Over the weekend I had a problem with my motor starting. Launched and ran to where I was fishing and cut it off. About 2 hours later I tried to start it but it just turned over like the killswitch was off and wouldn't start. Tried several times throughout the day with same results. Later in the evening when I was about to be towed in I tried it one last time and it fired up with lots of blue smoke. Made it back to the ramp just fine and on Sunday it started up just fine and ran great the rest of the day like nothing had happened. Any ideas?

Could have just been throttle neutral switch was sticking in gear.

Lots of blue smoke was from trying to start it. Could have been flooded. Maybe next time, try releasing the shifter cable (unless you have a hotfoot, in which case just hold it to the floor while trying to start it) and give it full throttle while turning it over. This will help to dry out the plugs.

I agree with the blue smoke just being puddled unburned fuel/oil mix when the engine didn't fire up. Not knowing what engine you have, we just firing a shot across the bow, but if it's a carb'd 2-stroke they are having a really hard time with this fuel we have and they will flood out really easy. The fuel injection engines not so much, unless other issues might check the spark plugs and gaps.

The next time at the lake before coming off the trailer. Let the engine run long enough to warm up, then while it's running reach over and pull the kill cord. Then turn the key off, install the kill cord and fire the engine back up. Do this a few more times, just in case you might have something going on with the kill cord switch just needing to be cycled a little.

Otherwise, your running the correct oem recommended spark plugs, brand and number and gapped correct, and your absolutely certain your fuel is good, your going to need to check the fire from the power pack to the plugs. These are just some off the top easy things to do and or check.

This just a shot across the bow here with not knowing anything far as what engine. Hope it helps...

Thank you for the replies

Is it an Evinrude?

No it's a 1996 Mercury EFI 175 hp

send me an email addy and i'll send ya an oem manual in pdf for it,, will help ya with diagnosing and parts.............

I have a 1996 186 champ with that same motor and had similar problems back in 2020. Turned out to be the ECU. The first symptom was not starting during the day and was because the fuel pump driver was failing in the ECU, wired the fuel pump direct and solved that problem but then starting have injector problems. Check out the thread below for my history.

https://texasfishingforum.com/forum...i-occasionally-doesnt-start#Post13692026

I replaced ECU 8 years ago with a new one from Mercury (was the last new one they had for $1600.00) and has run great with no problems. But I guess that is still a possibility that it's going bad again. Thanks for the reply