1996 Mercruiser 30 Hot Start Trouble

"My boat start the second it h

"My boat start the second it hits the water. Not one second of a problem. I cruise at about 3500 rpm for about 30-40 minutes. Temp gets to about 150. I anchor and go swimming for say about an hour or so. Then when I try to start the boat, it is very hard. Sometimes it took almost full throttle to get it started. Now it is even harder. I spray starter fluid into the carb and it still has trouble. It does idle bad until it gets hot and sometimes even then does not idle great. Boat runs great otherwise. I am a novice at working on sterndrives. Have always had an outboard until now. Not that I ever worked on the outboard myself. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time"

"Ayuh,... Sounds like a Carb

"Ayuh,... Sounds like a Carb or Choke problem,..."

Any choke adjustments I could

Any choke adjustments I could do myself as a somewhat novice? What does a carb rebuild cost?

"A common problem, the hot car

"A common problem, the hot carb. boils the fuel over into the barrels and floods the motor. The fix is to go to a auto shop and get a insulating spacer to go between the carb and intake manifold. Had the same problem with mine and since the insulating spacer went in, easy to start when hot."

I just started trying to solve

I just started trying to solve the problem yesterday. It is the second time I heard the insulating spacer response. Gonna try that this week. Thanks for the input.

Check the spark plugs for carb

Check the spark plugs for carbon/soot fouling.

I changed the spark plugs a fe

I changed the spark plugs a few months ago when I started having the problem. It did not seem to help.

Check them; if they are carbon

Check them; if they are carboned from soot they will miss fire. Clean them and reinstall.