Wingnut

Based on what you saw I would pull the distributor and do the pressure check. Only way to be sure. Simple gauge will cost less than 10 bucks. W

Screw a pressure gauge into the threaded port at the rear of the intake valley and see what you have. 1/8" NPT male gauge available almost anywhere. You willl have to pull out th OEM pressure sender. I think you are fine. W

Only catch is that I have to use a Mercury service center. I'm curious how you got around this requirement from Merc. W

One of the three plug in relays in your picture is marked fuel pump. Remove it and attempt to start the engine several times and the fuel rail pressure will go to zero. If you don't have OEM manuals for that engine, send me a PM and I will get them to you. The cool fuel filter element looks about the same as every one I've ever replaced that was over a year old. I cut the old ones apart and fan them out looking carefully for particulate. A particle has to be at least 40 micron in order to be seen with the naked eye, and these are 10 micron absolute filters so if you can see "glitter" in it, then dealing with it becomes a priority. Ones that are several years old can have a jelly forming around the base plate and I think that happens when the filter soaks in the fogging mixture over the winter and the glue they use to assemble the filter begins to degrade. That's why I always change the element in the spring right after the initial start-up, so the new element is resting in fresh gasoline. As Shepherd mentioned, everyone tends to forget the base screen at the base of the module, and the suction screen affixed to the pump suction side. All cheaper and easier than replacing injectors. W

Buy the OEM manuals for your ride. Best money you can spend and the first miss-step they prevent pays for them several times over. The older your boat gets the more you will need them and at the very least they will send you off to the dealer as an educated consumer. W

Take a look atop the engines for a bank of small relays. One will be marked Main, one fuel pump, and the other two trim up and trim down. Not a engines have them but some do. If they are not there then it's time to trace/test control wires. W

There are trim up and trim down relays on both pumps, a redundant pair of relays atop the engine (on some models) marked trim up and trim down, and trim limit switches outboard affixed to the port side of each drive at the pivot point that will limit trim up operation but not trim down. W

I would take a good look at the gimbel bearing and make sure the outer locking ring is fully engauged all the way around the outer bearing race. If you see any of it sticking out, the bearing could be in cocked-eyed. Installing the bearing without the engine is not an issue. Pulling the engine with just the top jam nut removed is completely normal, as the drive is removed first allowing the engine to be lifted almost straight up. Put a chain across the lifter valley bolted into the front head bolt threads in the cylinder deck surface and center the chain. You should be fine. W

Can't explain why the tool goes in at say 12:00 and not after you rotate it to 6:00. I would roll the tool on a flat surface and make sure it is true. Rotating the engine 45, 90, 180, and so forth while rechecking is normal. Find what you think is the tightest spot, make sure the rear mounting bolts are tight, remove the tool and suspend the front of the engine from the mid-point. This is important so that you are not inducing a twisting moment into the block. Loosen the front mount jam nuts (4 total) giving you the ability to raise and lower the front of the engine at least 3/8" in both directions. Raise and/or lower the front of the engine in 1/8" intervals until the tool slides in freely. Then remove the tool, rotate the engine 180 degrees and try the tool again. If it is free, you are done. If not, try raising the front of the engine 1/16" and if the situation improves then go back 180 degrees and see if the position has degraded. If it has, then you must split the difference and find a happy medium. It the 1/16" additional lift makes the situation worse, then drop the engine 1/8" and repeat the process. It takes time to get this right and small moves are the key. Nice to have a helper and take notes of your changes. I Use clicks on my chain fall as an indicator, as they are about 1/32" each. When you are satisfied, raise the lower jam nut until it contacts the bottom of the mount, and then lock it in with the top jam nut. Good luck. Lastly, make sure your alignment tool is for a Gen II Alpha, and newer Bravo as the older ones were a different dimension. Sketch below.... The only other possibility is that the new coupler is not seated squarely on to the flywheel due to rust or a piece of debris, but I'm guessing you checked for that during installation. Did you have the flywheel off the crank flange? W Link to front mount. http://www.marinepartsplus.com/catalog/mercruiser/serialize(value)/350_MAG_MPI_HORIZON_ALPHA-BRAVO/884717003/12840-320

http://www.marinepartsplus.com/catalog/mercruiser/serialize(value)/350_MAG_MPI_HORIZON_ALPHA-BRAVO/884717003/12840-90

And they are heavy V-8 engines. Tried to get my Cobia dealer to concider putting one on a 277 CC that I specked with twin 250's and he said Nope. Too new. W

The excess works its way into the void space in the transom plate and is not an issue. No seals to blow out as it's a simple male/female slip fit. 6 pumps of a standard grease gun is enough. I sent you a pm relative to manuals. Shepherd is suggesting you pull the drive which is always a good idea every 100 hours or 3 years. Manual will walk you through it W

