While you have the Vst out pull the high pressure pump and check the screen in the insulator, they clog easily. Unless it's brand new you'll break the plastic insulator when you remove it so have a new one ready.
I have an 04' 225 for 22 years, no ecm issues. The only regular issues with that generation of V6 are 02 sensor, vertical shaft bushing, crankshaft thrust bearings and corrosion issues. An o2 sensor issue will trigger an intermittent alarm after idling for a few minutes. o2 sensor only affects...
Your on the right track of it being a fuel supply issue. Watching a fuel pressure gauge when it acts up would be helpful. Running it off a seperate portable fuel tank with its own dedicated fuel line directly to the engine could rule out a lot of upstream issues.
The o2 sensor and IAC don't...
When I was replacing the t-stats on my Honda 225 I noticed Amazon had stats advertised as Honda OEM but they looked different, they were half the price of OEM. I got OEM one's from Boats.net, You need to be careful with critical parts, people play fast and loose with the OEM claim.
They do get rust on the engine, it looks worse than it is. When I replaced the power head on a 04' 225 hp I wire brushed all the rusty nuts, bolts and brackets etc. I treated everything with OSPHO rust converter and painted with Honda gray engine paint. I spray the engine with Bosheild T-9 every...
The sensors are behind the intake manifold which is behind the plastic air intake manifold between the cylinder heads. The intake manifold is bolted to studs in the heads, it might be possible to remove the intake from the heads but it would take custom tools to do it. Its easier to remove the...
What Chawk said, I use needle nose to pull out in small pieces. Check the screen at the bottom of the insulator, if there is debris in it that will starve the engine of fuel at higher RPM.