greetings all,<br />a little while ago I wrote that I was down 500-1000 RPM at WOT for no apparent reason. It was suggested that I do a compression test. It has taken a while because I don't keep the boat very nearby my house. The compression checks in from 115 to 123 on all cylinders. Oh, I suppose that anyone reading this will need to know that I'm talking about a 1978 Johnson 150. <br /><br />Well, last night a buddy and I went fishing and I noticed the same WOT RPM issue, but I'm still turning the lower end of the recommended range (a bit over 4500), so I decided to keep on keeping on (the fish have been missing me, you see), and we got to the sot and fished for an hour and a half or so. Then the gremlins appeared. I couldn't get the motor to idle when I started back up. It ran fine with the warm up lever up, but as I eased that down to idle to shift, it would stall. It's not uncommon for this motor to do this a couple of times before it decides to really just give up and idle and be fine, but this was much longer. it really didn't want to go. i finally got it revved a little bit and shifted it just as the warm up lever came down enough and it went. just not fast. in fact, it would o9nly turn about 2500 RPM and go about 10 or 12. no where near planing. so we were limping back toward the marina like this when it sorta coughed and then the revs picked up. Before I know it we're cruising along near WOT turning about 5k with the engine sounding good as new. We go the couple more miles closer to the marina, decide to lay up for one more attempt to get at least one keeper. I cut the engines, we drift for 45 mintues or so, and then decide to leave. The motor starts right up, and suddenly I have the full WOT range. just popped right on plane. <br /><br />now i'm trying to figure what the issue was. just something clogging the carbs? when I was having the slow issues above I tried pumping the priming bulb and removing the cowl, neither made any difference to the motor. it just kept sounding pretty much the same, bogging. <br /><br />sorry for the novel, gentlemen. i'm still very much a marine mechanical novice.
