pm sent

I spent some time talking with an OMC mechanic and he was pretty adamant that something is off on the carbs. He also mentioned to make sure the reeds are ok. So last night I went ahead and checked the reeds. The reeds look fine. They're all there and don't appear to be warped any or have any cracks/holes/etc. Since the carbs were already off and the mech suggested the carbs, I decided to give them another cleaning.

This time I really examined EVERYTHING and used an LED light to look at every nook and cranny. What I found was that one of the low speed orifice plugs was partially clogged. I'm using #34's, which is 0.034". I would guess it was blocked enough to where it was more like 0.01". I ran some rounded off piano wire through it to clean it out. I did the same on the rest of the passages (as I could) on the carbs. I used an entire can of carb cleaner on the procedure and noticed a little amount of gunk after blasting. Blew it all out and they look perfect now. Cleaner flows perfectly through ALL passages now (I didn't think to check the first go-around. Rookie mistake).

I'm really hoping that this does the trick. I won't know for sure until Saturday morning when I can pull the boat out and fire it up. I've got my fingers crossed! I'll also do the checks for running rich as well as spraying around to check for an air leak.

how did it turn out nax?

Well, the problem is ultimately still there, but not as bad. The motor will now stay running at idle instead of choking out. It still sneezes/coughs, though; just not nearly as much.

I think I have isolated it to the top-left cylinder (as looking from the rear). When I pull the plug wire, the sneeze goes away. If I spray fuel into that carb throat, it smooths out.

I did the paper test in front of the carbs and not a drop was spitting out.

I pulled the plugs and they looked the same.

I poured some SeaFoam in each cylinder and let it sit overnight. Took the boat to the lake and ran a tank of gas with SeaFoam through it. It make the problem even less apparent, but it's still there. Replaced the plugs and went fishing.

Pulled the new plugs and all 4 of them look exactly as they should.

I think my next step is going to be to swap the carbs and see if the sneeze follows with it or if it is still on the top-left cylinder. If it follows with the carb, I'm probably just going to break down and buy a new carb. If it stays on the same cylinder, then I'm back to the drawing board.

Can you switch that plug wire to another cylinder? Just to eliminate that as a possible issue