I've got a '95 Sea Ray 175br with the Mercruiser 3.0LX. After 9 years,
it finally let me down last weekend. Heading back to the campsite at
3200 rpm, the engine stumbled then died. I was able to restart with a
bit of cranking, it idled fine, I got back on plane only to have it
die again after 15-20 seconds. It seemed obvious it was starving for
fuel under power, so I decided the spin-on style fuel filter after the
tank might be clogged. Since I didn't have a spare, I just bypassed it
and ran directy off the tank - the stock setup since I had installed
the extra filter shortly after buying the boat.

The boat ran fine for another 30-35 minutes, then started acting up
again. I decided to just idle back to the campsite, but it eventually
died completely and wouldn't restart. We towed it back with a 3 person
Sea Doo.

The next day I filled the tank. The engine idles fine, but it still
quits after several seconds on plane. The other thing I noticed, is
that I can hear a sucking air sound in the fuel pump vent line. Is
this an obvious sign the pump has gone bad?

I'm going to check the filter in the carb, but it should be pretty
clean given I've run a 2nd screw-on fuel filter just off the tank
since the boat was new. Is there a check valve in the tank that could
be causing trouble?

TIA for any suggestions.

-Karl