Starving for fuel

[steve]

I have a 1988 Mastercraft Pro Star with the Ford 351, Holly 4 B carb
After 40 sec at full throttle the boat act’s likes it is starving for fuel.
I replaced the fuel filter. This helped a little bit but the problem still exists. Boat runs fine except at full throttle.

[88 PS190]

There may be a screen at the inlet of the carb, possibly a screen on the outlet from the tank.

You replaced the fuel filter on the pump?

[steve]

I don’t think it was the pump. It was a bowl filter between the water separator and the carburetor attached to the engine. It had a metal fuel line going to the carburetor. I thought the fuel pump was in the gas tank?
Sorry I have very little experiences with this. I bought the boat new and had no mechanical problems with it until now.

[88 PS190]

If its set up like mine, the fuel pump is mechanical and mounted on the engine as you describe, there's also a bowl on the drivers side stringer down below the engine.

I haven't had to do a lot of troubleshooting in the fuel system, I just drain them when I winterize, so I'm not sure if the one on the engine is the filter or fuel water separator and same goes for the bowl on the stringer. I feel like the one down low is the fuel water separator because it has a drain petcock, again on my boat.

[babymoore3]

Don't forget air out, air in. Could be a lot of things, don't just assume fuel. Do you have good power initially and it falls off? Is hole shot good still?


Is your secondary opening up? Maybe it is restriction in or out (rust in manifolds), something in the exhaust from winter storage (nest)? One exhaust should be noticeable warmer if this is the case. Another thing to check is your fuel pump - should be the lower left hand side of the engine (looking from transmission to alternator). Unfortunately this is a metal line up to the carb usually. Hard to check fuel pressure...

[steve]

Boat runs good has good power.
At full throttle good power for 90 sec then it will sputter like it is running out of gas. 30 sec later it really sputters then it will die if I leave the throttle wide open. Wait 10 sec and start fine and will run good.
If I pull the throttle back half way during the sputtering it clears up and runs fine.

It acts like there is not enough fuel flow to the carburetor at full throttle, once the bowl empty’s it starts sputtering. If I back off on the throttle the bowl fills back up and it runs fine.

From what I can tell the fuel lines runs from the gas tank to the water separator then to the bowl filter? Then to the carburetor. I took apart the water separator did not notice any water in it, which I though was strange. I never drained or open it, did not know it was a water separator until now, I am the original owner of the boat. The bowl filter was not very dirty either, replaced it anyway.
Q. Their is a vent on the water separator. What is this for?
Q. How can I check the fuel psi. and what should the psi. be?
Q. Is their something in the carburetor that could be keeping the bowl from filling up at full throttle?

One more peace of info. I had the carpet and upholstery replaced in early spring. They pulled the gas tank. Could the fuel line gotten pinched when they reinstalled gas tank.
Will a psi check confirm this?

[steve]

How can i post a picture?

[88 PS190]

I'm surprised it fully dies, from high rpm.

Your oil doesn't have a very gassy smell does it?

For pictures you can use manage attachments from below, or I save them to a photobucket account, and then I use the insert image button (actually photobucket has an option to copy the link with img tags so I typically use that these days)

[Footin]

How about the fuel pick up in the tank.

[TMCNo1]

Originally Posted by steve

How can i post a picture?

Click on "Post Reply" box or Quick Reply "Go Advanced". In Additional Options below the post box, you will see "Manage Attachments" or click on the paper clip at the top of the post box, there you choose a picture from the Browse feature that is stored in My Pictures, and follow the prompts to upload that picture. If the pic is too large there is a post on resizing in FAQ at the top of General Discussion.