engine racing

[sparetime2]

I took my 97 GTX out for the first time this year today and it performed perfectly. When I got it home I hooked it up to the hose to run it and lube the engine. When I started it it ran fine but then started to pick up rpm's to the point that I had to shut it off. Just wondering what would have caused this? I did have the rubber cover off (covers the hole in the air intake for lube) when I started it, could this have been the problem. I started it later just for a few seconds off the water and the engine ran fine but it wasn't running that long. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Technical Support]

are you referring to the rubber plug in the airbox? If that is out your engine should not race away on you. Usually a condition like you described is due to an air leak somewhere.

[Technical Support]

Either you had the fuel switch off, your low-speed screws on your carbs need to come out 1/8th a turn, or you have an air leak.

[ccwhit7]

mine did it too but pitcock in off position. cut the fuel on and willl keep same idle

[Colin GSXL]

If your motor starts running away and you can't stop it - pull the choke out. Once they start over revving like you describe, hitting the stop button and even pulling the plug leads will not stop it. If you got no choke, blip the throttle - as wrong as that sounds it will stop it.

[Bill O'Neal]

You probably just got the head too hot. Did you pinch the water exit line from the motor to the transom? If you do not do that, the water just runs out the back of the boat and the motor gets hot.