Why wouldn't my boat start?

[ian ashton]

On Sunday L and I took the boat out for about an hour, cruised the lake, relaxed on the water and all that. I came back to the marina and we were docked for a few hours while I waited for my dad to show up. When he got there I turned on the blower and cranked the engine. It started and idled REALLY rough, so I put it in neutral to try and give it a little gas - NOTHING. It sputtered and stalled. Tried it again, and it just sputtered out.

So after fiddling with it we took the pastic cover off the engine and messed with the plugs near the coil and injectors. None of them were loose, but when I hit the key it fired right up and ran fine. We took it for a cruise around the lake, shut it off, started up again just fine.

I'm sure this is related to whatever wiring we checked, but its weird that everything was properly connected - anyone have any idea what this could have been, and if its something I should investigate more?

I took a video, I'll upload and post tonight when I get home from work...

[zabooda]

I had a problem with my 98 that ended up being the electronic ignition module going bad that made the problem intermittent.

[Brian Raymond]

What model, yr., and eng. do you have? In-line fuel filters have been used since '04. I suggest changing it first. I would change it every time the oil was changed. The fuels differ per region and can deffinately cause issues. Brian Raymond

[aintskeered]

Ian that is just what my 07 was doing for a while the spring when I got it. But it would only do it some times... Was driving me up the wall. It turned out it was the fuel pump getting hot... They bypass at the pump and send some of the fuel back to the tank. after setting for a while it would do kind of a vapor lock. Try a wet rag on the fuel pump ( lower left hand side of motor when looking in the engine compartment from inside the boat) let the rag cool of the lines for a bit and give it a try. The permenant fix for this problem was re routing some of the lines that ran accross or ajacent to the fuel pump. move them away for maximum air movment around the pump.... Havent had any problems since. In the mean time of routing the lines just cooling the pump will get you back started and once its running and moving fuel it should stay going good till you shut it off and it heat sinks again. Let us know what you find out!

[lancesaville]

aintskeered seems pretty right on, but if it was a hot fuel pump that wasn't delivering fuel, seems like it would just crank and not 'hit' or 'sputter' at all. So it SOUNDS like it's getting fuel AND air, so you may be on the right track about the ignition wiring. But I'm no indmar tech, just good w/ GM small blocks, any Indmar techs on this site w/ some ideas ?

[mimoomba]

Mine did the same thing last year. I really believe it was bad gas. Only happened at low idle when putting in gear. Never lacked any response or power. I'm putting in new plugs this season, and possibly in inline fuel filter. We'll see how it runs this year.