lack of power

[csl]

Took a trip last weekend to laurel lake, KY. Had two issues throughout the weekend. #1 is there were a couple times when I had no power or hole shot. The boat would just bog down and I could barely get up to 15 mph. Other times it had great power and no problem. Was usually when boat was warmed up. We added sea foam and heet to the gas thinking mabe it needed cleaned up. Don't know if that really helped much. Still feel it was a fuel issue of some sort. Next on my list is to change fuel
filter. Any ideas?
#2 was the typical vapor lock syndrome. My boat starts hard to begin with. Have to pump it a few times and crank for a little. Once it is running it purrs and seems very smooth (until this weekend). We had trouble keeping it running when at idle speeds. When we would kick it in gear it would die unless we gave it a lot of gas. If it would die we could hardly get it started again. We poured water on it a few times and that seemed to help some. Nothing worse than smooth wakeboarding water all
around and having to set in the boat to let it cool down. Usually if we let it set for a little it would fire up. Any ideas on hard starts would be helpful and also dying when putting in gear. I'm not much of a mechanic, so fire away at me.

[92SupraComp]

DONT USE SEAFOAM!!!it does very evil things to your engine and will only make a rebuild come sooner and make the inside far worse!!!!

sounds like your carby need to be rebuilt and maybe your distributor looked at. (timing, points, advance)

[Supra-in-steamboat]

i agree with 92SupraComp in regard to your carb and timing. Changing the fuel filter is always a good call, you could disconnect the fuel line that leads to the fuel pump, and use a new, clean gas supply (1 gallon tank)- if you have the same problem, its not your gas.

[mr.jrc]

"... poured water on it a few times..." i hope you are not pouring water on a hot engine.

[csl]

Thanks fellas, gives us something to start with. No we didn't pour it on the block. Put some on the starter solinoid. Got a carb rebuild kit, but I think I will have my father-in-law do that part for me. He's my mechanic go to. Probably will be back with more questions as we wade into it. Problem is that it only messes up when it getts warm so I will have to experiment
some.

[OUI]

Check your coil. A bad coil will not work when its hot, but will work when its cooled down. A bad coil will also give you poor performance.

[kreckley]

Could be the computer depending on age

[michael hunter]

What year? What engine? Points or electronic ignition?

[csl]

I have a 87 sunsport with the 351. It has been changed over to electronic ignition. I gave it a tune up last year when I bought the boat. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor. That helped my
problem alot, until that last trip. I just got my carb rebuilt and mounted back on last night. Haven't had a chance to put it back in the water yet. The shop that did my work said it was getting time for a rebuild. Parts were getting wore out. Thought mabe the floats were the issue, so they replaced them. Anxious to see the results. OUI mentioned the coil, how do I
check that?