I was having trouble starting my 1978 Evinrude 85 hp outboard motor for a month or so. I never really got it to start properly. I would pump the primer till its rock hard, turn the key and push it in to activate the choke while cranking. It would never start right away. A couple days ago, while on the lake it was hard to start but ran a few times for 5 or 10 minutes even at WOT and ran pretty good. On the last run, it sputtered at low idle, the engine quit running and would not restart. A couple days later, I cleaned the throttle plates a little bit and disconnected the fuel line while cranking thinking that it was possibly flooded. I checked and found really strong spark. I did not try any starting fluid as I have read that it's bad to do that. Well it started today but smoked like crazy. While it was smoking heavily it ran like it was very rich on fuel, I'm assuming from the seafoam cleaner????? Then I noticed the black soot from the lower unit. I had the flusher hooked up while it was running and had a steady stream coming out of the cooling "telltale" hose. After seeing the soot, I disconnected the fuel line and ran all the fuel out(in less than a minute). I am obviously going to take it in to a boat shop once I find one that is reputable, but does anyone have any ideas..I posted a link to what the soot looked like here:
http://db.tt/TGws7w40
http://db.tt/TGws7w40