87 Mercury 150 Xr2 black max

Hi, Another project on the old still running boat with Mercury XR2 150hp. We where out about 2 months ago and I had to switch to a backup tank that i knew was dirtier gas( i know i should have gotten rid of it or at least ran some clean gas through the carbs). now i have the 6 carburetor setup where 2 of the bowls (middle and lower) do not fill up with gas. Only the top bowl fills up.

Im faced with getting somebody to rebuild or doing it myself.

Any suggestions on this? i am mechanically inclined having kept the motor running this long. I am going to call a place to see what they charge on Monday but guessing it will be 500-700 i might just do it myself.

any feedback including calling me a dummy for using bad gas and not immediately doing something after is appreciated.

Lance

I am assuming the inlet needle valve on the middle and lower bowls is clocked. I am going to purchase 3 of these gasket kits.

https://www.boats.net/product/mercu...XZ3rHkOecK2H92ZoLsbzYw0gI_fd3DXYaAlE1EALw_wcB

and a gallon of carburetor cleaner dip.

I think that should do.

any suggestions or am I off track?

Airbox to carb gaskets mate. Something i forgot that annoyed me.

The inline filter should have caught any debris before carbs.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a clear fuel filter and that has fuel flowing in it. I have disconnected the lines going into the bowls one by one and can see fuel coming through the lines but not through the main jet plug hole of the middle and bottom carbs.

I was looking at the part diagram and I cant find a airbox gasket. Is it something like this?

https://www.boats.net/product/mercu...qwpSqOPis7CvWAE4wqn1WpZR2ZpJjBGBoCNuUQAvD_BwE

Serial no, search parts on this site

[h=1]27-672751[/h]

Thanks. I was able to pull all the carbs yesterday and cleaned them up,replace gaskets, etc and put them back on. Finished up this morning and started it up.

the first 3-4 minutes it seemed to run rough and at higher rpms, like it does when it runs out of gas. I shut it down and went back over the throttle linkage, taking it off and reconnecting and then started it back up about 30 min later. the second time it started to run like it normally does.

Im guessing that initially the Carbs where not completely filled / primed to run well even though I primed the system until the bulb was firm. The second time more fuel was in different areas in the carb and it ran properly.

Does this sound right? Would it take a little time for the Carbs to have filled up all the passages and start running properly?

Once primer bulb is hard , the carburetors are ---" ready to run "----There is no " warm up time " for those carburetors.