First time boat owner, and first time posting here. It is a 95 Mariner 90HP 2-stroke on a 24-foot pontoon for family and friend cruising. Engine appears to have been well maintained. Battery was dead when I went to check it out to buy it, and they spent about 20 minutes gathering the things to fire the boat up, so I figure it was an honest cold start. She fired up pretty quickly, about the 3rd try and ran smooth for about 10-15 minutes.Since I had to put a new battery in it, and clean up the electrical, I went ahead and set up a dual battery system with a 1-2-B-O switch, ran new wiring, and installed it all on a Sea Sense fuse panel. Once I got that all done, all my electrical worked properly (lights, gauges, radio, livewell fill, etc.). Put the muffs on it and fired it up, and she ran smooth for about 4-5 minutes, idled it up a bit during that time too, and it all sounded great.
A buddy and I took it out so I could work out any kinks prior to taking the family out on it. Nailed the launch, with no "that guy" moments, so it was a good start. I idled the boat around the dock waiting for my buddy for about 5 minutes, got him and we are on our way. Cruised for about 8-10 minutes at about 1/4 throttle, just getting a feel for it. Gave it some more for a few minutes, slowed down a bit, made some wide turns etc. just feeling the boat out. I was ready to open it up and we went WOT for about a minute or two, just so I could get a feel for that too. In total we were out about 20-30 minutes, and as soon as we pulled up to a cove to park and hang out, the moment I throttled it back down, it started to sputter and died a few seconds later.
We were in a cove so I dropped anchor and we let it sit for about 30-45 minutes and tried to start it again, same thing. Motor turns, but would not catch and fire up. Occasionally it would give like one or two heavy chugs like it was going to, but just didnt. Primer bulb got hard when we primed it. Tried starting with choke, with some more idle, while priming...nothing got it to catch. Took the cowl off to look for any pinched or kinked hoses. Plugs all look good and snapped in tight. Checked linkages with throttle and they all appear to be working. I could see there was oil in the oil feed line to the pump, but the line coming out of the pump to the "T" with the fuel line was not FULL with oil. (picture a horseshoe, with oil at the two ends, but none in the middle). I know we were running with oil because there was slightly less oil in the reservoir than when we started the day. But as soon as I dropped the throttle down for no wake, it sputtered and died.
New float sensor was put in when it was taken out of winterization. Water coming from impeller outlet in steady stream the whole time on the water and when trying to start it. Compression checks around 110 for all three cylinders, though it was on a cold engine since I cant get it to start to warm up.
First timer but not afraid to learn to do things the right way. Hoping for some help in this forum to help me go about getting this thing ready to hit the water with peace of mind.
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