I have a 98 Volvo Penta 4.3, now with 625 hours on it. I bought it with 580 hours. I installed all new Volvo plugs, wire, cap, rotor, fluids, fuel filter at the beginning of the season and it runs like a top. Always starts right up, runs smooth, plenty of power. Yesterday, I decided to take a quick run around the lake on skis. My friend and his family were over to visit, so I had my buddy drive the boat. Our lake is pretty shallow (about 5-8 feet) and has a shallow area in the center of the lake with reeds growing. It's about 2-3 feet deep there, and we try to avoid going through there with a wake. Unfortunately, he pulled me right into the reeds. I let go and had him stop. He didn't hit bottom. He turned the boat off while I talked to him and when he went to restart it it would fire, run for 1-2 seconds and die. He tried about 5 times, and then I got in. I had to use the throttle to finally get it to stay running. I honestly can't tell you if it seemed flooded or starved. I revved it gently and it idled fine. We idled back to the deeper area and he pulled me up again. A quarter of the way around the lake he started slowing down and I could hear it running rough. I dropped and got into the boat. It will start right up and idle fine. I can get right up on plane, but if I go over 3000 rpm it starts missing really badly. It sounds like it is fuel starved, but when I look at my gauges, they are going nuts. The volt gauge, which usually reads full right (so I don't know if it's accurate) and the fuel gauge are connected to the miss. On off on off in sync. So, that makes me think this is electrical. Unfortunately, by the time we got the boat back to the lift and got everything cleaned up, it was getting dark. I am hoping to get some good ideas from you all to take back with me to check. I appreciate the help.
