DF175 Trouble

[SeaTec]

Have a strange issue with my DF175 outboard last Friday.
Let em recount step by step what i did.
Thursday: Flushed the gas tank because i suspected that after the boat sitting for a few months it might have water in it. Pumped out the fuel (17 gal) into Jerry Cans. Looked at some of the fuel in a clear plastic water. Looked cloudy but after a while no water was separating from the fuel. Still, pumped it out and flushed it wiht another few fresh gallons.

Friday: poured a small bottle of Startron in the tank (75 gal capacity) and filled it up with ethanol free from the pump.
Took the bout out on the Inter coastal and fired her up. Everything seemed fine, Got her on plane and slowly fed in full throttle. no hesitation no nothing. after maybe 20 minutes on plane she started to hesitate . Felt like it was missing. Over the course of a minute it got progressively worse until i could only idle the motor. Any kind of throttle made it bog. Shut the motor down and took the cowl off. look at the little fuel can on the side that goes to the high pressure pump housing and saw that there was hardly any fuel in it. Started pumping the primer bulb and just sucking air. un-spun the fuel filter and saw that the somehow the gasket was crooked. Spun another filter on and could now prime with the bulb. Fired the motor up and she ran fine for about 2 minutes and the she bogged again. checked everything again. primer bulb was hard. fuel in the system but still now high rpm possible. just idling. Returned home and check all the connections. Replaced all the spark plugs. Spark plugs looked a little dark but not wet. She starts right up and idles a little rough but not a lot. A little side note. I have an 'lm gauge (nemea 2k network) and for some reason it keeps flipping back and forth between my designated screen to the Tilt degree screen. She has never done that before. even when i was changing the tilt intentionally. Seems like a glitch.

I am at a loss here. i see nothing obvious. what could it be?

Anybody have any suggestions for me?

Thank you

~ANthony

[artdf175]

You were correct to look at the fuel first.. but read the second part below.
Did you take a look at the little inline fuel filter.. in the line, port side, before low pressure fuel pump..
after the low pressure pump.. goes to the high pressure pump, front of the engine, starboard side
inside the high pressure is another screened filter
If you had water in the system, which has been a noted problem,, you might not have drained it all out..
clean out the inline filter..
drain the high pressure pump.. there is a screw on the bottom ..
take the top off and check for gunk or whatever.. clean filter
would also drain the fuel rail and probably take an air pressure hose and blow that side out
may have got stuff in the fuel injectors.. so would run some injector cleaner through the system.. might even suggest because we have 70 gal tanks to have, say a 5 or 10 gallon external tank to run some cleaner in.

and when you say "spin on filter" I assume it is a good water/fuel separator

you failed to say what year your engine/boat is..
there is one thing in the electrical system that can start creating havoc -the kind of infamous- white wire problem.
when I started out with this problem my chart plotter would sometime flicker and then started turning off for no apparent reason.. and then the engine started acting up and completely turning off..
in my case.. the white wire has a connection just inches off the battery switch. the connector was holding the ends together and inside was corroded out.. this wire runs from the battery to the dash panel and then through the key back to the engine.. it powers the ECM and ECM needs full voltage to work correctly. After what I experienced, the repair was to re-splice the wire with new connectors. that has been a couple of years ago and so far no repeat problems..
good luck
Art

[SeaTec]

Art,
Thank you for answering my questions.

I have drained the vst using the screw on the bottom. Have not opened the housing to look at the little filter,. will do so next.

I do not know of the inline filter on the port side? Oh wait. now that i think about it. there is this little semi translucent filter like contraption on the low port side. didn't think that was part of the fuel system though. i will chck it out first.

My spin on filter is a fuel water filter but not the extra long kind with the water catch bin on the bottom. Whomever mount my filter housing mounted it very lof and didn't give me a lot of room for a longer filter.

PS. The outboard is a 2011. The boat is a Carolina Skiff Ultra Elite SS 23