I'll appologize if this post gets long, 1991 OMC King Cobra 454 with a distributor less ignition, I bought this boat in January, it has been in storage since 1997, 173 hours, test drive in January boat ran ok, had old gas in it and a very dirty Holley 4 bbl, it flooded and ran very rich. I've done all the oil and filter changes, swapped out the Holley for a new Edelbrock Marine 750 cfm, water pump impellor, new bellows and gimbal, 170 psi compresson on all 8 cyl, now to the problem, boat has run fine in the yard, launched in the water yesterday and taxied out slow, opened up throttle and it pops and sputters badly, back off the throttle and it clears up, give it gas into the secondaries and it back fires and runs horrible again, I ran around the lake for 10 min and it cleared up for about 10 seconds felt like it had a turbo on it then back to the popping and sputtering, does this sound like timing advance issues? any thoughts appreciated. Can I do away with the OMC electronics and put an electronic distributor on this motor? It also pops and sputters in neutral, back at the dock it seems like it cleared up, I can free rev in neutral fine, but it got too dark for a test drive.
