2016 Tohatsu 20 issues

[bgriffin47]

So I have been struggling with a problem with my outboard 2016 Tohatsu 20 motor. It was running great and had no issues as it is ran weekly. I decided to replace my fuel tank and fuel lines because the lines were dry rotted. I took it out for the first time and had issues when I noticed I ran over a plastic bag in the lake. After I unwrapped the bag I noticed that whenever I would get up to a good speed it would start to slow down, stutter, and then shut off. I did this a couple of times until I got back to the boat ramp. It has been doing it ever since. The motor idles fine and will run great going slow. As soon as I get up to a good speed it starts to be an issue. I don’t know much about these motors so anything helps. Thanks in advance.

 

[racerone]

I would first inspect water pump impeller.

 

[MattFL]

Agree with the above, if it started exactly when the bag incident occurred, then the water pump is a good place to start, it's possible lack of water cooked the impeller and now it's overheating and going into protect mode, if the motor has that feature. You could also start by pulling codes to see if it set any overheat codes.

 

[pvanv]

OK, model is critical; year is irrelevant. Is it an MFS20D? That's carbureted. The E series is EFI.