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Engine: 1999 Volvo Penta 4.3gl
190 Horizon

The engine idles very low and unless it has been warmed up for about 30 minutes (giving it gas without prop engaged) it wall stall out while in neutral. Also, when I put the drive in gear I have to give it allot of gas or it will stall out. Once it is in gear it runs fine.

The issue has gotten progressively worse, the constant stalling makes maneuvering difficult (especially while docking!)

The high octane gas is new and the fuel filter has been replaced recently.

Can the throttle be adjusted and have higher RPMs while in neutral? If so, is this simple to do? Any other thoughts?

Carb adjustment is simple - same as on a car. There is an idle adjustment screw on the throttle linkage on the carb. When you get it to idle, you may want to adjust your idle mixture screws as well. Unfortunatley this is beginning to indicate maybe a bigger issue in the carb - possibly due to E10 gas - and may need a carb rebuild over winter.

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport

Thanks for the response.

I went ahead and replaced the oil filter and spark plugs to see if it was something simple. Everything looked good on the plugs and filter (no water), but the problem remained so I had a mechanic come out to the dock to take a look. He seems to think that one of the cylinders is not firing at idle. He removed and cleaned the distributor cap, but that did not solve the problem. He is coming back out to replace the distributor cap and cables. If that doesn’t solve the problem he wants to conduct a compression test.

The boat would not start at the end of last season. It turned out to be the relay, which I replaced and it solved the problem. Could the new relay be causing this not firing issue?

Any other suggestions?

meant to type "I went ahead an replaced the fuel filter and spark plugs"

Sounds like your mechanic is onto this and going through the right sequence to find it. Hopefully it is just a bad lead and not a compression issue...

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport