Turns out the mercury oil resevoir on board the boat has a oil pickup tube with a screen on the end. It was clogged and wasnt allowing oil to flow freely. I cleaned it with carb cleaner and it's been running great for a few weeks until same thing happened again today and I had to clean the screen again.

I'm starting to think I need to empty out the oil resevoir and I bet it's solid gunk at the bottom of the resevoir where the screen sits.

What do yall think?

Hi cole. On my old champion I had same motor and almost exact issues. Mine would run great for weeks and then similar problem with it shutting down , would not start up right away and of it did it would die above idle. I finally looked at voltage regulators and the top one ( you should have 2 behind plate that holds coils on) looked burnt. Factory ones were clear gel so you could see my top one bad but replacements I believe are not clear, been awhile but pretty sure. Any ways, I replaced it and never had problems again. Gary , lm sure you checked this already but if not take a look