hello, 1st time posting on iboats, im having problems with my engine. 1st off it started about a year ago it would sometimes die when starting to take off most of the time it done it after running a few spots then fish about 30 min. then when taking off it would do it. would have to try 4-5 times to get it going if I let off the throttle it wouldn't die but if I didn't it would stall out but start right back up and idle fine....boat has always been hard to start when cold...took it in to the shop and was advised it was the carbs so they rebuilt them at a price of $400.00 for all 6, this made the problem worse after the rebuild not only did it do the same thing as before but it now has a cough when at idle and sometimes coughs and dies took it back and was advised it was a bad fuel hose, primer bulb and filter they replaced all that and still same problem only this time someone helped them selves to a brand new hummingbird fish finder about a $400.00 unit which my boys bought me for Christmas. anyway boat still not fixed so I started trying to fix it my self and this is what I know about it....compression is 85-90 on all cyl. eng. cold with throttle closed, new spark plugs, i figured out that if i choke the eng. 2 times before trying to launch it does pretty good and after it gets going it runs great until i stop then it starts coughing and sneezing i took the fuel hose off the vro where it comes out of the pump put hose in a bottle and crank the eng. no fuel so i hit the primer bulb and had a full hose gush out then tried cranking again and a very small stream, smaller than ???? well i could pee a bigger stream... so im thinking its the fuel pump but i also put a vac. gauge on the pulse hose and cranked eng. cold and it went back and forth from 0-1psi pressure not really any vac. or if it had vac. it was less than 1/2 a psi my question is do you think its the vro or low compression on the engine causing the vro not to work??? also the oil side of the vro is unhooked. i mix my on fuel/oil i removed the vro and tried to make it work by sucking and blowing on the pump where the pulse hose goes on and it didn't feel like it was doing anything so i took the pump apart but did not find anything wrong...everything looks good....the engine is a Johnson 225 ho looper thanks for any help. also if you think its the pump is there something cheaper than the factory vro that will work? $460.00 at local repair shop $330.00 on ebay someone said put a electric pump and someone else said no so i don't know...hate to spend $500.00 and not be sure if it will be fixed. also the valve the pulse hose comes off of on the side of the engine how can you check that? if i hold my thumb over the hose it flutters but not a lot of pressure and no vac.... thanks for any advice.....
