lost power

[midman45]

have f26 with a 318 engine runs fine in neutral but loses power in gear it feels like no gas but spitting it out the exhaust with lots or carbon had carb rebuilt new coil,plugs and distributor any help would be grateful

[larryeddington]

You apparently have a very rich mixture. I know many are afraid to rebuild their own carbs, but these AFBs are very simple. I have not had much luck through the years with rebuilt carbs unless I did it. IMO the problem is with the mechanic, wrong gasket, misadjusted needles or floats, leaky floats etc. I would go back to the mechanic and demand he fix it. However do not have great expectations the second time around.

I am biased as I just do not like having work done for me, as often not satisfactory.

[captainmaniac]

To Larry's point - I had similar problems a while ago and found root cause was that I was getting no advance on the distributor. I had it rebuilt by a guy locally but problems continued. Brought another mechanic in and found out that after rebuild it was still only advancing 1-2degrees .... bad rebuild job. Replaced it with a new distributor and all problems solved.

One other thing you didn't mention was having timing checked. See what it is set to, and see how much your timing is advancing when you goose the throttle. The specs for a marine engine are different than the specs for automotive use - if you used a marine mechanic familiar with Chrysler they should have set things up right. If it was an automotive guy and he didn't have the specs for the marine version, it could be completely set up wrong.

[Diverted Income]

You apparently have a very rich mixture. I know many are afraid to rebuild their own carbs, but these AFBs are very simple. I have not had much luck through the years with rebuilt carbs unless I did it. IMO the problem is with the mechanic, wrong gasket, misadjusted needles or floats, leaky floats etc. I would go back to the mechanic and demand he fix it. However do not have great expectations the second time around.

I am biased as I just do not like having work done for me, as often not satisfactory.

Oh how I agree with that statement! I would much rather do it myself! Even if it takes me two times!

[larryeddington]

Before the uproar starts, I would state there are some good marine mechanics. If you really find one you have a jewel as IMO they are far between. Seems we hear a lot about the PO of our boats but I would bet in most cases that really should be attributed to the mechanic working at direction of PO.

[prowlersfish]

9 out of 10 times its the PO that thinks they are a mechanic or hire some shade tree becuse a good one cost to much .

[larryeddington]

Paul is correct many owners hire the cheapest labor they can find. But paying a high price does not necessarily get a job done right. Best thing an owner can do is start learning about his equipment, then he may be able to tell when the mechanic know his stuff or not. The best place for that is here.

[Big D]

9 out of 10 times its the PO that thinks they are a mechanic or hire some shade tree becuse a good one cost to much .

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