I was reading a service manual today. I was out on a boat I just got for the first time. 87 Chaparral 178xl. I thought the tank was empty, never checked to see if the gauge worked, so I stopped for gas on the way to the lake. I checked an old chappie brochure and it said my boat supposedly came with a 20 gallon tank, so I put 12 gal in and a quart of oil for 50:1. Gauge was reading halfish tank. Ran awesome for about half an hour, started surging, at half throttle, idling rough, shut off. Got it started, would only run with warm up lever on, wouldn't rev very high. Pulled the fuel line and it smelled kind of funky. I thought bad gas was previously in the tank, out fresh in, sloshed it around on the water, stirred up gunk, gummed up the carbs and filter. Then I read a service manual where it said the surging is fuel pump related? I really need to find a manual specific to my motor and the power pilot so I can properly set the cables and rebuild the carbs etc.
