Some of you will know that the Suzuki DF140 on my RC585 has not been well for a while. It is 2005 vintage, but only around 400 hours. I'm putting this slightly lengthy post on here, as the diagnosis is not one you would naturally check for, and it has been an absolute b****r to diagnose correctly!
The engine started playing up last season, sometimes stalling when going to tickover, and being a little difficult to re-start. One time I could not re-start it at all, and neither could Sea-Start, necessitating a tow back. The irritating thing was that if left for a day, it would start and run fine again. Infuriating!
It came to a head in June, when having towed it 100 miles to Portsmouth, it started fine, and then stalled, and neither I nor Sea Start could get it going again. There seemed to be fuel getting through, and the plugs sparked, but it just would not run.
Well following advice from rib-net and facebook group members, I checked a lot of stuff, cam chain timing, fuel system supply, etc etc. I then contacted Barry Windsor in Winsor Marine, who I have to say has been brilliant in all of this. As he was booked out for months, under his guidance, I started systematically going through the systems. I renewed the low and high pressure fuel pumps, cleaned out the entire fuel system, tried a completely separate fuel feed with new fuel, but still the same problem persisted.
One other disturbing symptom I noticed was that the oil level was going up! It also started to smell of petrol. Clearly fuel was getting into the oil. Needless to say I changed it immediately.
Barry eventually found a slot in his busy schedule to book my boat in, as it was clearly beyond my limited diagnostic capability. He had it while I was away on holiday, and in fact it was with him for a month in all, but he got to the bottom of it.
When the engine was turned off or stalled, the ECU was still telling the injectors to carry on pumping fuel after the engine was stopped. This flooded the cylinders,, and stopped the spark. Fuel will also get past the piston rings etc, and was getting into the oil, hence the rising oil level.
So Refurbishing/ reprogramming the ECU has completely solved the problem, and I have had a couple of autumn days out in the Solent just to be sure.
Unfortunately the problem stopped my toy working for the entire summer, which was the best ribbing weather for decades..... buy hey - it's working now!
Thanks again to Barry Windsor - top man!
