While fishing a tournament today, my coangler noticed gas dripping out from under my cowling around 11 and into the water as we trolled along. The motor ran great up until that point and once I tried starting it it was over revving and ran at a rough idle. After multiple times stopping on me, waiting and restarting I made it back to the ramp. When I got home, I removed the cowling, powered up my Ranger keypad and gas was seen spewing under the gasket of the fuel filter. I noticed the lip of the forward part of the gasket sticking out and this is where the gas was spraying out. I recently had work done on it with a fuel sensor issue and I assume they didn’t seat that gasket properly as I assume it is supposed to be symmetrical all the way around without a lip protruding. I don’t know why the engine ran flawlessly my last 3 outings before this, but I know crap seems to always happen on tournament day!!
Could the filter not have been seated properly and just worked it’s way loose? Was the rough running after this due to the engine being starved for fuel or was excess air getting in with the leak also? It was almost as if the engine was being choked. If I attempted to give it any throttle it was sputter and then shut off unless I backed off to idle.
Any thoughts are appreciated!