Yes, the coupler needs love too. Just be sure to utilize the proper lubricant as that is an extreme pressure application and a simple multi purpose grease will do more harm than good. This is the only place you will use this specialty lube on the entire boat. You will need to crank the engine over by hand until the coupler grease fitting is pointing straight up. I mark the engine crankshaft pulley with a bright line so that I can position the coupler fitting easily in the future. The grease gun I use for this fitting has a lock on coupler end so I can hold the gun with both hands. W Lubricants / Sealants / Adhesives Description Part Number Quicksilver 4-Cycle 25W-40 Marine Engine Oil 92-802837A1 SAE 20W, 30W Or 40W Engine Oil Obtain Locally Quicksilver High Performance Gear Lube 92-802854A1 Extended Life Ethylene Glycol Antifreeze Obtain Locally Quicksilver Special Lubricant 101 92-13872A1 Quicksilver Engine Coupler Spline Grease 92-802869A1 Quicksilver Corrosion Guard Spray 92-802878 55 Quicksilver 2-4-C Marine Lubricant With Teflon 92-825407A3 Quicksilver U-Joint and Gimbal Bearing Grease 92-828052A2 Quicksilver Power Trim And Steering Fluid 92-802880A1 Quicksilver Hydraulic Fluid 64-826485A1 Or Texaco H015 92-862014A1 SeaStar Hydraulic Fluid HA5430 Approved Hydraulic Chevron Aviation Fluid A Steering Fluids Mobil Aero HFA Obtain Locally Shell Aero 4 Fluid meeting MIL Specification H5606C

Yea Engines, you need those. When I lived in south Jersey, a US air plane lost one over a farmers field about a mile from my house. Pretty heavy population density there and I was amazed at how fast that engine got scooped up and on it's way back across the WW bridge. W

House here goes on the market April 1st +/-, so you may want to put a upper bay week on your bucket list before Mary and I head south. Great private launch facility, and secure storage here at the house for your rig while you enjoy the area. Some really nice bed and breakfast's have come on line and chain hotels at Kent Narrows are numerous, all within walking distance to the marinas. Baltimore, Annapolis, and Saint Michels can be fun too, but not my favorites. We are already looking forward to the Blue Angels on May 21, 22 and July 4th fireworks on the water. We did 4 displays last summer as the towns here stagger their celebrations. W

Pretty sure there was an engine pylon failure that grounded the fleet for a time also. W

Offer still stands. Got plenty of room here to store your ride and trailer and a top rate launch ramp about 1,500 yards down the street. We dredged the entire bulkhead and paved the entry road last season, and you are about 400 yards from the bay with no reduced wake zones. W

The new Airbus A-380 is so quiet it's almost unbelievable. Composite everything and can transport people on less fuel per mile than a car. We are talking a lot of people though at 853 max in economy configuration. Yikes. I never liked the L-1011, but the DC-10 was one of my favorites, until the engines started falling off of them. W

One of my best friends has a place there and I put it on par with boating on the Jersey Coast. Not much water inside, especially at low tide. Pontoon boats, Jet Skis, and no wake zones. Seacrets is fun as you anchor, wade in and sit at high-tops out in the water. Plenty of live music there. Fishing is good offshore, but our boats are not the best for that inlet and the rollers outside can be a bit big until you get several miles off shore. I say tow it here as I'm kinda on the way, drop it off, and spend your time in OC, then return a day or two early and enjoy the upper Chesapeake. I offer valet parking. Ha... m W

Noise back then did not seem to be an issue either.

Why would a refinery choose to distribute "Toxic Waste" out into the end user consumer stream when they have a Delayed Coking Unit sitting smack in the middle of their facility? Zero incentive for them with huge potential liability. Every unsaleable commingled waste product ends up going to the coker to include even human waste and all is converted to petroleum coke, which is sold in bulk to power plants and foundries to sweeten their burn. I fear you may have been miss-informed. In the US, there is no such thing as home heating oil any longer, as that historical tank-age and distribution chain is now utilized for off-road low sulfur diesel (LSD), which has a higher sulfur content than Ultra Low Sulfur diesel (ULSD), but otherwise is the same product. It does have a dye added to identify it as off-road motor fuel which is not taxed at the same rate as over the road fuel. Just don't get caught on a highway with dyed diesel. W

From a marketing perspective Jet A is almost a lost litre as the airlines want it for next to nothing and refineries have too much of that fraction. it's almost a waste product that cost a bunch to upgrade to something more marketable. The newest technology is GTL or gas to liquid that takes natural gas and converts it to a high base number lubricant stock and zero sulfur diesel fuel. Not much research going into civilian jet fuel. Now the military arena is a whole different animal. W

Another thing I have seen is a cylinder lock up. The shaft seal has a wiper ring and as corrosion builds up between the SST ring and aluminum cylinder end cap, it can squeeze the shaft so tight that the hydraulics can't overcome the resistance. This causes the drive to go down but not go up as the weight of the drive itself and the drag from the ring just becomes too much for the pump. Even on the work bench, I need to screw out the end cap and then put the shaft/end cap assembly in a bench press to get them apart. Easy rebuild after you get it apart and less than $20 in parts. If your pump runs after the fuse replacement, and blows again then you may have a cylinder issue. W

The same thing transpired when industry was forced to go to Ultra Low Sulfur diesel fuel. No room for home heating oil anymore in the distribution chain so now home owners were forced to burn off-road diesel which burns cleaner, but heats less. Sulfur has a lot of bad properties, but it is a good lubricant and I spent the better part of a year visiting 76 terminals throughout the US to help design lubricity additive injection systems. Action, reaction and in the end the price keeps getting higher, and less BTU's are available from the same gallon. W

Were you attempting to raise of lower the drive when it suddenly stopped? Could be the trim limit switch taking it out. Will it go up with the trailer button over-ride employed? W