Motor dosnt go above 3,000 rpm in gear

[pamons12]

I have a 2005 Merc. 40 HP EFI. The other day it worked fine for 10 mins ever since then when it was in gear it wont get above 3000 rpms. In idle it sounds like its struggling to keep up, almost like the choke is closed. When I rev it the rpms are seem normal and it sounds good, the 3000 limit only happens when in gear.
I thought it was bad gas so I flushed the system with some good gas but it didn't seem to get better.

 

[racerone]

An EFI does not have a choke.------Most motors will rev / sound fine in neutral.------Did this develop suddenly ?-----Looked at the sparkplugs ?-----Getting spark on all plugs ?-----Water pump looked at ?------Oil level checked ?

 

[pamons12]

An EFI does not have a choke.------Most motors will rev / sound fine in neutral.------Did this develop suddenly ?-----Looked at the sparkplugs ?-----Getting spark on all plugs ?-----Water pump looked at ?------Oil level checked ?

Thanks for the reply I checked everything you said and then started to look at the fuel system. When I squeezed the fuel bulb it would spray a little stream of gas from the plastic connector that connects the outside line to the inside line. So
I ran a 3 foot fuel line directly to the fuel pump from the gas tank and that seemed to fix it.
After I did this I realized that when I turn off the engine, a gas/water mix would spray out of the water pee hole.
I was thinking it might be a bad fuel pump but Im not sure why gas would be coming out of the pee hole?

 

[racerone]

Some fuel pumps are water cooled.----So see if a hose goes from the pump to the tell tale.----Might be a leak inside the fuel pump.