Cold starting

[John19]

We bought a 16ft boat with a 50hp evinrude engine at the beginning of the year, and it has been absoultly fantastic. It has started up perfectly, quickly, all spring and summer. Now, with the colder weather, It's having a difficult time cranking over. Two weeks ago, it took about 15-20 minutes to get started,( I think I flooded it), and on Sunday, it started in about 7 minutes of trying to start it. Is this common to start slowly in the colder weather?, if not, what can I or should I do, to get it to start right up. The engine ran fine all day long, once it got started.

Thanks, John

[Dan Thiem]

Every OMC I have ever owned liked the choke on for starting when it was cooler out.

[Surface Tension]

Its normal, especially when you have the same spark plugs that have been in use all summer. Cold engines take more gas to start when cold so an old plug if not up to snuff will flood.

[John19]

Do you usually change your plugs during the season?, with ,I'd say moderate use, or just once in the beginning of the season.

[Surface Tension]

John, I have a few boats that see different levels of use.

As a rule I'll change plugs in the spring after I burn the fogging agent off. If a particular outboard has had a lot of use through the summer and I start experiencing hard starts in the fall I'll change the plugs again. Of coarse thats if I'm sure the outboard is getting enough gas and in your case your flooding out and have plenty of gas.

[marine_man]

The other thing is that the 40 and 50 HP OMC engines are typically cold blooded engines... they take a while to start and keep running when they're cold...

OMC's also have (or did have) a little different style of choke / cold starting aid.. it's more of a primer... you have to push the key in repeatedly to start then engine, vs. pushing the key in and holding it like a choke.

marine_man