Yes, we dont want water soaking into the foam that surrounds the tank. Baddogs boat has a pirelli rubber floor, that looked pretty sealed. But that water has to be getting in somewhere, access hatch, etc.

It sounding to me like a clogged pickup tube or something similar.

Check your mech fuel pump. Mine just went out due to a faulty (worn) actuator arm. My boat is a '96 with a 502 MAG running the VST and I thought the problem was in that vapor tank, but turned out the mech fuel pump was the issue. It was doing the same thing- died then sputterred. Also was sputtering in the top rpms before which led me to clean the VST thinking it was f-ed.

Check my post in the "Do it Yourself" section of the Technical Forums. I got some pretty good info. Good luck.

OK,,, just deleted my last post so no one took my comments the wrong way.

The jist of it was,,,,,

Read the first post ,,,TWICE ,,,, I MISS STUFF THE FIRST TIME I READ IT TO,,,

Read all susbsequent posts by the thread originator to see the direction the troubleshooting is going.

Ill leave it at that !!!!!!

Here's the port. Seems to be less water down there than yesterday. Going to siphon it out now and try to clean all the electrical connections down there and inspect the pickups.

Picked up new fuel filters as well. I'll keep the thread updated as I progress today.

Couldn't upload the attachment...

Had to host it myself.

gonna have to suck all that bad fuel out of there or youll fill the new filters with water right away

Sounds like the problem is in fuel starvation, since you said the line had no fuel leaking out of it when you took it off. Are you "sure" that there's no water in the fuel??? That will make the difference of it not running when it has fuel pressure.

Dude,

Listen to Big D (Obnoxus) he is the man and know his shinizzle!

Bypass the main tank and use a small doner tank small fuel, bottle etc, be carefull as not to spill fuel. if it starts and runs on the doner tank its got to be in the pickups in the main tank. My motors vaper lock on early season fuel but it usalley happens when hot and hatch closed after running hard for 15 miles or so.... my bet it is in the pickups or water in fuel

Check the vent on the fuel tank on the side of the boat. Spiders make nests in there and that will cause you problems also. Usually just when you go to fill, but i have seen motors starve for fuel because of a clogged vent also.

Mark