Motor Problems / Maybe??

[thibodeauxba]

First let me say Hello Salty Cajun. I am new on here.

I have a 25HP Tohatsu (2004 model) that has been acting up for the past 2 years and was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what my problem might be. Since it has never left me stranded; (being hard headed) I haven't fixed the problem. What it usually does is it will fire right up at the launch and run like a champ. From the launch I can take off and go anywhere I want 1 mile to 20 miles and it will run great, but then after killing it and fishing for some period of time (30 minutes - 1 hour or so) when I go to crank it the second time it will start, but is very difficult to get it to take off and go wide open (in gear) without dying. It will idle up high in neutral, but not in gear. It usually takes around 10 tries of slowly giving it gas so that it doesn't bog down and/or die out to get it going, but once I get it to wide open it runs great. It may do this once or twice more throughout the trip; all depending on how long I let it sit before taking off again. It has done this about 20 different trips over the last two years, but I always seem to get it going and get back to the launch.

My thought was that I was getting water in my fuel causing some sort of vapor lock or something after running and cooling off so I went out and bought me a $75 water seperator and have taken it on a trip last week and had no problems what so ever. This was the first trip in two years that I have not had any problems. I started and stopped about 8 times and ran for around 15 miles total with no problems. I have not determined if my problem is totally fixed yet, but think that the seperator may have fixed my issue.

During the last two years I have cleaned my carburater 3 times and dumped my fuel tank out twice.

Does it sound like this could have been water related (ethanol related)? Trash related? Anyone had any similar issues?