Motor damaged?

[Kurt505]

I run a 2 stroke outboard, yesterday I was cruising across the lake, everything was fine, then my motor got slower and slower until it shut off (about a 5 second process). After I lifted the motor to make sure there wasn’t a rat nest of line or weeds on the prop I tried starting it up again. First couple times it wouldn’t turn over, then it turned over and fired up so I slowly idled about 200yds to where I was going to fish. While I was trolling with the electric motor I opened up my oil tank/battery compartment and noticed my oil tank moved and my oil line was pinched, restricting about 90% of the oil supply.

I moved the oil tank and straightend out the line. I started out cruising at 1/2 throttle, then 3/4 throttle, then wide open, it ran fine after that. Did I luck out and avoid damage or is there something I should look for?

[jungleboy]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

I run a 2 stroke outboard, yesterday I was cruising across the lake, everything was fine, then my motor got slower and slower until it shut off (about a 5 second process). After I lifted the motor to make sure there wasn’t a rat nest of line or weeds on the prop I tried starting it up again. First couple times it wouldn’t turn over, then it turned over and fired up so I slowly idled about 200yds to where I was going to fish. While I was trolling with the electric motor I opened up my oil tank/battery compartment and noticed my oil tank moved and my oil line was pinched, restricting about 90% of the oil supply.

I moved the oil tank and straightend out the line. I started out cruising at 1/2 throttle, then 3/4 throttle, then wide open, it ran fine after that. Did I luck out and avoid damage or is there something I should look for?

If it's running fine you are likely lucky newer 2 strokes rune pretty lean so if you didn't force anything you might be alright. This is why I never trusted oil injection on a two stroke and preferred to mix the fuel manually .
I had an old (1958) Evinrude I seized up on the lake (tried to save a buck with regular 2 stroke oil.).After it cooled down it freed up and I made sure to run marine 2 stroke oil after that and it ran fine for years after that, probably still going .

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

If it's running fine you are likely lucky newer 2 strokes rune pretty lean so if you didn't force anything you might be alright. This is why I never trusted oil injection on a two stroke and preferred to mix the fuel manually .
I had an old (1958) Evinrude I seized up on the lake (tried to save a buck with regular 2 stroke oil.).After it cooled down it freed up and I made sure to run marine 2 stroke oil after that and it ran fine for years after that, probably still going .

Thanks man, that gives me a sense of relief. I’m going to try and get out for a rip one day soon on a popular lake just to see if all is good (it should be), that way if it breaks down I’ll be more likely to get a tow back to shore, lol.

[MooseRiverTrapper]

Your fine. Either seized up or not.

[Iceman80]

Plug the spark plugs and see what they look like. You’ll see evidence of top end damage if there is any. Extreme cases the electrode will be bent or full of debris.


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[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Iceman80

Plug the spark plugs and see what they look like. You’ll see evidence of top end damage if there is any. Extreme cases the electrode will be bent or full of debris.


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I guess that should have been the first thing I checked, I’m going to check it out right now.



Plugs are good. Bottom 2 are a milk chocolate brown, top 2 are a dark chocolate brown. No white or debris.

[Fishwhere]

I had something similar to this happen to me and i thought my motor was overheating and needing to cool down. All it turned out to be was my gas hose connection getting pinched - sounds similar.

[Dean2]

I doubt you did any damage. Depending on make and age it easily could have a shut off if the oil gets too lean. My 150 HP Suzuki two stroke has that feature. Most of the two strokes also had temperature shut down, even if it doesn't have oil monitoring, and too little oil will raise the running temp enough to cause that to shut off the motor.

You said the top of the pistons and plugs look good so most likely you didn't do any damage. Top of piston will almost always show damage before the bearings or rings have a problem.

[Sooner]

So my dad is 83 and getting forgetful. During the winter he put reg gas in the leaf blower instead of mixed even though I had each jug marked with where they go. He did this a few times and each time it slowed to a stop when the reg gas took over. I would see the wrong color gas in, take it home, drain and fill with mixed.

Only now does it blow a bit of blue when it starts and until it is warm. He did damage the piston walls running it dry those times.


You had a one time incident and caught it. I doubt you will see any issues in long term damages. Got lucky.

[bigtuna81]

To me it sounds like the motor had a built in safety mode.

[Tfng]

It’s damaged. How bad is anyone’s guess. Could run for twenty years or pile up next week. It seized due to lack of lubrication so there’s got to be damage it may be slight but it’s there.

The flecks of aluminum on a spark plug can be quite small, have a really good look in good lighting.

I would test the compression.