Mercruiser 3.0 Alpha One Problem

[waterdogz]

I have a Mercruiser 3.0 Alpha One 6 cylinder. Last week we got down to a quater tank of gas and started have problems. The boat will start up fine and i can make my way out through the channels alright at about 2000 RPMs. When I give it gas and bring the front end down I am good for about a 300 yards then the engine sputters and eventually bogs down. From this point on I even have a hard time getting back to the dock at slow speed. Persons told me that a quater tank of gas can mean that i am out of gas. Filled gas tank. Changed fuel filter and also put in dry gas thinking I might have water in the line. Same happen today except that the way back to the dock wasn't as bad. What do you think? I am leaning towards fuel pump but not sure if it is a carb. problem. Please help. Thanks. New Member.

[mackid068]

Get the vessel out of the water. Then, have a mechanic look it over. It's not worth messing up your boat. Have Sea-Tow bring it out, perhaps.

[marshmat]

Put it on its trailer. Take it to a mechanic familiar with Mercruiser Alphas. The mechanic might be able to find the problem running it on a garden hose; he might ask to come out to the launch ramp with you to try and duplicate the failure. There are so many possible things that can cause this kind of condition that it will take ages to figure out by yourself. And trying to use the boat while it does this could be damaging the motor.

[seadogs]

Sounds like water in the carb. Bring the RPMs up to 2000 or as high as they will go. Push the throttle to full and the motor should stall, be in neutral. This will suck the water out of the carb. pump throttle and restart you should see and increase in RPMs before it sputters, maybe not the first time. repeat and do not red line. learned it from a Guy in Maine and it saved my week of boating after trailering the boat 200 miles. Happened on my 4.3 200hp and my 400ci 400hp smallblock. Use gas treatment, there will be small sputters for a while until you run a few gallons of gas through the motor. Works every time.

[gerard baladi]

Same thing happened to me, once it was a kink in the fuel line, another time it was the fuel hose getting disconnected at one of the junctions ( be careful, of course).

[Zinski]

I am having the same exact problem right now! Carburator was rebuilt last year. Have you resolved this problem??? Looking at what I need to do. I am going to change out my water seperating fuel filter today, hope that helps.