New fuel water separator and a temporary loss of power when first taking off

[ERock82]

I installed a fuel water separator for the first time on my boat about a month ago. The first time I took it out the motor had hardly any power for about 5 mins, then BAM it went full throttle and ran great for the rest of the day. No leaks or anything suspicious from the separator. I took it out a week later and ran great then whole time. However, the time after that that I took it out it, it did the same thing where it took a couple mins to get powered up. Seems odd. I checked my work over and everything appears to be set up correctly. The motor is a 50hp 2 stroke Mercury. Any thoughts?

 

[racerone]

Open low speed mixture needles 1/8th turn at a time and test run again.

 

[ERock82]

Thanks racerone. I'll try that out. Anyone out there have more thoughts on this??

 

[ajgraz]

Are there any kinks or sharp bends that have been introduced into the fuel lines since installing this new filter? Did you add in good quality fuel line (i.e., not collapsing on you)?

Are you pumping up your primer bulb nice and firm every time before starting up? Does it seem to take more "pumps" now? Is it possible that, although not loose enough to leak fuel, one of your new connections is loose enough to (intermittently) suck air? Or similarly, are you screwing the filter element (oil-filter style, yes?) on all the way?

Have you checked the filter (whether it has a clear chamber on the bottom...or if not, by pouring the contents into a jar), to see if you've sucked a ton of water out of your tank?

 

[ERock82]

Are there any kinks or sharp bends that have been introduced into the fuel lines since installing this new filter? Did you add in good quality fuel line (i.e., not collapsing on you)?

Are you pumping up your primer bulb nice and firm every time before starting up? Does it seem to take more "pumps" now? Is it possible that, although not loose enough to leak fuel, one of your new connections is loose enough to (intermittently) suck air? Or similarly, are you screwing the filter element (oil-filter style, yes?) on all the way?

Have you checked the filter (whether it has a clear chamber on the bottom...or if not, by pouring the contents into a jar), to see if you've sucked a ton of water out of your tank?

At first I thought maybe the problem was that my hose was going upward too much. I adjusted that the first time out and it did not fix the problem. There are no sharp bends and the hose was overpriced from West Marine haha. It may seem to take more pumps now but that may just be in my head. Connections look good and I can't see how water would've got in there. I can unscrew the filter and check that.

It seems a mystery for now.