NEED CARB HELP!!

i found thru lifes quests all kinds of people rebuilding this rebuilding that, i go thru this 10 times a year, "i just rebuilt it" not to often can you go into something that you know absolutely nothing about and get it right the first time. yes there is a starting point but there is also a learning curve.
taking something apart and installing new parts is not rebuilding, you first must know how it works and why it failed, and so is true on anything

Exactly, sorry for my blindness, although helping each other is the mission here ,just trying to convey its a lot to ask to be responsible for the operation of a carbs with a questionable history already reworked by a beginner, pardon.
I think you need to eliminate one variable on that engine, and the carb is a fabulous one to invest into. Then if you have time, build your skills, with our help to get the old carb working; then at least you have a standard performance to aim for.

I appreciate the brutal honesty ha. It's true and I wish I would have realized this earlier. No longer will I try to go the cheap way. Spend a couple extra bucks and go big.

Last question.. The place on the top of the carb where you hook up the PCV line... Would that effect anything if it's not hooked up? Cuz mine wasn't, it was blocked off

gosh lots of question in there...
1) No.
2) remember your idea of 'running great' may not be like ours, and even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
3) no, the plugs look bad because of the carb, not the other way around
4) no, chalk it up for a loss and just get a new carb. You wouldn't identify something subtle originally wrong with that carb, just put it back together possibly as it was recieved but how would you identify 'correct'? Play with that one later, summer is too short.
5) sorry but fawk no. I'd rather start with a carb that has a recent history of working.

We thought about that (jcow is a friend of mine, I was on said boat during problem) but the main problem with that line of logic is that when we artificially opened the vacuum secondaries the boat ran fine until it got into the upper RPM range, where they should have started opening naturally. Unless there's some other reason this worked, I wouldn't naturally think that too little fuel was the problem.

eh, chalk it up to a learning experience. You are still ahead of a new one probably. You could try to rebuild again but I think it would good if you could do it with someone. If 50 or so bucks on a rebuild kit is the only money you waste you are ahead of the game.

If you keep having issues you may want to get a friend who knows about holley carbs to help or send it somewhere to be rebuilt. You could take it apart and try to clean it again. If one little itty bitty piece of anything gets in those vacuum lines you will have issues. I ruled out rebuild problems because I thought it had been professionally done. It may be worth your time and money to get another kit and have someone with experience to redo it.

Well, needless to say something went wrong...

that brings a whole new light to this issue...

Who did the rebuild then?

Hey wait a min! I did not sell you a rebuilt Carb I sold you a core carb ($25) and a rebuild kit! You did the re-building! I intentially do not re-build for customers nor sell re-built carbs.
Please Rephrase your post to correctly represent the transaction. Thank You!
Jody Seal
Florida Inboards Inc.

Something like that occured to us this summer...ha..we where at the ski area in a friends boat, his 12 yo was wakeboarding..we passed by a marine patrol..and they made up signs to stop...routine check!!! we picked up the kid and headed to the boat...nothing wrong, all papers and equipment was fine, of course!!...my friend wanted to kick their a$$...

Kap never leaves shore without a fire extinguisher, safety oar, working horn and a life vest for himself and each of the 7-10 hotties he'll have on-board

Yeah, those Wardens/Rangers/Marine Patrol seem like they're out for blood at times. I one time felt bad for an Master Craft owner: They got busted for pulling a skier (12 year old skier at that) too close to shore. Marine Patrol stopped them and of course they dropped their skier. Well, the MP boat and the MC were getting carried down wind and the poor kid couldn't swim fast enough to catch up with his ski boat. The driver, a grandma I think, was so frazzled she didn't know what to do and the jerk MP wouldn't help at all. I wound up picking up the skier with my boat (we were 2 minutes away from starting a run ourselves) and bringing him over.

They're really not cool at times. Stay with it though and keep us posted on how the carb adjustments work out.

well i changed everything back to original and found my instructions for tuning. after finding this and a friend who knows carbs (automotive but still better than me), i took my boat out on the water. I didnt even think about it but i forgot my registration was up this year!

I took the boat out and got it on the water. when i was floating around trying to get this things right, with no luck, a park ranger comes out of nowhere and decides he wants to talk. about an hour later and a safety check i got slapped with 9 vilations. god im an idiot. before i took it to the shop i took EVERYTHING out of it and forgot to put it all back in. paddle, fire extinguisher, anchor, throwable floatation, and to make things worse my blower fuse burned out! lets just say im an absolute idiot. and now i have to pay for my mistakes

man the only thing i can add is on one situation the check ball on the front bowl of the accelerator pump came out on me and would not pump gas, the boat started and ran fine until acceleration in which i had to feather the hell out of it to get it up to 4000 rpms, it got there but it took a while..obviously i popped the arrestor and noticed it was not pumping for that initial burst which you can see down the throat of the carb.
to understand these carbs a little better and their operation, and please correct me anyone if i dillute the truth a bit, but this is to me my understanding, anytime you stroke the throttle at the helm you pump an initial squirt of gas from the accelerator pump down the throat for satrt up. the boat starts and at an idle position the throttle plates are open a touch creating whats called the venturi effect, venturi defined in my terms would be the same as a tornado going by your house and sucking your ass out, this is how fuel is pulled from the float bowl into the throat down into the fire pit (combustion chamber) the more you push the throttle the more the throttle plate opens and the more the gas it pulls.
the secondaries too are controlled by vacuum on these 4160's, in which a small port is drilled into the same front barrels on the choke side of the carb (front barrels). at a certain designated point the secondary diaphram which controls the 2 back barrels senses the vacuum flying thru the front barrels and starts to open the second (back set) of throttle plates thus also creating a venturi effect on the back barrels and will start to also pull gas down the throat.
merely the only time the accelerator pump squirts fuel is when you manually stroke the gas lever (shift) and its purpose is to give the engine the initial squirt of fuel on start up and a burst of fuel when you accelerate

First off, the back to barrels are vacuum operated. In other words, you're not going to get them to open no matter how far you push the throttle. Essentially the engine "sucks them open" when the boat gets too approx 34-38mph. This a gross over-simplification, but on a 4160, they are not mechanical. Holley "double pumpers" used in hot rodding have mechanical secondaries, but you don't want that on a boat.

I think the linkage you circled actually has something to do with the fast idle cam. Not totally sure on that, but it's definitely not meant to open the secondaries.

Have you checked your accelerator pump? With the engine off, the cover opened, and the spark arrestor off, look down the primary holes. Have a friend advance the throttle from neutral to full quickly. You should see a good shot of gas going down both barrels.

Make sure that getting the shot of fuel AND that the shot of fuel is starting the very instant that those throttle blades start to open. If there's a delay, you may need to adjust your accelerator pump linkage.