Possible bad fuel filter, thouhts?

Hey guys my family owns a 25ft. 2006 Cobalt 350hp Mercury Engine. We just moved on the water and have been using the boat a lot in the last five days. Some of my family took the boat out last night and it died on them. We toed the boat in and I've been looking at the Engine all day. Basically what happens is, you try and start the boat and it MAY start the engine for a minute (if that) then the engine will slowly die until it is totally off and then if you keep trying to start it, it wont start at all. One of our good friends is an engineer and took a look at the engine, he messed around with it for a while and put gas streight into the carb and the engine would work fine, thus coming to the conclusion that the engine itself worked great and the probelm lies with the fuel system.

We bought a new fuel water filter and replaced that (the old one was very dirty) and we are about to replace the fuel filter (also very dirty) however the store by us is currently out of stock of the fuel filter. So while I wait, I was wondering what yall think the problem might be?

One interesting thing though, is that the fuel gauge reads half a tank (but has been like this for several hours), I'm thinking the gauge might have gotten broken some how and the boat just ran out of fuel and when it did it sucked all the crap at the bottom of the tank into the filters. I don't know if this is the problem or not, however if anyone has any ideas that would be great!

Re: Possible bad fuel filter, thouhts?

Check all fuel lines for leaks, replace filters, and check for fuel pressure to the carb.

Sounds like you may have a bad fuel pump or something is the fuel system or carbs is clogged.

GL
RC

Re: Possible bad fuel filter, thouhts?

86RajunCajun said:

Check all fuel lines for leaks

Click to expand...

When I was looking at the engine inside the boat it doesn't appear to be a leak. Hopefully changing this last fuel filter will be the solution. Thanks for the reply!