I recently tried to run my jon boat to Morris Island with my kids and dogs for a late afternoon swim. As we got down the creek the motor started bogging down as I attempted to get the boat on plane. As I checked the fuel bulb for pressure I noticed the fuel line was real soft right at the motor connection. Assuming the fuel line was collapsing under vacuum I returned to the dock to remove the soft spot and reconnect the fittings. 5-minutes later we were off and running and problem appeared to be solved. Half way to the island the motor started bogging again and I could no longer keep the boat on plane. We turned back and limped to the dock just over an idle.
With 5 hearts broken over a spoiled trip I knew I had to get the issue squared away in short order. Once the kids went to bed that night I went back outside and pulled the fuel/water separator. I dumped the contents into a pickle jar. Ah ha, the fuel out the filter was extremely cloudy and the filter was about ? full of water; no wonder it was running rough! I installed a new fuel filter the next night, drained the fuel from the portable tank and replaced with fresh fuel. I also drained the fuel from the carburetor and cleaned the inline fuel filter under the cowling. Before I loaded kids and dogs back up I figured I had better take the boat for a quick test spin. I pulled out the creek and gave the boat some gas and still same issue.
I returned to the dock and figured some of the bad fuel must have made it into the carburetor and clogged up one of the jets. I pulled the carburetor and disassembled and did discover some minor amount of sand, most likely from an old mud daubber nest that I had found under the cowling earlier in the season, but nothing that was a smoking gun. I replaced the carburetor and was off for another test spin. Same exact issue what was going on?
As I went through the steps I had taken in my head I remembered that when I had cut the fuel line to remove the soft spot I noticed that the new ethanol proof fuel line has a cel