Boat motor leaking gas????

[GrizzlyAdams]

I was working on the boat yesterday and while the motor was in the tilted up position it was leaking some gas after I pumped the primer bulb. Well, a lot of gas at times. It only did it after I was pumping the primer bulb. It was coming out of three large gold ports pictured below. Is this common for it to leak gas like this when it is up. It didn't do it when it was in the down position except for after I tilted it back up. But then it was only a little bit. Don't ever remember this happening before but I haven't primed it while in the up position. The motor is a 1989 90hp mercury. I purchased the boat at the end of last summer. This is the first big motor I have owned so I know nothing about them. The motor fired off right away and was quickly turned back off. Always seems to start tough out on the lake though. Has taken 5 - 10 minutes to get it started but after the first start it will fire immediately the rest of the day. The motor seems to use a lot of gas but I figure that is just because it is an older motor when gas was still cheap. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Don't want to take it in if I don't have to.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Some motors, my now dead 70 Johnson is on the list of them, will drain the carbs when tilted. This may be where the "Leakage" is coming from.

Not much help, I know. I'm not real up on the Mercs.

FYI- My motor started doing the same thing. It was a hard starter at first, but once started at the begining of the day it would go all day long no problem. Then I had some serious mechanical problems. Just a thought, you may want a compression test done on your motor to make sure all cylinders are even. Not trying to get ya nervous, just tellin ya what happened with me, and a Johnson motor.

[boatfixer]

More than likely, because of the angle, the float was unable to completly shut off the flow into the float chamber and the excess fuel was able to run out. as long as it does not do this while in the normal run position, it shouldnt be an issue.

Just an FYI, but if you do a compression test, you will need a special compression tester in order to check the bottom cylinder do to the limited accessibility.