(serial# 1B459323)
(2008 Mercury 250 Pro XS)
About 3 months ago had a rough idle issue(http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread....=#post12087011) where the motor would cough, sneeze and carry on, took it in and turned out to be a torn diaphragm. Forgive my ignorance ahead of time, because this is all new to me, but I believe it was the tracker valve diaphragm. Anyway, went and fished the weekend after and everything seemed fine. Fast forward this past weekend, went down to Guntersville and it's not idling rough like before, but died a few times and will occasionally rev up and down while in neutral. This is all without touching the hot foot or anything. Almost like a cycle, a few seconds at 700 rpm's then up to about 1000 then back down. Hot foot is springing all the way back, and took the cowling off and it's hitting the stop so I don't think it's the cable or an adjustment. Not getting any alarms either, but I did notice via vesselview mobile one morning the temp got up to 174 at idle first thing, before dropping back down. Also, seems to smell rich, like it's not burning all of the fuel.
The lake obviously has a lot of grass so didn't know if a clogged strainer could cause all of this, or maybe a thermostat issue? Gotta do a water pump this offseason with the other annual maint., so any suggestions to look for while I'm in there would be great. Trying to avoid taking it in again, but possibly it's related to the work they did the first time, not really sure. Thanks