18hp h2o in bottom cylinder

[fleetwin]

Problem solved, hope the broken reed didn’t do any internal damage…Look carefully for the missing reed before reassembling.

[Monte NZ]

BROKEN REED
it’s any interest, I had the same experience several years back with my 1963 Big Twin Evinrude. I was cruising home one day when all of a sudden I lost power and felt that the motor had lost a cylinder. I stopped the motor and established that there was spark on both cylinders. I started up again and continued back to the ramp.When I got home I had a closer look at the plugs and noticed that one appeared to have some minor damage to the electrodes. I then put a light down in the cylinder and noticed what appeared to be a piece of metal embedded in the piston crown. I managed to remove it with surgical forceps and recognized it as part of an inlet reed. Needless to say I removed the cylinder head to check for any other damage and found all OK. A new reed and I was back on the water.

Cheers
MonteNZ

[jerry-ahrens]

Wow, kind of unusual to be missing the whole reed. Hopefully it didn’t scratch up a cylinder. I’ve seen some larger hp. Force motors ingest some big pieces of reed valves, then pass them through the exaust with no damage to the powerhead. Hopefully that will be the case here.
I recently worked on a 1965 40 OMC that would barely run after new ignition and fuel system work. Turned out that it had two small set screws that had come loose, one was holding a reed plate open on each cylinder. The screws came from the starter interlock coller, on the front of the recoil assembly….. first time i’ve ever seen that.

[johnyrude200]

Ive dealt with distorted reeds and of course the always popular mouse nesting/debris that can get into the manifold, but nothing this dramatic before.

I once had a motor where a zip tie clipping was lodged into a leaf plate leaving it open.
Just goes to show that you have to go 1 step at a time through the repair process. The motor is back to 100% now, less a cosmetic rehab it will get this morning!

[Author]

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