Purchased a Viper Cobra 201d, with a 98 Johnson 200 Venom. Boat had been sitting almost a year with old gas in it. I put 14 gallons of ethanol free and added some seafoam. After some early issues getting it to idle well, it started clearing up really good. Tried running it out a little and it wouldn't rev above 4100, per the tach.

Checked a lot of things I'd seen listed as possible issues, but not really finding anything yet. Here's what I've done so far.

Checked that jets are all open and fuel is getting to each carb.
Made sure the clear roller is on the shaft that engages the butterflies, and the gap is correct.
Made sure the throttle opens the butterflies fully.
Checked plugs for condition. 1 - 5 are ash gray to brown. 6 is black and oily.
Haven't checked spark yet as I don't have a tester and need to take the boat out of the garage to hook it up to water. I'll try to do that this Sunday.

I have ordered new plugs, and already have new plug wires to go on it, as I suspect it's an electrical issue. I'll test spark before changing anything out. Hoping it's not the power pack. I'll also check the coil grounds before doing anything else.

Any other suggestions or something I'm missing?

Mgfan58

Do a compression check.

We can check it out for you PM me

check every fuel line connection and make sure they are tight, any air at all gets in the line and it will cause problems.

had a 96 fast strike that took me about 2 weeks to figure out what was wrong, fuel line at engine connection was loose and let air in, changed out the quick connect to direct connection.

After checking all the electrical stuff I could, I started checking the fuel system. Motor has the dual manual pumps, with VRO removed, and there were some new blue hoses. One looked a little too bent. Took it off and there’s almost no flow when it’s bent at that position. Replaced all of that type of hose and hope to try it again today. Hose appears to be plastic with a clear liner. Liner wasn’t tight to the plastic wall either.

replace the hose with plastic liner. liner will break down inside hose agree with compression check

replace the hose with plastic liner. liner will break down inside hose agree with compression check

After checking all the electrical stuff I could, I started checking the fuel system. Motor has the dual manual pumps, with VRO removed, and there were some new blue hoses. One looked a little too bent. Took it off and there’s almost no flow when it’s bent at that position. Replaced all of that type of hose and hope to try it again today. Hose appears to be plastic with a clear liner. Liner wasn’t tight to the plastic wall either.

Already got it replaced, but haven’t gotten back to the lake yet. Compression was good. 98-108 cold and 120 to 128 warm.