Today we skied for the best part of the morning. Great time, hardly a boat on the lake. We owned the main channel which runs for about 2.5 miles. Here was my problem. After skiing, we floated around and swam for about 45 minutes. Now it is about 97 degrees up here in Pa. and when I went to start my engine, it sputtered a bit and shut down. I restarted numerous times with the same result. I even went into gear to try to move but it sort of backfired and sputtered and shut down. I turned on the blower, maybe I should have in the first place, waited a bit, then opened the engine cover for a minute or two. When I tried again, boom, started right up no problem. I ran at about 30mph for a while to blow it out. What do your folks think may have happened there. This NEVER happened before. Boat is a Chap216 2001 model with as said before has a MAG 350 with a Gen 2 Alpha and a four blade stainless prop. When I came home and backed down my driveway, I put on the ear muffs with the garden hose just to try again before I backed into the garage and, boom, again, started right up. What went wrong here.

Sounds like vapor lock to me.

Oh...check thread on vapor lock by 4lake bums...same issue.

If it's carbureted, vapor lock.

If it's FI'd, gonna be a lot tougher.

Is this the same question that was also posted in the Boating Forum section?

1) Cool the fuel line parts and path.

2) Replace the fuel pump.

3) There are many other paths to follow also, I suggest that you try #1 first.

4) Is last year's gas still in the tank or part of it or is it all gone and there is only two week old gas in the tank?

5) Check the float bowl level.

6) Check if the gas and gas lines had any restictions, like old filter, gas cap vent not really working up to snuff, gas tank shut off valve not clean...

7) Check all the gaskets for slow leaks.

Sounds like something along the lines of "vapor lock" caused by high under engine box temperature. Especially the fix of opening the lid of that engine box and running the blower to cure it.

Same exact thing that happened to me this weekend. It ran fine the rest of the day. Quite interesting. If you have any more issues please post as I will do the same if it continues.

I am going to change the fuel filter and check the fuel pressure. If not that the water/fuel seperator.

I am going to do nothing until I run it again this weekend to be sure. Hopefully it was a one time thing due to the high temps, however it has never been an issue before.

Sometimes you can get vapor lock early in the season due to still having winter blend gas in the tank. It vaporizes at a lower ambient temperature.

I had a similer issue on my 350Mag... turned out to be a dodgy spark cable that goes to the coil.. once it started it appeared to run okkay (although it probably was running on 7 cylinders sometimes).. however when i went to start it.. it looked like it was going to start.. but didnt ebd up startying.. did a backfire every once in a while when starting..

I've had the same problem twice this year (See Back to Back Towings under Engines, Drives & Props). I'm still working on mine and will keep you posted.

TT

I'm gonna go against the grain here and bet the issue is gonna be in the ignition system.

Nick, do a quick check for spark the next time she acts up on you. If it's good at least you can cross it off your list of possible causes.