78 Johnson 35 horse

I have a 1968 Shell lake Sportsman that I was given by a friend. It has a 1978 Johnson 35 horse. It did not start and had been sitting in a garage for about 10 yrs. I replaced the "brain box", the plugs and disassembled and cleaned the carb. Took her down to the lake to test it out. After a few minutes cranking it started, smoked a little then settled into a smooth idle. I throttled up to about 1/4 throttle and headed for open water, ran fine. After clearing the no wake buoys I opened her up. She took off quickly and planed out nicely. After about 3 or 4 minutes, it stalled and died. I restarted it and it sputtered a bit then smoothed out and idled. When I tried to throttle up it would stall and die. I removed the engine cover and found there was 2 inches standing water under the cover. I traced the leak to the hose coming off the engine just at the elbow there was a 1/2 inch tear. I removed the hose and flipped it around, no more leak under the cover. Still wont throttle up. seems to idle fine. Was wondering if something got wet (coil, wires ect...) or if that was unrelated. Starts fine, Idles fine, but dies if you give it gas. Any thoughts?

Re: 78 Johnson 35 horse

It sounds like a fuel issue, and I'll bet you're getting an air leak. Check and replace your old fuel lines, they weren't made the same way 10 years ago as they are today. The water is definitely not a great thing, but I feel like it may be unrelated. The fuel pump could also be the problem, as they sometimes would get a small pin hole in the intake gasket, causing an air leak as well. Can commonly be mistaken for an ignition issue.