johnson/Evinrude cold start procedures

This seems to come up quite a lot, so this Thread is an attempt to capture the common cold-start procedures for the various types of ignitions, and fuel delivery systems for OMC outboards. The following are standard guidelines for cold-starting. Your particular outboard may vary, but these procedures should give you a good baseline. There is no substitute for knowing the particular quirks of your own equipment.

Regardless of the year and type of outboard the steps common to all these are:
  1. Ensure all battery connections are solid, and battery has a full charge (electric start only).
  2. Ensure the fuel lines are properly attached to tank and outboard.
  3. Ensure the fuel tank is properly vented. Buit-in tanks will have a dedicated vent line. Some portable tanks will often have a vent screw built into the cap, others will have auto-venting caps.
  4. Pump the primer bulb in the fuel line until it is hard. If the primer bulb does not become hard you may have other issues including an air leak, defective bulb, or misadjusted carbuerator floats.
  5. If you have electric trim, trim the motor up to eliminate excessive back-pressure during cold start. Do NOT tilt the motor up out of the water.


You are now ready to start your outboard using the following procedures specific to you model.

Remote Keyed Ignition

There are two basic types of fuel systems to aid in cold starting. Solenoid activated Choke plates and solenoid primers. The starting procedures are the same for each.
  1. Place the motor in fast-idle and in neutral gear. Depending on your remote control box, this is acomplished in one of two manners. If you have a dedicated fast-idle lever pull that up between 3/4 to full. If you have a single-lever control and don't have a fast-idle lever, pull the throttle out to lock the engine in neutral and push the throttle forward. If you have a dual-lever control, leave the shifter in neutral, and advance the throttle.
  2. Push the key in, activating the choke plates or primer.
  3. Turn the key to start.
  4. After the motor begins to run, release the key so it returns to the run position and disengages the choke/primer.
  5. As the motor begins to stumble, bump the key in activating the choke/primer. You may need to do this several times until the motor can fast-idle on its own.
  6. If you tilted your motor up for cold-start, lower the motor to its normal operating position.
  7. Visually inspect tell-tale for solid stream indicating proper cooling.
  8. As the motor warms up, slowly begin reducing the fast-idle until the motor is able to run in normal idle on its own.
So having resolved that isue thought Hmm lets look at trailer and give a paint so now in process of cleaning down and will give it a coat Hammerite.Have used before and lasted 4 yrs before showing rust signs.



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Sex at 58.Lucky I live at 56


Replies:
Posted By: neil_cb125t
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 2:59pm
Yeah old jonnys are really good, if it doesnt FIRE straight away (doesnt always catch) 999.9999% of the time its fuel.

Posted By: Reel Deal
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 5:09pm
that’s how I started my Johnny. Mostly first time start. I did have a leak in fuel hose connection. No fuel came out but the bulb would go soft after sitting between starts so air was getting in. But sorted. 

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The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb

Posted By: letsgetem
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 7:24pm
Thats ridiculous - having to go through such complications. My 4 stroke starts first time without anything except turn the key.

Posted By: MacSkipper
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2020 at 1:37am
Bumping the choke ( pushing key in ) works well for me have found motor needs to be vertical for cold starts though.


Not familiar with hammerite for trailer rustproofing I have had good results with por 15.

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Good fishing trip nothing breaks, great trip catch fish.

Posted By: Big -Dave
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2020 at 8:10pm
Tired labrynth seals, the Reed block between two cylinders sharing the same carb, can make cold starting difficult, as the fuel air charge escapes next door to the other crank case rather than up the transfer port in to the combustion chamber. Tilting the motor up to reduce the back pressure helps.
A common sign of this is needing a high idle to stop the motor stalling when put in to gear.

I have noticed over the years that omc motors seem to need more warming up than yamaha or mercy.
I had an old 100 hp merchandise, 4 cyl, it idled on 2 cylinders, and would go in to gear no worries after 10 seconds of cold start.

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you can't fix an idiot with duct tape, but it does muffle them for a while...


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