problems with my engine, help?

OK so here is whats going on, I got this boat its a bayliner with a 85 75hp mariner outboard. Supposedly it was all rebuilt not to long ago but I am pretty sure it wasn't recent if at all. It does have 125 compression on all cylinders though.

We have gone through many things so far and replacing things. Here is a list of things we have done.

Cleaned out the air box
replaced bulb and fuel hoses until the engine
replaced the inside gaskets in the fuel pump
cleaned the gas tank out and put fresh fuel with stablizer and new oil
replaced fuel neck hose
replaced spark plugs
fixed some wireing

So here is whats going on and I am not sure where to go from here. I just ordered a book on the engine but I would like some help from someone that might know what the issue is.

There is no gas/oil on the plugs when you take them out so its acting like its not getting any fuel. But the engine will start and run if we spray starting fluid into the carbs to get it going. We have it hooked up on a hose, it wont start AT ALL when we put it in the water. Now even when we run it on the hose it seems to be running ruff it shakes alot and seems like it might be missing but I rev it all the way up and it runs hard in gear and everything.

Now when I first got the boat we took it for a test ride, he got it started on the hose to warm up the engine, then we got it in the water and he got it started and we started out in the water. after about 200yds when he tried to get it up to speed it started to bog down and he said its because there was bad gas in it that it needed to be cleaned out. So he idled it back into the dock. So it did start and run in the water, so I really don't think there is something major wrong with it but obviously something is wrong.

My plan right now is to replace the fuel lines from the pump to the carbs so all of the fuel lines are new, and I was going to go ahead and pulls the carbs and look at them and clean them and see if maybe they need to be rebuilt.

Oh and one other things when you pull the air box cover off the front of the engine the bottom is full of fuel.

Thanks for any help, let me know if you need to know anything else

Re: problems with my engine, help?

Quit, spraying it with starting fluid before you damage it. You have a fuel deliver problem probably dirty carbs, I am sure after they are cleaned you will be alright.

Re: problems with my engine, help?

I only sprayed it once because we saw that the spark plugs were dry so we sprayed it to get it to start and finally it started, and once it got started it run like it was getting fuel no problem i let it run for like 20 minutes on the hose just sitting there idling and I gave it full throttle a few times just to try to get any junk cleaned out of the system.

Also once I got it running with the starting fluid I turned it off and back on and it started up with no problem at all and was running fine, so we took it back and put it in the water and it wouldn't start at all even with starting fluid.

The gasket that goes on the fuel pump was all old and looked like crap and there was a bunch of trash in there so I cleaned it all out and up and replaced all the gaskets and the o-ring inside with the screen.