Trouble starting in the water?

[misery]

I finally got my 86 Johnson 150hp running well enough to take to the river for her sea trials. I launched the boat and tried to start the motor but it wouldn't start even though it started with the slightest touch of the key on land. The only way I got it to start was to lift the prop out of the water and start it. It would start instantly. I lowered the motor and put it in gear and it worked flawlessly for an hour or so. I decided to try idling the motor in neutral for a minute and it stalled, it started back up with the fast idle lever up a bit but would stall as soon as I put it down. I had to repeat the above mentioned starting procedure to get going again. After that the boat was really slow to rev up but would eventually go to wide open rpms and work well all through the rev range.
Does this sound like a carb issue or a timing issue?
The motor pulls really strong trough the mid to upper rems and starts instantly out of the water on a hose

 

[Sixmark]

Re: Trouble starting in the water?

The first thing you should have done was pull it back out of the lake and bring it home to do more work.

What you should probably do now is a compression test.

 

[boobie]

Re: Trouble starting in the water?

And then do an open air gap spark test with a tester set at 7/16". If it passes these tests, do a cyl drop test on it when running.