It sounds like it came real close too seizing perhaps. You may have gotten
lucky.... only time will tell.

-W

"c.haidar" wrote in message
news:jUr%a.156787$o%2.66169@sccrnsc02...
I have a question I hope some of you folks can answer.This is long so bear
with me please. I was out yesterday the oil indicator came on but my wife
didnt notice it for a few minutes (she was driving). The boat jerked once
so
she stopped it. I checked the oil (it's a 90 HP outboard) and it was very
close to being empty. So I filled it up and tried starting it but no sign
of
life. Waited a few minutes and tried starting it, finally it started. I
revved it up and it sounded fine, put it in gear and it would die on me.
After a few attempts, I would rev it up to 3500 rpm, but when I put it in
forward the boat wouldn't go more than 2000 rpm on full throttle....after
a
few attempts, tried it and everything was back to normal (except it was
idling at 400 rpm and choking up). Can someone explain to me what happened
(other than the fact that we should have checked the oil before we went
out?
Your help is much appreciated, thank you!!!!

The way my boat is set up the fuel line squeeze bulb is next to the oil tank.
It's virtually impossible to start the engine without observing the oil level.
In the Army we used to refer to such arrangements as idiot proofing.

Give it a try.

Butch

Probably seized a ring with no lube oil. If the ring didn't seat
right, it was sucking crankcase instead of gas so you lost power. Did
it smoke a lot when it was slow?

The engine really needs to be torn down to see how much damage you did
to rings and cylinder walls.....before you do any more damage to it
trying to run it like this......



On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 15:15:27 GMT, "c.haidar"
wrote:

I have a question I hope some of you folks can answer.This is long so bear
with me please. I was out yesterday the oil indicator came on but my wife
didnt notice it for a few minutes (she was driving). The boat jerked once so
she stopped it. I checked the oil (it's a 90 HP outboard) and it was very
close to being empty. So I filled it up and tried starting it but no sign of
life. Waited a few minutes and tried starting it, finally it started. I
revved it up and it sounded fine, put it in gear and it would die on me.
After a few attempts, I would rev it up to 3500 rpm, but when I put it in
forward the boat wouldn't go more than 2000 rpm on full throttle....after a
few attempts, tried it and everything was back to normal (except it was
idling at 400 rpm and choking up). Can someone explain to me what happened
(other than the fact that we should have checked the oil before we went out?
Your help is much appreciated, thank you!!!!



Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.

Larry-
The engine did not smoke at all. It just felt like the prop wasnt turning at
full throttle, after a few attempts, it was back to normal. The only
difference was the idle rpm dropped a little, consequently when i would put
it in forward or reverse it would stall unless i revved up the engine to
800-900 rpm and then put it in gear. I will do a compression test on it on
Monday. To make things worse, i have to take my Ford F150 to change
everything on the front end, a $1400 project. what a ****ty 2 days!!! Thank
you all for your help/advice, i will lwt you know what happens.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Probably seized a ring with no lube oil. If the ring didn't seat
right, it was sucking crankcase instead of gas so you lost power. Did
it smoke a lot when it was slow?

The engine really needs to be torn down to see how much damage you did
to rings and cylinder walls.....before you do any more damage to it
trying to run it like this......



On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 15:15:27 GMT, "c.haidar"
wrote:

I have a question I hope some of you folks can answer.This is long so
bear
with me please. I was out yesterday the oil indicator came on but my wife
didnt notice it for a few minutes (she was driving). The boat jerked once
so
she stopped it. I checked the oil (it's a 90 HP outboard) and it was
very
close to being empty. So I filled it up and tried starting it but no sign
of
life. Waited a few minutes and tried starting it, finally it started. I
revved it up and it sounded fine, put it in gear and it would die on me.
After a few attempts, I would rev it up to 3500 rpm, but when I put it in
forward the boat wouldn't go more than 2000 rpm on full throttle....after
a
few attempts, tried it and everything was back to normal (except it was
idling at 400 rpm and choking up). Can someone explain to me what
happened
(other than the fact that we should have checked the oil before we went
out?
Your help is much appreciated, thank you!!!!



Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.

Verify you have good compression on each cylinder. Not sure what yours
will read as not sure of brand and year. However, each cylinder should be 90
psi or better and all should be within 10 psi of each other.


Tony, I will do as you suggested. The engine is a 1994 Tohatsu 90HP. Any
idea what would be an acceptable compression on this specific outboard?
Once again, thank you all for your help.

c.haidar Writes

After a few attempts, I would rev it up to 3500 rpm, but when I put it in
forward the boat wouldn't go more than 2000 rpm on full throttle....after a
few attempts, tried it and everything was back to normal (except it was
idling at 400 rpm and choking up). Can someone explain to me what happened
(other than the fact that we should have checked the oil before we went out?
Your help is much appreciated, thank you!!!!

Does your outboard share the same oil with the engine and gearbox? While
it seems most likely that power loss due to low compression is causing
the revs to die under load, transmission drag would have much
the same effect.

--
Trevor Dennis
Remove s-p-a-m to email

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 15:15:27 GMT, "c.haidar"
wrote:

I have a question I hope some of you folks can answer.This is long so bear
with me please. I was out yesterday the oil indicator came on but my wife
didnt notice it for a few minutes (she was driving). The boat jerked once so
she stopped it. I checked the oil (it's a 90 HP outboard) and it was very
close to being empty. So I filled it up and tried starting it but no sign of
life. Waited a few minutes and tried starting it, finally it started. I
revved it up and it sounded fine, put it in gear and it would die on me.
After a few attempts, I would rev it up to 3500 rpm, but when I put it in
forward the boat wouldn't go more than 2000 rpm on full throttle....after a
few attempts, tried it and everything was back to normal (except it was
idling at 400 rpm and choking up). Can someone explain to me what happened
(other than the fact that we should have checked the oil before we went out?
Your help is much appreciated, thank you!!!!

If you ran it without oil, it is at least partially cooked.
As others have stated, check compression, and cross your fingers.
Good luck,
noah