I bought my first boat about a month and a half ago. I live in Northern Minnesota so I have awhile until I can get on the water. The boat I bought is a 1994 LOWE 1730 fish and ski with a matching trailer and 70hp Johnson of the same year. Everything is in great shape. I bought it in the winter so I couldn't start it and run it right away. I finally started it on the garden hose and muffs on Saturday and was happy that it started and ran pretty good. I knew it was old gas, and everything seemed to be working fine. Smooth and running on all cylinders. So today (sunday) I pulled the boat down to the access on the river and backed her in. It fired up great and idled fine. Went in and out of gear great. Took off up river and it took right off and threw the boat right up on plane and we were crusing along. Took off so good I actually backed it off because I didn't want to go that fast right away. As soon as I backed of it fell right on its face and and seemed like it was only running on one or two cylinders. (3 cylinder engine) At that point you could idle it like this but wouldn't go into gear and have load on it without it dying. I don't have very much mechanical knowledge about boats at all, wheelers snowmobiles, cars and trucks are my thing. So I don't really know where to start with this. I bought new plugs tonight and filled it up with some fresh 92 octane (took 10 gal) don't have a clue how big the tank is in this boat either. So I was thinking about just taking it someplace to get a spring tune-up, how much should I expect to pay? Also my livewell filled partially up without the pump running? Is that normal? the front one got a tad of water in it too? Thanks for any help you guys can give me or any advice on the boat.
