Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos

Posted by Nightfishin on 04/30/12 - 6:05 AM

Hi. I have a 48 johnson on my custom 16. I took it out to the barrier islands about 13 miles offshore Saturday morning in pretty rough seas and the boat behaved admirably and it gives me confidence that this boat will serve me well. The motor ran great with no problems there and back. We loaded up the specs so we decided to go back again Sunday. Ran great all the way out and as we were arriving it started to dog down and lose throttle. We fished for a few hours again limiting out and we go to leave and with throttle arm all the way down it wouldn't even get on plane. We settled in for a long idle back in 3-4 ft seas and every once in a while it would cough a few times then take off. If I backed it down to get to a safe speed, it would fall off plane and we would be back idling. My initial thoughts are trash in the carbs, even though kits were just done. I only have the plastic inline filter right now. Does it sound like I am on the right track as far as diagnosing the problem?

Posted by Whalin88 on 04/30/12 - 10:55 AM

Nightfishin,
When I bought my boat 2 years ago I had the same problem. I have a 2003 Yamaha 90. The engine would bog down like you explain. It came to the point where the engine would make a "spshh" sound at idle and die. Turns out that 2 of the 3 carbs were clogged. Souds similar to my situation.

Posted by Nightfishin on 04/30/12 - 11:42 AM

Thanks for the quick replies. That is what I figured was going on. I am gonna run some seafoam through the remaining gas and let it run on the ears for a couple of gallons to see if that clears it out before I yank the carbs. I will probaly have to do it anyway but every once in a while you get lucky. I did put that plastic filter on there after the carb job but I guess it is just a water seperator. There is no basket filter.

Posted by Bake on 04/30/12 - 11:52 AM

This sounds familiar to me. I had my engine run good and the next time out it acted like it was running out of gas. When I pulled the fuel line off the motor there were little slivers of plastic behind the ball. When I pulled the fitting from the fuel line the fitting was full of parts of the inside of the fuel line. This was a direct result of ethanol gas eating up the fuel line. When I took the line off, I could not blow air through it. Before you tear down your carbs check your fuel line.

Posted by gusgus on 04/30/12 - 11:54 AM

It sounds to me like water in the fuel.
I had similar haps on lake boats and it usually was water in the carbs. Maybe try draining the bowls and changing (if it exists) the filter.
Good luck.

Posted by Nightfishin on 04/30/12 - 3:02 PM

I dont think it is the fuel line breaking down beacause its only a few month old. My old one was mushy as crap and that attests to ethanol. Water is not out of the question because I leave the tank vented unless I know rain is coming and sometimes I forget to close the vent before. Seafoam may do the trick one way or the other. I am gonna try that before pulling the carbs off again.