Please help me figure this out please!

hayman823

I have a 1997 rinker with a 454. Bought the boat two years ago, had firing issues, so we ended up replacing everything in ignition side, new distributor cap, the pick up coil, and had two ignition modules mounted on top of motor, replaced both of them and the last one finally fixed my problem but it was $625 so i saved it for last. boat ran great last year not a single problem with it! Winterized it last fall and kept it in my shop all winter, got it out this spring and its been running horrible all year. Memorial day weekend we were cruising down lake about 25 mph and all of a sudden it just died completely and wouldnt start for about 30 minutes. acting like it was flooded so i thought i had bad gas and replaced fuel filter for second time and put fuel treatment in it. next few weekends it ran better, never died but would start missing on me. kept thinking it was still gas so i kept putting fuel treatment in it and replaced spark plugs. took it out and it ran great. thought i had it fixed. the next weekend was 4th of july weekend and i drove about 15 minutes and it died on me again. wouldnt start for about 15 to 20 minutes. got it back to dock and left it over night. next morning it ran great, but after about 15 minutes it died again, took about 20 minutes to get it started. it would run about 5 minutes and die and have to sit for about 15 minutes until i finally got it back to dock. my new plugs were fouled really bad so i replaced them and had my weber carburator rebuilt. took it out last weekend and same thing. plugs still show signs of running rich, electric choke seems to be working fine! i think it sounds like my ignition side is breaking down again!? any suggestions before i start replacing parts and spending a lot of money on all that stuff again that was just replaced just two years ago

NavyCTRC

what size carb and how long has it been on engine?

hayman823

its a weber 4 barrel is all i know. im sure its original, 97 model boat. I just had it rebuilt last week and it ran great in shop. got it on lake and ran good for about 15 minutes, then died. pulled spark plug wire off and checked and it was firing but im not sure if it was firing good enough. finally started about 10 minutes later. acts like its flooded. pulled new plugs out and there black so i dont know if its to much fuel or if firing is breaking down and burning access fuel

chamberb

Maybe a long shot here, but I would do compression test on all cylinders. Speaking from experience with a similar issue. 

Handymans342

I had a similar problem. Turned out I had to add a low flow inline electric fuel pump and up graded my alternators for higher amp output. My boat would run great and just die. When it died, there was no fuel in the carbs. Twin engines, same problem both motors. 

hayman823

My next step is checking fuel pressure, but im not thinnking its the pump because i keep fouling plugs which seems to me im either getting to much fuel or firing is breaking down and causing it to burn excess fuel in cylinders

Handymans342

That could be low spark voltage 

youstolemybeer

if it has an ignition coil (big cylinder that has one wire leading to the distributor cap) that is whats causing the problem. It is heat soaking and not providing enough juice to fire the plug when its hot. I do know that the 1994-95 has a coil not sure about yours.

youstolemybeer

as far as the carb goes, the weber carb is actually an edlebrock carb. Weber sold the design to edle about a million years ago. That carb is bullet proof, but if someone removed the metering rods and reinstalled them wrong that would cause some goofy running issues. Google how to rebuild weber carb 4barrel and you will see what im talking abuot