Prout Quest 31 Engine Problem

[multihullsailor6]

I have taken a young Turkish guy under my wings who has bought himself a very well equipped Prout Quest 31 lying here in Cartagena. After a week of going through the boat with him, discovering equipment and getting it sorted today was supposed to be the first day of a sail on this boat. He assured me that the 1 cylinder 13.5hp Arona engine coupled to a Silette saildrive leg was working fine (it also had a top end repair done very recently).

However, when we started the engine (which started easily) we found that in gear there was no power / revolutions, the engine producing good revs in neutral. The prop was turning.

Checked what we could check, all fine except it appears that the oil in the Silette leg is low. Could this low oil level be the cause?

 

[multihullsailor6]

Ok, so today we filled up the oil in the leg and also changed the engine's diesel filter.

With the gear shift in neutral you can give full power and it takes about 5 seconds before the engine reacts. We have then run the engine for 1 -2 minutes without a hickup.

However, when you put her in gear, both forward and reverse, the engine revs increase just a bit and then potter on just above the idle speed.

So where is the problem?

 

[bigwow]

sounds like some kind of clutch problem if it was a car.

 

[boatmike]

Ok, so today we filled up the oil in the leg and also changed the engine's diesel filter.

With the gear shift in neutral you can give full power and it takes about 5 seconds before the engine reacts. We have then run the engine for 1 -2 minutes without a hickup.

However, when you put her in gear, both forward and reverse, the engine revs increase just a bit and then potter on just above the idle speed.

So where is the problem?

This could be any number of things but a common cause of low power is fuel starvation or air/water in the fuel which amounts to the same thing. Check the fuel filters first. Fit a new element and bleed thoroughly. If there is a soggy mess in the filter it could be that fuel is contaminated by diesel bug. Once you are convinced you have clean fuel and a clean filter or filters make sure you don't have an air leak.