Boat doesnt like water

I just bought my boat about about a month and a half ago. The first day i took it out it ran fine, after that i wont start good while in the water. I put new plugs, distributer cap, and rotor button on. After that it helped a little but not much. The plugs were getting fire too. It starts fine on land but when i put it in the water it doesnt want to start. It takes a while.

Im going to try a new coil wire and plug wires to see if that helps.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Boat doesnt like water

Ayuh,.... You're not gonna get any Help, if ya don't tell Us what We're workin' on....

Re: Boat doesnt like water

Haha yeah i guess that would help a little. Its a Mercruiser 3.0L Its in a 97 Bayliner. It runs fine once or if it starts. Could it be the choke?

Re: Boat doesnt like water

could be as simple as a weak battery (I had this problem once) I did a new cap, rotor, and condenser much the same as you did. Have you checked the timing?

For me a new battery made a world of difference. I just wasn't getting enough juice from the old battery to get "good" spark. And to make things worse I would kill my battery trying to start it. The scariest part was that it sometimes would crank for a long time before restarting on the water.

After doing a new battery the problem all but went away. Then I bought a timing light and dwell meter, set my timing and dwell to the factory spec and all of my problems went away.

I would hope that your problem is as simple to solve. If not a basic tune up never hurt anything.