I bought a used 5hp johnson for $300 that looked to be in decent shape. I put fresh gas in and johnson oil it fired right up i let it warm up seemed to run decently and then took it for a cruize, it ran great got my 11 foot john boat up to 18mph then after about 5 minutes it shut off right off when crusing and motor popped up.It was a pain to start after that and would run 10-30 seconds and stall sometimes longer if i revved it way up and closed the choke opened and closed. I didnt have a paddle and got trapped a few miles from shore and had to paddle with a stick. It would only run for short burst and would just die out. I took it apart when........ i got home, cleaned the gas tank the brass screen on the gas valve took off the carb sprayed out everything cleaned bowl ports jets everything put in a new plug ran seam foam through it. Took it for another run and great for about 2 minutes and died again then was a pain to start and would stall. i got mad after trying to start it 100 times and hurt my wrist got it to start and revved the crap out of it slamming choke open and closed then brought it down to idle, then it seemed to run ok i ran at least a gallon of gas through it and cruised at 18 mph for 30 minutes and was like wow maybe it was just dirt and was fixed and did several IDLE DOWNand stop and get back up on plain with no issues. took it out again a few days later fired right up ran strong for about 5 minutes then died again and ran like crap and was hard to start and wanted to stall and did. im not sure what the issue is, the fuel pump seems to be pumping fine disconnect it while running shoved the hose in a bottle and revved it up it squirt out clean gas fast. Seems to be getting water it comes out not like a jet like my bigger outboard but a steady stream not sure how much these little guys are supposed to throw. Dont know if its the carb flooding out and dieing from a bad float, or if its not enough water and its a safety shutoff, i can touch the motor it hat but not burning hot, or if its a bad coil, or ignition pickup, it has a coil going to the spark plug then another coil on the flywheel that is wired to the spark plug coil. its driving me nuts and i cant trust it, it either runs like garbage, or purrs like a kitten idles so quiet you cant hear it goes strong and then just dies and runs like crap idls bad loads up stumbles and stalls and dies. 
