Hello, new to a boat forum but spend too many hours on a jet ski forum. Hopefully soon spend too many hours on here too, not in the same boat that I am in currently though. I have a 1994 Tige ski boat with a 454 EFI magnum MerCruiser motor and velvet drive. I bought the boat not running, needed a starter. Starter spun but not engaged. Lifted the motor slightly, replaced the starter. Had some issue with the switch and old connections but finally got the boat to turn over and start after running a new positive line off off of the solenoid to the relay in the fuse box that seemed to have a dead spot in there somewhere. I pulled out the fuel from the tank with a siphon pump (didn't see the fuel plug at back of the boat). Boat fired right up and was doing well. Testing out the transmission because I was wondering why it spun when in neutral. Neutral safety switch was connected, sadly I stepped on it so till I replace it I just have it jumped together. Never ran it on the hose, only a handful of quick starts for like 5-10 seconds. Was about to connect to hose or take to the lake was really the plan. I ran the boat one or two times and about 10-15 seconds at idle the alarm went off. I noticed the oil gauge wasn't registering so I figured no pressure and it was an alarm for that. I cleaned the oil sender, installed a brass T and installed a mechanical gauge just to verify I was getting pressure while keeping the original sender connected too. The mechanical gauge registered with something like 40-50PSI. Still nothing on the dash but the gauge tested with 12.4V. So i was happy to see I had oil pressure at the least. Don't need to see it on the dash.
The day following I had my girlfriend start up the boat (I had disconnected the drive cable and was attempting to make an adjustment if cable was off since prop was spinning with decent speed) boat ran for a few seconds and shut off. Ever since then it would fire up and then die a second or two later. Cycle the key and fuel pump a few times and it would fire up. Had to cycle key otherwise it would just crank over and cough. This was about two weeks ago. Today I went out, cycled the key a few times over a short period of time and it was only a quick cough. Never would fire up and go to idle for a second or two like it was.
I have done a bit of research but see a lot of stuff about MPI motor, however this is an EFI. I can get model or serial number if needed. I do not want to take it to a shop yet if at all, I have worked on jet skis for a few years now and trying to get more familiar with boats. To me it sounds like either some old fuel was in the system and some debris somewhere or that the fuel pump needs to be replaced. The boat hadn't been running for like two years and not sure what the previous owner did for storage. I don't believe they did anything as the fuel was discolored and they stopped using it when the starter went out. So my guess is it had some old fuel and I got a large majority of it but not all.
To sum up my short novel, is there anywhere to start by looking for debris? That is free and easy to do if I know where it would get trapped and cause issues delivering fuel. I have a fuel pressure gauge T'd into the fuel line, was there when I got the boat. I bought a new gauge because the old one rusted up and didn't trust it. I haven't seen the gauge move yet when cycling the key or cranking over the motor. The gauge that came out and the one replaced were both 0-100PSI. I didn't know what pressure should be so I just kept it the same. I wouldn't suspect fuel pressure was too high for the 0-15 gauges but I didn't want to chance it and change anything up. When I replaced the gauge I did hear a hissing sound and fuel bubbling out when unscrewing the old one last week. Will test that tomorrow and get some pictures too.
The day following I had my girlfriend start up the boat (I had disconnected the drive cable and was attempting to make an adjustment if cable was off since prop was spinning with decent speed) boat ran for a few seconds and shut off. Ever since then it would fire up and then die a second or two later. Cycle the key and fuel pump a few times and it would fire up. Had to cycle key otherwise it would just crank over and cough. This was about two weeks ago. Today I went out, cycled the key a few times over a short period of time and it was only a quick cough. Never would fire up and go to idle for a second or two like it was.
I have done a bit of research but see a lot of stuff about MPI motor, however this is an EFI. I can get model or serial number if needed. I do not want to take it to a shop yet if at all, I have worked on jet skis for a few years now and trying to get more familiar with boats. To me it sounds like either some old fuel was in the system and some debris somewhere or that the fuel pump needs to be replaced. The boat hadn't been running for like two years and not sure what the previous owner did for storage. I don't believe they did anything as the fuel was discolored and they stopped using it when the starter went out. So my guess is it had some old fuel and I got a large majority of it but not all.
To sum up my short novel, is there anywhere to start by looking for debris? That is free and easy to do if I know where it would get trapped and cause issues delivering fuel. I have a fuel pressure gauge T'd into the fuel line, was there when I got the boat. I bought a new gauge because the old one rusted up and didn't trust it. I haven't seen the gauge move yet when cycling the key or cranking over the motor. The gauge that came out and the one replaced were both 0-100PSI. I didn't know what pressure should be so I just kept it the same. I wouldn't suspect fuel pressure was too high for the 0-15 gauges but I didn't want to chance it and change anything up. When I replaced the gauge I did hear a hissing sound and fuel bubbling out when unscrewing the old one last week. Will test that tomorrow and get some pictures too.