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Just bought a 94 freedom with a 3.0L I/O OMC. Boat has been sitting up for 10 years. Garage Kept. Problem: Drained old oil and gas. Changed plugs and battery. Starts easy for a few seconds, but wont stay running. Any ideas, Please.

sounds like a fuel problem, change fuel filters and add metholated spirits to fuel(maybe 260 ml to mix with possible water)It lets water go through carby to be burned.

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2008 V288 with twin 5 litre Seacores
http://www.galwayhouse.com.au

Definitely sounds like fuel delivery issues. Could be several things. The filter is definitely the first place to start checking. Then the fuel pump and it's electrical connections. You may have gunk in the bottom of the fuel tank. It gets pulled up against the intake screen and blocks flow, then the engine dies and it floats back down. Don't know how readily you can access the fuel tank though, as I've never seen that model. But if you can get to where the fuel level sensor is installed you could remove it and look down into the tank, checking for gunk. Being aware that an open tank means fuel vapors, which are explosive. So be quick about it and never, ever do it without plenty of fresh air and ABSOLUTELY NO ELECTRIC turned on AT ALL.

Also, that engine's carbureted, right? If the float in the carb is bad you'll have similar trouble. They're plastic and they do go bad over time. Mostly from getting saturated with fuel and no longer properly 'floating'. Don't know what sort of carb is on that engine but I'm sure there are rebuild kits for it.

10 years sitting is a bad thing. You really have to go step-by-step through ALL the hoses, belts and electrical connections. Hoses and belts generally need to be replaced inside of every 5 years. Sometimes you get lucky and they last longer. In a car luck running out just means sitting on the side of the road. That's not the same as getting stranded out on the water. So preventative maintenance is really important. You could have a fuel hose that's gotten soft from age and is collapsing under the pressure of the pump pulling a lot of fuel through it.

As for the electrical, at the very least you want to be disconnecting and cleaning all the main battery connections. Both at the battery and at the engine side.

So I'd check filter, pump, carb float and tank gunk in that order. Then I'd start first with replacing the fuel hoses, belts and then coolant and steering hoses (if it has hydraulic steering). It won't be horrendously expensive if you're prepared to DIY.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista