MR1 Engine Start issue

[okula225]

This past weekend I had an interesting encounter with one engine on my ar230 with twin HO's. Upon going to start the motor after a week of sitting, it sounded very rough, would get up to 800 rpms and die. Did this twice and then thought it to be a fuel issue, give the motor some more throttle when trying to start and it sounded very rough. Saw that it was low on oil, added about a half a quart to get it to the correct level, then tried to start it up again and the same issue arose. Was going to pull it out of the water thinking that the low oil may have killed the engine, when I then turned it over and it purred like a kitten at 1200 rpms. I then drove it at 3k rpms through my lagoon to the bay where it didn't die, and then around on plane at 8k for the rest of the day. Tried to start it the following day and boom it sounded rough again. I swapped out the spark plugs, tried to turn it over and it sounded rough still. Waited 5 minutes and then it sounded ok and ran great all day. Any one experience anything like this before?

 

[anmut]

Try some SeaFoam in the tank to clean things out in the fuel system. Sounds like you could have some water/gas where it's just enough to separate while sitting and cause issues, but when it mixes, it ratios out enough to run fine.