So I am curious how do they think you got water ingestion? If your wife backed in slowly highly unlikely water was driven into the powerhead. And if you started it when the water intakes were covered that would prevent water from going up. I would look somewhere else than the boat landing where...
Well your 19" pitch is nor helping matters. Do you have your manual yet? What yr is your motor? If an early one classic signs of high speed windings failing.
That is a 2+2 motor so it idles on the top two until 1800 rpm then the bottom 2 cylinders come in. Need a factory manual to set this motor up correctly.
How long have you owned this motor? Did this happen recently? Do you have a factory manual? Were the carbs removed recently? Link and sync done correctly? Accelerator pumps working? Factory manual is a must have for this motor