Tonight my 25' crest pontoon left me stranded on the Ky river. The boat has been increasingly hard to start when cold. Tonight it wouldn't do it at all, which led to a dead battery. Once warm the engine runs great, but if allowed to cool off for 30-40 min then is almost impossible to start. I had 2 used and 1 new plugs on the boat and swapped them out. Upon removing the cowling, strong smell of fuel with some visible in carb throat. Plugs that came out were very wet with fuel and black. I had a friend ground the plug on the head to see if we had fire. He said the wire was arcing and fire exscaping before the plug also shocked him but i can't attest as i couldn't see. Even with the new (semi) plugs no luck. During cranking, sounded as though it was backfiring through the carb. I put a carb kit in it a couple months ago and seemed to be doing good, but the cold starting problem kept slowly getting worse. Engine seems to not like anything but idle or wot. Like you give throttle from idle and nothing, little more and it starts sputtering, little more and it really takes off. Since the install i've noticed a slighty higher than normal idle but nothing that is a problem, just a few hundred rpm to the ear. Iplan on replacing plugs and wires before i take it in. Any other suggestions. Thank you so much for your help
