1988 4.3 omc wont get on plane

[lasko1]

Ahh ...it's been ~3 yrs since mine were last changed. I picked up the points, condenser, cap and rotor and am going to have my uncle help me with the changeouts tomorrow afternoon. He has all the dwell meters and timing lights, etc. Do you typically change out the cap and rotor each spring too? I also picked up a new fuel/water separator in case there is any restriction in the old one even though this item gets changed yearly along with the oil change.

I will post back with the results of how the boat performs after the changeout.

 

[southkogs]

Do you typically change out the cap and rotor each spring too?

Dunno' if it's right or not, but I didn't. I changed the cap once when I was trouble shooting some other stuff ... think I left the rotor alone otherwise.

 

[lasko1]

Update: Boat is up and running after changing the small fuel filter at carb inlet, fuel/water separator, points, condenser, and rotor were also changed out. Points gap ended up being at .017 to achieve 38 degrees dwell. Old points were ~4 years old and pitted. Unfortunately, this was kind of a shotgun approach of a fix and I'm not sure what was the exact cause of the issue.

However, I do still have "studdering issues" at ~3/4 throttle when the 4 barrels start kicking in. From past experience, I know the boat will top out at ~32 mph with 4 barrel linkage removed. The boat studders from 33-37mph but runs smooth at full throttle 41mph. No problem getting up on plane with full throttle either.

Any carb guys out there that have experienced this? Time for a carb cleaning or rebuild? Last carb rebuild (replacement) was 4 yrs ago when this studdering issue actually showed up. It just seems a little worse now.

For now, I will run the boat at 32mph or less to stay away from the studdering zone of the throttle.