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2003 Johnson J25RSTC milky fuel/oil, rough idle, hard start

Picked up a 1992 model 25 HP ( very similar to yours ) for next to nothing.-----I will concentrate on getting it apart for inspection / refurbish.----Be a good one to have on the shelf.-----Gasket under powerhead was blown.----Shop tossed it out.
 
The saga continues and I have about lost my mind. I replaced the lower crank seal a few weeks ago, convinced that was the problem. I drove the seal into the housing until it bottomed out. Buttoned everything up and about 3 hours later notice a piece of paper on my garage floor as I was cleaning up. It was the lower crank seal installation instructions, and they explicitly stated to NOT bottom the seal out or it would not seal properly and leak. Awesome. Took it out on the water and it ran like crap until it would no longer start. Figured it was my faulty install. I reordered the seal and powerhead-to-midsection gasket and reinstalled it last night. Just fired the motor up and it still runs terribly. Coughing, backfiring, stalling, hard starting, and eventually not starting. Let the motor sit and cool down and it will fire right back up. I am stumped. I re-checked the linkage/synch, etc. all are SPOT on. I am thinking maybe it is the power pack is damaged/failing? I have already tested the coil and both are in spec. I do not have the means to test the power pack. What the hell else can it be??????
 
I absolutely hate threads where the OP doesn't say what ended up happening/the solution. Happy to report I believe the problem is FIXED. I pulled the carb, intake manifold, and reed plate to inspect the reeds. One of the two reeds were not perfectly aligned, as I could see light shining through gaps of a few of the reed leaves. I adjusted this to where there was no light/they made a solid seal. The center bolt holding the reed plate was NOT sealed with Gel Seal 2 or the LocTite 518 equivalent. I ensured everything was perfectly cleaned, replaced both gaskets (one looked like it may have been leaking), sealed the center bolt with 518 (prime with acetone first), and assembled everything in accordance with the manual. While the carb was off, pulled everything apart again. Cleaned everything for the millionth time, reset the float etc. The float drop was set a little too low, at probably 3/4 of an inch, where it is supposed to be at a min of 1 1/8”. I believe this would have caused less fuel to be available vice overfueling. Set it to 1 1/8”. I also pulled the plug off the top of the carb that covers the needle jet/emulsification tube looking thing and removed the lead shot over the idle passage to ensure everything was clear/clean beneath them. The shot stuck pretty far down into the passage, unsure if this may have been an issue along with the intake gasket. I sealed the welch plug with a tiny bit of Airplane Gasket sealer around the perimeter of the plug before tapping it into place, and then put a light coat of clear nail polish over top of both the plug and shot to ensure there were no leaks. Note, I a made a “lead shot” out of a small chunk of a lead fishing weight and it worked well. Double-checked link and synch, perfect. Fired it up and it sounded GREAT. Adjusted the low speed screw and then set the idle. Purred like a kitten. Moderately chopped the throttle (because on muffs) and it raised and dropped back down to idle perfectly. Unsure if it was the intake manifold gaskets, the poorly adjusted/set reed, the plug/shot was leaking, the float was off, or a combo of all of these. Regardless, it sounds great. I do believe the motor also had a blown lower crank seal due to being run with all of the issues it had, evident by massive amounts of premix on both sides of the crank seal and the giant mess it made all over the bottom of the powerhead and down the outside of the exhaust manifold and into the lower unit exhaust port. Taking it out on the water when the weather clears up this weekend. Appreciate all the suggestions and help as I troubleshot this.
 
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