Fuel Prob. 1986 TS6M

[Bilotto11301]

I recently put new spark plugs in my boat along with a full tank of fuel and octaine boozer and carburator cleaner.. i took the boat out it was running perfect, better than ever. i got down to a quarter of a tank and the boat completely shut down.. it acted like it was running on half of a cylinder.. i put a new fuel filter on it and now i cant get it to start at all.. it crunk right up but once the fuel in the motor ran out, it cut off.. frustrating..

[shanerross]

I had a problem similar last year. My boat would die intermittantly while running, it turned out to be the pick up tube in the tank was clogging up with a black membrane substance that was in the tank. I took the the float out of the tank and could see the little pieces in the tank, it would suck them up when running and stall the motor. After five minutes or so the particles would fall back down and the motor would start again and run for a while. I was able to pull all the fragments out and it has been perfect every since.

[Bilotto11301]

ok so i need to take my tank out of my boat and empty everything?

[Salty87]

do you have a water separator filter?

[shanerross]

Dont take the tank out, look inside the rear locker above the tank, there should be an access to the fuel tank there. The fuel gauge float sits right under the acccess, take a screwdriver and remove the float, you should be able to look right down to the bottom of the pick up tube there. You could see the stuff in the tank from there. I also knocked the check valve out of the hose barb on the tank, just to make sure nothing was caught up in it also. The stuff in my tank looked like pieces of delaminating hose. It was like strips of black teflon tape. I looked into the filler hose connected to my tank and it looked fine. I came to the conclusion it was from the hose at the gas station. It happened twice after filling up at a new place.

[jzelt]

Also, could the fuel pump be going and can't keep up with the demand?

Damn thing is drunk after re-reading your post... "Octaine Boozer"... (JK)
Hit the wall after downing that much that quick...

[shanerross]

Usually mechanical fuel pumps leak externally before they go out. They tend to be pretty durable, not saying its not possible, not very likely though. Were you able to look inside the fuel tank?

[OUI]

Make sure the breather tube is not clogged. To test, take the fuel cap off and see if it runs.

[Bilotto11301]

we determined that my engine wasnt getting a spark.. so we replace the coil.. and it still wont start now we are replacing the distributor components..