I've had the boat ('85 Bayliner Capri 1950) for about two months. First time out with it, the engine was hard to start (I know, pump the throttle a couple of times... I'm old but still trainable). Ran good most of the day, other than the hard starting even when the engine was warm. Second time out, again hard to start, but better than the first time out. I was trolling, engine just above idle. It would run smooth at about 800-900 rpms for 45 minutes to an hour, then quit. Let it sit for half an hour, then it would restart and run, again at idle trolling for another 45 minutes to an hour then quit again. It was as if someone had turned the key off. I had the carb rebuilt, went back to the lake (a 100 mile round trip drive) got it started (still hard to start), adjusted the carb, ran at WOT for about 20 minutes, idled back to start trolling again and guess what... it quit. Would not restart and had to get a tow back to the ramp. So now it's new plugs, wires, cap and roter, Pertronix electronic ignition and Pertonix 40,000 volt coil, new fuel pump, new fuel/water seperator (had none before). I siphoned about 15 gallons of fuel from the tank with no sign of water in the fuel (bow of the boat high, pulling fuel from the low side bottom of the tank). Dropped the lower unit in a very large (100 gallon) tub of water, just touched the key and it fired right up. Reset the timing to 10 degrees. It's never run better. Ran it in the tub for about half an hour. Perfect! Back to the lake the next day. Started beautifully, ran for about 10 minutes to get it warmed up... then quit again. After about an hour of blocking the ramp and having other boaters teaching me how to count to 1 (or were they telling me their IQ?) it finally restarted. Ran rough, slow to reach 4000 rpms (I'm in Colorado, on a lake at 8300 feet elevation so I don't expect much more than that), ran for about 20 minutes at WOT, then saw the tach needle start jumping around and finally pegged at 7000 even though the engine remained relatively steady. Headed back to the ramp, throttled back, tach still pegged, and, you guessed it. It quit again. If I could reach the plug in the transom without getting into the water, I'd sink the damn thing, but, like I said, I'm old and stubborn. Anyone have any ideas what I'm missing with this thing? I appreciate your responses.
