I took boat out yesterday (99 Volvo Penta 5.0GL) with a 4 barrel carb I recently installed. Boat started ran fine on muffs and soon after I left the dock and tried to get on plane it shut off, stalled and felt like ran out of fuel. Removed spark arrester and carb acted dry when wife moved throttle (accel pump). Messed with electric pump and removed carb feed line. Cranked and at first no fuel, then on 2nd or 3rd time got fuel out of line so reinstalled fuel line and boat started and ran fine. Ran about 10 minutes and stopped to do plug reading. Re started and ran a short while and acted same way, stalled and felt like it ran out of fuel. Had wife try to start numerous times while I held hand on pump to see if it was running (I did not have test light with me) I could not feel electric pump vibrate (not 100% sure if I should, but seems like I should be able to feel it run). Same deal, removed fuel line and tried to start several times, after a couple tries got fuel and reinstalled line, started and I returned ramp. Got boat home started and ran fine while flushed. The fuel pump went bad a couple years ago right after I purchased boat but that time it failed totally. I removed pump and ran it on the bench with battery and WD 40 and seems OK. My question is, do you think the pump is failing and not starting properly intermittently. Would the pump have less flow restriction with open line and think that could make any difference to unsticking? Is removal of the line a non-factor, just allowing me to see if pump is running? Although it was maiden voyage with carb, it does not seem like it is float level or anything since it runs perfect and is new carb.....but???? Sure is hard to troubleshoot things that are intermittent.
