Is my fuel pump going bad?

[Gavin17]

Boat ran great all weekend except once Friday and once sat it was hard to start. It would idle rough then die like it had no fuel.  Friday I jiggled the fuel lines and after 10 min or so it restarted again and was fine the rest of the day.  Sat it did it again. I removed the fuel filter and blew it out from both ends. It did not seem restricted and I only saw clean fuel in there.  After I reinstalled it the boat ran fine the rest of the day and Sunday as well. We only got a couple hours Sunday before we had to go home. Friday the boat had fresh pump gas w ethanol.  Sat it had marine gas.

 Ideas?

 

What type of fuel pump do I have?  Does anyone have a part number? After the fuel filter where does the fuel line go.  There's a small part on the engine I dont know what it is.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Gavin17

[bbelt]

Sounds like a vapor lock issue to me.  Boat runs fine for hours, sits for a while and then doesn't want to restart.  Next day starts fine?

I have an 03 response and I added the secondary pump from bakes and have not had the problem since.

[blk93jeepzj]

If it happens again take a rag that has been soaked in the water of the cooler and wrap it around the fuel pump.  If this clears it up it's vapor lock.  Ethanol fuel is the known for making the symptoms worse.

As @bbelt said, if it is vapor lock the secondary fuel pump will clear it up.  

[Gavin17]

I suppose it could be vapor lock but I’m skeptical.  Our old IO used to vapor lock on hot days and took forever to cool down. 

 

This is the first time this has happened in for the 3 years we’ve owned the boat and it wasn’t that hot out and we didn’t run it very hard. I also use regular gas all the time so it seemed like something changed for this issue to just start now.

[williemon]

Could also be trash in the pump inlet screen.  Depending on hich pump it is, they will vapor lock in the pump itself. Pump will get hot. They dont pull fuel well and any deteriorating part of the fuel supply can cause enough instability to introduce a bubble or two at the 2 stage pump's first stage and bam you get tons of bubbles and the dredded vapor locked pump. Cold water to cool the pump at that time will help get it going again. Low power pump addition will hlp keep the main pump primed and will force bubbles out. When mine did it, i could recreate the issue on a 50 degree day after running it idle on hose for 15 min. That was with a new pump. I then added the low pressure pump and it has been perfect for two seasons now. 

[Gavin17]

Do you have a current link for the kit you used.  

[blk93jeepzj]

https://www.bakesonline.com/fuel-pump-vapor-lock-prevention-kit.html

https://www.skidim.com/VAPOR-LOCK-PUMP-KIT/productinfo/49-5137/

I picked mine up from our local dealer.  It was not this expensive when I purchased it 4 years ago, think I paid around $200 for the kit.  You can assemble a "kit" yourself for probably less.  It's a Carter low pressure pump and you have to tie it into the electrical for the high pressure pump to power it up.  

[williemon]

I used a carter rotery vane pump marine cert for 80 ish i think from jeggs. Wired it in myself. I also did a full fuel system rebuild including pulling injectors and sending out for ultrasonic cleaning. It was needed. Junk in injectors inlets as well as inside injectors. Had noticed at least two sparkplugs insulators were odd colors. One was fuel fouled, other was very white and clean. Now they all have that even light tan color. 

[racer808]

I skipped the vapor lock kit, bought a fuel pump off ebay & never had the problem again

[MadMan]

16 hours ago, racer808 said:

I skipped the vapor lock kit, bought a fuel pump off ebay & never had the problem again

Mine too.

[Gavin17]

I'm tempted to try this. I dont really mind buying a fuel pump early for a 14 year old boat we use alot.