Engine will not idle, need help please.
 

I have a 1988 Villain IV with two carbed 454’s. I bought the boat at the end of last year and took it for a test run and it ran fine.
I just took the boat out for the first time today and one of the engines will not idle, it will just die. If I throttle it up, it will stay running, but it just revs up and down from 500 to 2500. I got it in gear and throttled up, it seemed to run fine when I was 3000 to WOT.
Any idea of where to start looking? Carb? Timing?
Thanks for any help!!

First question.... How old is the fuel? Old gas sucks.


Darrell.

Gauge showed no fuel. I put 20 gallons in before I went to the lake.

My first guess is that the carbs are simply gummed up from sitting. The worst thing you can do to a boat is let it sit. My first course of action would be to run some Barry Grant fuel system cleaner through the tanks. This stuff really works well. If after running a few cans through a couple of tankfulls, it still doesn't help, it may be time for a carb rebuild.



Darrell.

vacuum leak

carb full of gel from the new fuels that do not sit any lenth of time well, been thru so many carbs with this issue I lost count...Rob

I agree. We used to be able to leave the fuel in our off road stuff, at the end of the season, and there would be no problems when the season started back up. Now, we make sure all the tanks, carbs, and fuel injection are empty. The new fuel blends are horrible, when left to sit.


Darrell.

I agree with ezstriper. Mine sits for two weeks and I have to change filter due to gel. I posted last week about gel cause I didn't know about new fuels and the gel issue. So far I've just had it in my filter. I will definitly drain carbs if it sits any length of time.

Thanks everyone for the help!! I took both carbs off and cleaned them this morning. Boat is idling fine!! Off to the lake...