96 3.0L Volvo Penta, starts, high revs, dies.

Just got my hands on. 1996 Sunbird Spirit with a 3.0L Volvo Penta, with an SX Cobra stern drive. Never owned an inboard before so it’s new for me. However, the prev owner wasn’t savvy with engines and gave up on it. She will crank and start fairly easily, but soon as she starts, runs for about 30secs, rpms go up around the 3,000 range and immediately dies. I’ve read several posts and blogs on related topics and engines, tried jumping the positive from the battery to positive primary on the coil, same outcome. Tried running the motor on carb cleaner to see if there was a fuel issue. Same outcome. Disconnected fuel line and cranked to make sure electronic fuel pump was pumping. Ohm’d the ignition wire to the coil and read good ohms. I also Ohm’d the kill switch and it wouldn’t read so I bypassed it for the time being to see if that was one of my issues, and it didn’t change anything. Im thinking I may have a carb issue causing the high rev. But the running issue I’m thinking may be electrical. I’m not super savvy with all this either but I do enjoy mechanical stuff so I’m interested in troubleshooting and getting this resolved. Any tips or pointers ?

I`d replace the carb base gasket , a leak there will cause a very high idle then die

Bt Doctur said:

I`d replace the carb base gasket , a leak there will cause a very high idle then die

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I had pulled the carb and inspected the base gasket, it looked to be in good shape, but maybe it isn’t seating good. Will hunt down for a gasket replacement, or maybe just an all around carb rebuild kit for it.