Do I have a problem?

[kdr]

I bought my boat in January from a family that has not used it much for the past couple of years. The pulleys have rusted and eat my belts. This has been an inconvienience more than anything so far. Now that the season is in full swing and I am starting to put some hours on the boat, it has the probelm of not wanting to start. I turn the key, it fires right up and then it dies immediately. I have to give it gas while starting to keep it running. Once it is runnign, it runs great. I started to think that all the dust from the belts was dirtying up the engine making it hard to start so I went to check it out. My flame arrestor was caked with debris. I cleaned it off and cleaned the throttle body and it fired right up the next time out, but the problem soon came back.

My main question is how bad is it for the engine to be sucking in the dirty air? I have been putting off buying new pulleys, do I need to bite the bullet and get em or can I put it off a little longer?

[SKI*MC]

Maybe the engine just has to warm up, otherwise dirty air for engine to breath isnt that good for it. If the pulls are still good, take them off, and sandblast them.

[G-man]

rusty pulley's will break belts

[lakes Rick]

Maybe the engine just has to warm up, otherwise dirty air for engine to breath isnt that good for it. If the pulls are still good, take them off, and sandblast them.

Sandblast or glass bead would work well, but you could also just wire wheel them temporarily.......

How many tanks of gas since you bought it?? I would also pour in some gas additive.. I hear the Chevron stuff is the best.. Maybe some water absorbent.. I was gonna say your carb needs rebuilding, but you must have FI......

[kdr]

Well, I've already decided to just replace the pulleys. I had my mechanic take a look at them when I first got the boat and he told me that bead blasting and powder coating wouldn't work on these. I trust this evaluation because he is a trustworthy person and he offers both of these services. SkiDIM can get the pulleys for me but I'd rather change a belt every other week and used the money saved on gas. But if I am doing real damage to my engine I need to know so I can replace the pulleys now.