Hello Iboat forum gurus! What do you make of this?,,, I have a 3.0 Mercruiser in a mid 80's Glassmaster. Was running great , only had it out a couple of times this season. It starting sputtering and losing power - then- staled. Was hard to start ,,kept stalling and barely made it in without having to call SeaTow and succumb to the dreaded "Tow-of-shame".
Anyway, I had some tools and pulled out the gas screen and it seemed pretty clean. Aluminum gas tank full but Im thinking ,either the down tube that goes into the tank is corroding and only sucks in at a full tank,or- there's quite a bit of water in the tank. We were hitting some big 2-3 ft. waves in the LI sound and that's when she really started to run rough. Then, she would start and rev up nice for a minute or 2,seemed like running perfect. When i put it in gear died right down or as soon as I started to increase speed. Got harder and harder to start until I finally called a friend of mine to tow us in since we were only 5 mins outside the harbor. Also ,, I recently lost the spark arrestor and put on a small airfilter, I didnt hook up the small vac hose that pulls out fumes from the valve cover,but, it was running fine even without any cover. Boat was flying last time I had it out (50 mph) then,it started running intermttently rough until finally ,shorter increments where it would stay running. As soon as you put it in gear it was a 50/50 that she'd go. Any Ideas? Im thinking ,right off the bat hook up to an external gas tank. I'm going to drain the internal tank and see what it looks like. It was sitting for a season ( run dry) and I just added more gas-all fresh and was running great. Thank you for your help.
Anyway, I had some tools and pulled out the gas screen and it seemed pretty clean. Aluminum gas tank full but Im thinking ,either the down tube that goes into the tank is corroding and only sucks in at a full tank,or- there's quite a bit of water in the tank. We were hitting some big 2-3 ft. waves in the LI sound and that's when she really started to run rough. Then, she would start and rev up nice for a minute or 2,seemed like running perfect. When i put it in gear died right down or as soon as I started to increase speed. Got harder and harder to start until I finally called a friend of mine to tow us in since we were only 5 mins outside the harbor. Also ,, I recently lost the spark arrestor and put on a small airfilter, I didnt hook up the small vac hose that pulls out fumes from the valve cover,but, it was running fine even without any cover. Boat was flying last time I had it out (50 mph) then,it started running intermttently rough until finally ,shorter increments where it would stay running. As soon as you put it in gear it was a 50/50 that she'd go. Any Ideas? Im thinking ,right off the bat hook up to an external gas tank. I'm going to drain the internal tank and see what it looks like. It was sitting for a season ( run dry) and I just added more gas-all fresh and was running great. Thank you for your help.
