im new to boating and outboard motor worked on cars for enjoyment ( http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s70/deville53/003.jpg) not having so much fun with outboard motors what i have is a 1987 johnson 40hp been sitting for a while got it running somewhat, had a back fire the whole time at idle ran good up high after reading the forum i seen its a sneeze from being lean so i rebuilt the carbs had crap in bottom of bowl (lower cylinder) looked at reeds seemed ok. as i was putting back together i broke the plastic pigtail of the back of the vro i only use it for a fuel pump. now when i start it runs for a couple seconds and runs out of gas. i must have taken the carb off 10 time looking at it. the floats are set as instructions told me 3/4 in from top and float sits flat. checked it by blowing thru it and it stop like it should. so it has been bugging me so i decided to do a compression check on cylinders 90 psi up top and 40 psi on lower cylinder. so i pulled the head the pistons looked ok but the bottom cylinder has groves in it on one side so i guess im going to need a upper rebuild correct, could this have been causing the sneeze or is the sneeze is what caused the rebuild. i just want to make sure i get the carbs set correctly or fuel pump fix before i cause a lean condition again after rebuild. and thinking of buying a non-vro fuel pump to clean up engine bay and elminate that. i can keep it running by pressing in the key and primer it every little bit so its starving for gas.i wish i would have fixed that before i pulled the head to look at piston. another issue is the head gasket was broken down low above where the thermostat goes looks to be a water jacket
