Acceleration/rpm problems in choppy water

[jokid]

I am hoping someone can shed some light on this issue.

The past couple of times I have been out in my XLV, I sometimes have problems getting the boat past 2800 rpm's in choppy water. This past weekend it ran like a champ on Friday (it was also much more calm water and less wind).

Then come saturday, it was real choppy on the lake and pretty windy (lots of drag driving into the wind. We drove for a while around 3100 rpm's and it seemed fine but after slowing down to let some boats pass, i couldnt get it above 2700/2800 rpm's. It almost seemed like when i tried to throttle more the rpm's would just go lower. After anchoring for a while and listening to some tunes, started the boat back up and was able to go just like normal.

This has happend twice. both times the water has been real choppy and the wind was pretty bad and both times it gave the same exact problem.

Has anyone had this happen? I checked the gauges when this happens and it all seem to be normal. The engine is a CARB engine so im thinking that something to do with it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ian Brantford]

Howdy. It sounds like the engine is starved for fuel after running for a while. The easiest thing to check, that could produce these symptoms, is the fuel filter(s). Also, check the fuel in the line that runs into the filter (which is often involuntary as it may spill a bit when you disconnect it from the filter).

What happens if there is dirt in the line is that you have to run the engine for a while before the dirt gets drawn to the filter. Then it clogs. You shut off the engine for a while and the dirt spreads out in the line again, allowing you to go a bit more. The more throttle, the faster the fuel flow. You might be able to drive for a long time at lower speed before it clogs again.

This happened to me once with very obvious symptoms. I got some bad gas at a station that was close to a cottage that I was visiting. The other time there was no visible contaminant in the line -- the filter just clogged slowly over years, doing its job with run-of-the-mill fine particles.

The filter is a cheap part -- less than $20. It's a good idea to swap it out once every 3-4 seasons just as a precaution.