2008 DF 175 Cold Start

[Northriver08]

2008 DF 175 500 hours
On a cold start (1st attempt) .......... after cranking it.. it will rev up and then immediately die....
On a cold start (1st attempt) i can give it some extra throttle, crank it and it will rev up and then immediately die....
ON the second attempt with no extra throttle I will crank it and it starts up then idles fine.....for the rest of the day it starts, idles and runs perfect.
its just the initial cold start procedure that is giving me trouble
My batteries are fully charged.. I checked the white wire and there is no corrosion and I couldn’t find any nicks or cuts in the wire… I followed it from the battery switch all the way into the engine but didn’t start taking things apart to see the connection on the engine side.

What the hell is going on?

[Murray]

You don’t mention giving the fuel bulb a squeeze or five. Is the bulb firm prior to starting?

[Northriver08]

I actually never thought of that... even though it’s fuel injected u still need to squeeze the ball?? I have had the boat for 4 years and not once have I squeezed the ball or inspected it prior to starting the main engine. I will give it a try

[Northriver08]

I pulled off the IAC valve last night and cleaned it up with carb cleaner... and that didnt fix the issue.

[Murray]

I wonder if your fuel pressure is bleeding down. Try priming the fuel system before a cold start, Turn the key to on, not start, to allow the fuel pump to pressure up, repeat two or three more times and see if it starts first try. Check your fuel lines and clamps for possible leaks, leaks would be sucking air downstream of your low pressure fuel pump. Look for air bubbles in your inline fuel filter. These are all cheap easy fixes, if these suggestions don’t help it might be time to check your fuel pressure and the time it takes for your fuel pressure to bleed down.

[catacom225]

prime the primer bulb and see if it stays firm which it should

[redlowrey]

Most of the time that problem occurs is caused by voltage drop, connect up a volt meter to the batteries and measure the drop on the first cold start and if it drops below 9.8 volts idle problems will occur.
The reason it usually happens on the first cold start that’s when the highest voltage drop will occur. When the engine starts and revs high, the alternator will pump maximum battery current into the batteries.
on the second start, the voltage drop will be less and there will be no issues.
Those Mitsubishi type stepper motors seem to be effected the most on the Suzuki’s because there is not built in software for voltage drop in the Suzuki ecu.

[Northriver08]

You don’t mention giving the fuel bulb a squeeze or five. Is the bulb firm prior to starting?

If i let the boat sit for a week should the bulb be firm? Or how long should it stay firm? 24 hours? a week?

[Murray]

I’m not sure. I give mine a few squeezes in the spring and it starts for the rest of the summer without touching the bulb again.

[Northriver08]

So.. I guess I feeling a little silly… but i primed the ball and it fired right up on the first crank…
I do have a few concerns:
Why would this be a “new thing”? I never primed the ball in 4-years..
How long should the system stay primed? Last season the starting issue was every morning on a multi-day trip.
How do u test for a "bad" primer ball.. ??

[Murray]

Bad primer bulb just replace it with a good quality one. The bulb is sitting outside in the weather and fuel on the inside it will deteriorate over time. As far as the fuel system losing prime you take a fuel pressure reading at idle or cranking, fuel pressure should be 36psi wait 5 minutes and check fuel pressure. Fuel pressure should be 28psi or higher.

[Moonlighter]

Primer ball has a non return valve in it. They do just fail when they get old, so fuel can slowly drain back from the engine.

As Murray said, I would just replace it with a new high quality one. Genuine is always better than aftermarket.

[redlowrey]

The only way that Scenario makes sense is if the vst was empty and you had to prime it to get some fuel into it, and it only started on the fuel in the rail. There would be nearly half a liter of fuel sitting in the bottom of the vst, more than enough for the engine to start, run and not stall. Nine years and 2000 hours on a df140 have never touched the primer. Even if the check valve in the primer failed, it cant suck the fuel back out of the vst. Even if the fuel pressure in the rail dropped to zero over night it would be pressurized when the key was turned on, just from the fuel sitting in the vst.
Priming it would be just adding to the fuel that is already sitting in the vst.

[Harper]

I'm with red ..... voltage drop. It'll do it every time. One successful start after primer bulb squeeze doesn't really prove much. You lucked out, that's all.