Mariner 60 hp flooding itself

[JosMN]

So I took a good buddy out fishing today. He has always told me how cold blooded merc/mariners are. I have a 1990 Merc/Mariner 60 tiller. I told him I have never had a problem with mine, which I never have! Usually I do the turn the key, hold in 5 seconds for choke, turn and she fires right away. Today wasn't of the the norm. Did the usual, and it would not start....I ended up cranking it a long time WFO to dry it out before it started. [PoorWordUsage]? I thought. Needless to say I was pretty irritated that it did this when I told him I have never had any problems. You could tell once it fired, the carbs were plump full of fuel. It had brand spanking new plugs...just decarbed the motor the other day, ran like a top, idled smoother, better on top, etc - but figured I would throw in a new set of plugs after the decarb anyway. The motor ran normal/great after the starting shinanigans. Later in the day I took him to the shorelines to hit up some largemouth, tilted the motor up and we fished for about 2 hrs. Tilted her down to go to a different spot, and the dang thing did it again. At our next stop I just unplugged the fuel line to remedy the problem for the time being. I did notice at the launch when we put her in the water of rainbow coloring in the water (like there was a fuel leak somewhere). It always has leaked a little fuel into the splash area when I tilt it up for tansport, but every Merc I have had has done that somewhat.

Any ideas? Float problem? Will a basic carb kit rebuild fix the problem? Can anybody suggest a reliable mechanic in the Faribault area? Thanks for any help!

[boatfixer]

You could remove the front cover on the air box so you can see right into the carb throats. Try tilting, lowering, etc to see if gas is running into the engine through one of them. Squeeze the bulb normally throughout to keep pressure against the inlet needle.

It also possible to dump gas directly into the crankcase via the fuel pump. In your case I doubt it since it seems to run fine once fired up.

[JosMN]

Could doing the decarb have contributed to this problem? Like I said, never had this problem with her hard starting and flooding itself until a couple days after the decarb.....

[JosMN]

Talked to a marine mechanic this afternoon and he said those mariner and mercs are notorious for doing this because of pressure on the needle valve when they are tilted up, allowing fuel to leak into the cylinders. $250 for a carb kit install, run through and sync - but can't guarantee it will fix the leaking. Is that a pretty good qoute? He said it might not hurt to have it done since I have never had this problem before. He suggested just pulling the fuel line when you have to tilt it up, but when your out on the lake from spot to spot and have gas smelling hands the whole time - doesnt work very well if you want to catch fish. Would it be possible to put a fuel shut off in the line itself so I dont have to deal with the spraying of puting the line back everytime?