My boat idles at 900 to 950 and is 750 to 800 in gear, seems perfectly fine to me. I have no reason to want it to idle slower. It warms up well from a cold start and shifts smoothly with these settings.

When checking engine rpm, the gauges on the Marinettes are notoriously inaccurate. If you have access to an optical tachometer, set the idle rpm that way. For example, my tachometers show 1000 rpm at idle on the gauges. In reality, the idle is 800 rpm by optical tachometer. In gear, the idle is 700 rpm, about as slow as you want an engine to idle or the engine will not idle smooth, leading to clanging noises from the transmission due to uneven idle.

BPBoater,

Your observation adds to my thoughts of installing a FloScan meter for twin 318's. I'd considered a dual gauge system - the Twinscan GPH and Tach for something of a OEM look but had also considered the 9000 series multifunction twin engine model as well. As it is purely a digital system/display I've been a little leery of getting that unit, but your comments have me thinking that I'd rather error on the side of digital electronics than analog. Hopefully, that's not blasphamey here.

Other than price, they are the same as far as how they are made. The big difference is the wires are different lenghts for some marine engines, because they have to be routed differently.

If I remember correctly, someone said a set of (automotive) big block chevy wires w/ right angle boots works well. I need to find out myself, so I can redo my engines...

-Shane

My Mercruiser had a momentary cut out switch that would kill spark for a split second when shifting gears to avoid the clunk and gear wear.

They're the same.

Jeff

Maybe I have been lucky but every carter afb issue I have ever worked on including mine this spring, was cureable by pulling the carb and taking the air horn off and then giving it a real good carb cleaner bath, I like to wash them out real well then a little manual scrubbing with a tooth brush and/or a gun cleaning brush or pipe cleaner type device and rewash with more carb cleaner then air blow it clean and dry. Do hit all the orfices and then clean the arrestor as well, I have found wesleys bleach white for car tire white walls was great at cleaning the flame arrestors, made them like new again, worked better than the can of carb cleaner I wasted on it first. Learn a couple of new tricks every year.

P.S. you can get (5) air horn gaskets from JEGS.COM FOR $11.xx and that is all you need to give this a whirl. I keep (2) complete carb kits on the boat all the time but have never used them, just air horn gaskets.

I done the same deal to my Onan 6.5 carb just this evening as the final step in getting it going again after being broke down with the cylinders full of water for 10-15 years. I didn't even pull it off the engine just the air horn and done a half azzed clean up on it, still needs done right but it came to life and ran nicely as where it would not even burp before this simple cleaning.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but Carter AFBs are of aluminum construction. Ethanol in the crap gas we are fored to use will soon eat pinholes in them--regular gas did that to one of mine after 20 years of use.

"It's just a matter....of time!"

On idle rpms....If it clunks going into gear--idle is too high. If it tries to stall--idle is too low (or the carb's mixture adjustment is off). Look for a happy medium between the two. Also, for manuevering at the slip, a higher idle speed makes things easier.

Jeff

SHAFT (not rudder) packings need to drip for lubrication reasons. And the packing box should NOT be hot--I have often put my fingers on them while flying along and they are cold.

The "Dripless" deals use mechanical seals (like a pump seal) that require water pumped into them to keep the seal faces from burning up. One either loves or hates them. IF all is well they are maintenance free, but if the seal face dies they can flood your boat. Six of one, a half dozen of the rest....

Jeff

Sean:

Have you replaced the packings, or are yours old ones that leak too much? If the latter, don't tighten them up any more or you'll score your shafts, for the packing lubricity is long gone. I recommend the Teflon packing--it works great and is maintenance free. Adjusted mine early last year and haven't had to touch them again yet, and they run cool to the touch.

Jeff