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Old 10-26-2011, 05:54 PM   #22
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
How do you start you boat?

Quote:
nomadwilly wrote:I can't believe you guys are starting your engines w so much throttle.*
In our case, it's the power lever setting spelled out in the manual for normal starts (as opposed to cold starts).* Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the FL120 has no glow-plugs or intake air pre-heaters.

Our Onan MDJE does have glow plugs and an intake air pre-heater.* The start procedure for that is to close the spring-loaded*pre-heat switch for 45 seconds to a minute (but not to exceed a minute), and then close the spring-loaded start switch, releasing both of them when the engine starts.

When we bought the boat we were told to apply pre-heat for "about ten seconds or so" and then engage the starter.* We did this for the first year or so and while the two-cylinder*engine always started* it always started hesitantly and*ran rough for a few seconds before smoothing out.

The Onan was the one thing on the boat that did not have an operators manual.* After I joined the Grand Banks owners forum I mentioned this and another member sent me a copy.* When I read it, I saw the* "45 seconds to one minute" instruction for pre-heat.* As soon as I started doing that, the Onan fired right up and ran smoothly from the get-go, as it does to this day.


-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 26th of October 2011 06:55:38 PM
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