The boat is a 1987 Grew 19.5 foot bowrider 4.3L with a quadrajet.
I'm not sure if this is normal or not so I thought I'd just ask before messing with it some more. I bought the boat late last year and was thoroughly impressed how well it started. Hot or cold, a quick flick of the key and it would fire right up and idle, every time. The only problem was it was running pig rich. White smoke out the exhaust and it stunk to high heaven. Because the transom was completely rotten I only took it out once and didn't push it very hard but it seemed to pull okay. After complete hull gut and rebuild over the winter, I reinstalled the engine only to find it would now barely run at all. Chuggin', spittin' ,sputterin' and it wouldn't idle. Pulled the carb and found one of the well plugs was gone. Thankfully it seems to have passed through the engine without causing any damage.
I managed to find a used replacement float bowl and rebuilt the carb. Except for not having provisions for the fuel pump overflow and the model number it looked like a good match. I had to drill and tap it to put the hose barb on it. The adjustment specs for the float height were slightly different (I think about 1/32"). I couldn't get a consistent measurement anyways so I called it close enough somewhere around those two specs. I've fiddled with the idle mixture screws and I think they're pretty close.
Anyways, back to the issue I may or may not be having. I usually need to give it a little throttle to get it to light off quickly. It will start without doing that but I have to crank it for a few seconds and it might stumble and stall. That's it. Once started it runs great. No white smoke and 47mph on the gps. I'm tempted to just leave it alone but I can't help but wonder if this is normal for this engine. I believe the choke is working properly but I'm not sure about the float height and mixture screws, maybe something there?
Should I keep messing with it or leave it alone?
I'm not sure if this is normal or not so I thought I'd just ask before messing with it some more. I bought the boat late last year and was thoroughly impressed how well it started. Hot or cold, a quick flick of the key and it would fire right up and idle, every time. The only problem was it was running pig rich. White smoke out the exhaust and it stunk to high heaven. Because the transom was completely rotten I only took it out once and didn't push it very hard but it seemed to pull okay. After complete hull gut and rebuild over the winter, I reinstalled the engine only to find it would now barely run at all. Chuggin', spittin' ,sputterin' and it wouldn't idle. Pulled the carb and found one of the well plugs was gone. Thankfully it seems to have passed through the engine without causing any damage.
I managed to find a used replacement float bowl and rebuilt the carb. Except for not having provisions for the fuel pump overflow and the model number it looked like a good match. I had to drill and tap it to put the hose barb on it. The adjustment specs for the float height were slightly different (I think about 1/32"). I couldn't get a consistent measurement anyways so I called it close enough somewhere around those two specs. I've fiddled with the idle mixture screws and I think they're pretty close.
Anyways, back to the issue I may or may not be having. I usually need to give it a little throttle to get it to light off quickly. It will start without doing that but I have to crank it for a few seconds and it might stumble and stall. That's it. Once started it runs great. No white smoke and 47mph on the gps. I'm tempted to just leave it alone but I can't help but wonder if this is normal for this engine. I believe the choke is working properly but I'm not sure about the float height and mixture screws, maybe something there?
Should I keep messing with it or leave it alone?
If you want it to start and idle with just the two pumps from dead cold with no throttle you may need to look at whatever choke the carb has on it, and adjust to the next mark Richer.