www.iFourWinns.com

Useful to know; I've noticed before that here's a fairly large cockpit floor section in mine that can be removed. Underneath it there's the rearmost part of the in floor storage compartment; I'll have a look to see if there's a removeable inspection cover there.

Graham

I pulled my anti-siphon valve yesterday and though it appeared to be working properly, I replaced it. When I was at my local boatstore picking up the replacement, the service person asked what problem I was trying to solve. I told him and he politely told me that the anti-siphon valve would probably not cure that.

He went on to tell me that in the last 3 years, he's received call after call about this same problem. He blames the increased amount of alcohol/ethanol being added to fuel and he said it is causing fuel systems to vapor lock, especially in the hotter months of the year. He noted that he has customers with new boats and old calling about this, fuel injected and carb'ed.

His suggestion was that if you're stopping for awhile, run the blower the entire time you're stopped to lower the engine compartment temps. If your blower is marginal (like mine), prop open the engine hood to let it cool off. If you get stranded, wrap the fuel pump with a wet rag or pack it with ice from your cooler to get the temp down. He agreed that my method of topping off the fuel separator will fix it too, by giving the engine a dose of relatively cold gasoline.

Anyway, his theory of the ethanol gas makes sense, because I never had an issue until 3 years ago, which is when Colorado started mandating 10% ethanol gas (or some percentage close to that). I guess as long as I can get home I'm not going to sweat it too much, but it's nice to have a couple other options to correct the problem.

Hope this helps someone out.

Allan

Sounds like vapor lock to me. I experienced it a few weeks ago, was on the hook all night with the genny and blower running. It was hot, 90 degrees out, about 1PM when we turned off the gen and fired up the engine to pull anchor. She sputtered and died, but after I let it idle for a while she was fine.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

I use StarTron fuel treatment for every fill up. I dislike Ethanol fuels.

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Troy
2008 Centurion Avalanche
1994 Four Winns Horizon 180 SE 5.0L OMC Cobra (Sold)
2002 Ford F150 Harley Davidson Edition (http://www.nhtoc.com) 378 hp & 465 tq at rear wheels
2008 Honda Accord EX-L w/Nav

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get the boat out since I rerouted the blower hose. It figures that I would pick the hottest weekend of the year to stain our deck and the second hottest weekend I had a wedding out of town. It's pretty sad when it is the middle of August and I'm still on my first tank of fuel.

After I had this issue once last year, I simply ran the blower longer and it didn't happen again until this last incident. If nothing else, this has forced me to learn more about my fuel system.

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2001 Four Winns Horizon 180LE, VP 4.3GL/SX
2006 Ford F-150 Extended Cab 4x4, 5.4L

Any luck finding your problem yet? I haven't had any trouble on hot days or cool since the last fuel pump/check valve replacement. I've been thinking about the issues I had and I believe that vapor lock was part of my problem as well. I did have fuel pumps on each engine fail over the last couple years, and I did have check valves that were fouled at the time the pumps failed. From my expierience with the check valves, I have to disagree with the service person you talked to when he said that wouldn't have caused the problems we had, or at least the ones I had. One thing I didn't mention was that my check valves stuck OPEN, not closed. They weren't wide open, but debris (varnish) was keeping them from closing properly, and I was able to blow back into the tank at the time I was having the problems. This would have allowed fuel to push back into the tank when hot and in theory make vapor lock happen more easily.

From what I understand, the new fuel pumps run at a little higher pressure since they replace several older part numbers. I have to believe that has something to do with the success so far.

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USCG 50 Ton Master Inland/OUPV Endorsement+Towing

1998 278 Vista - Twin 4.3 GLs, Kohler 4KW Gen, AC/Heat.
1999 Yamaha Waverunner SUV
2003 Yamaha Waverunner SUV w/MR-1 HO conversion

Unfortunately, it was a balmly 72 Degrees this weekend, my son was sick, and my wife was working, so another weekend has passed without a trip to the lake. I'll keep my fingers crossed for this weekend. Forcast is currently high of 78 with 10% chance of rain on Sunday.

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2001 Four Winns Horizon 180LE, VP 4.3GL/SX
2006 Ford F-150 Extended Cab 4x4, 5.4L

Well, I had a successful weekend. Success #1, I was actually able to take the boat out. Success #2, I didn't have any fuel issues and rerouting the blower kept the engine compartment much cooler. I'm not going to call this case closed yet until I get to run her hard on a hot day, but I am hopeful that this was the issue. Success #3, I found my intermitent power loss issue. Occasionally I was loosing all power (no blower, no trim, no ignition, no gauges). After pulling the boat up the ramp at the end of the day on Saturday, the issue returned when I went to trim the outdrive up a little more. I got the meter out and started checking various connections and finally found that the + battery terminal was corroded. The trim pump and blower were actually running and the voltages at these were fine, but there wasn't enough current to run them at full speed. There also wasn't enough current to run the starter. Lesson learned, check the simple things first. Success #4, I proved to myself that I can launch and retrieve the boat by mysel without too much hassle. I've had a boat for nearly 10 years in total, and this weekend was my first attempt at going out alone. I knew I could do it, just needed to prove to myself that it wasn't too much of a hassle. I may have to start taking more solo trips to the lake to get away and watch the "scenery".

Anyways, thanks for all the help and guidance on my issue. Hopefully I can enjoy Labor Day weekend on the boat with some good weather and no mechanical issues.

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2001 Four Winns Horizon 180LE, VP 4.3GL/SX
2006 Ford F-150 Extended Cab 4x4, 5.4L

Congrats and good to hear!

Where are you headed on Labor Day? I think we are going to Monroe, not sure just yet.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

We were going to head down to Patoka Lake in Southern Indiana for the entire weekend, but our current plans (as of yesterday) are to head down to Monroe for the day Saturday and then to Patoka on Sunday and Monday.

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2001 Four Winns Horizon 180LE, VP 4.3GL/SX
2006 Ford F-150 Extended Cab 4x4, 5.4L

Ethanol fuels can cause all kinds of problems with older fuel systems because they clean out any accumulated junk and varnish in the tank and this can clog filters or even jets in the carb if it gets past the filters...
As far as the filters...have you been changing your water separating filter regularly...they usually last the whole season but if your region just changed to E10 gas you may need to do it a few times...I like to pour out the contents of the old filter and check for water (you'd see it as a layer on the bottom)...there is also a filter on the carb (at least on Rochester carbs) that can clog as well...probably not a bad idea to check that...I use the Sierra 10 micron filters for the water fuel separator and they work well.
And for the anti siphon...if the engine runs well at high speeds it's probably not the problem...I had a problem with mine sticking and the symptoms were that the engine would start and run OK at idle and low revs but would not plane the boat...would not pull the load of the boat at anything above 2000 rpm...my mechanic found this and replace the aluminum one with a brass one...the purpose of the anti siphon is to keep gas from siphoning into the bilge if the gas line from the tank to the separator leaks...there ball and spring close off the gas flow when the fuel pump stops sucking the fuel from the tank..if the ball corrodes in place the pump can't overcome the resistance of the ball and the engine starves for fuel...
It could be vapor lock...fixing the bilge blower may help...it is supposed to suck air from the lowest part of the bilge out the vent...and the the vent on the other side should have a hose going down to about the same place in the bilge to allow fresh air to come in to replace the bilge air being sucked out...I always open the engine cover anyway each time I start the engine just to sniff...and run the blower...never had the vapor lock problem but I'm at sea level where it's least likely....the higher your elevation the more likely it is to happen because of reduced atmospheric pressure...the hot fuel is more likely to start to boil...and when it vaporizes the carb really can't meter it right...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II