Gotta few questions, Need a little help and direction

A friend of mine recently purchased a 90' Tracker Nitro 165TF and it has a 89' Rude 90hp. I checked over the basic stuff like we put it on a hose and ran it a little to see if it would fire off. We did put new fuel in ti as we had no idea of how long it had set up. It fired just fine. Pumped water well and went into gear just fine. We did change the LU oil with fresh oil. We took it to a tournament last weekend and It would not hardly fire off. It was about 27 degrees that morning. It was about 70 when we cranked it in the yard. Anyway, When I finally got it cranked, it ran smooth under throttle. After a short run it starting loosing power, seriously loosing power. The VRO alarm never came on until I throttled it back to an idle. As soon as it sounded, I killed it. After sitting for about 2 - 2&1/2 hours of fishing, we fired it back up and it ran like a champ again. No alarm no power loss. This has me scratching my head!!!!!!!! Excellent water pressure. I plan to do a compression check as soon as it quits raining. And, I also plan to pull the carbs and clean. Here's the part I need a little help and direction with:

1. Why the loss in power?
2. Why no alarm until I throttled back to idle?
3. How do I test the alarm to see if it is functioning right.
4. Oh yeah, the tach only works intermittently, how to fix that?

I'll stop there for now, <U>MORE TO COME WHEN I FINISH THE BASIC TEST, I'M SURE!!!</U>

A little info that you might what to know. It's a TE90TLCEM

http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif

My guess is the oil was cold in the tank and did not flow properly, thus causing the motor to go into the SLOW mode protecting the motor. After it warmed up the oil flowed ok and ran the way it should. The starting problem was the cold also, maybe you flooded it, or when its cold sometimes it takes more fuel to get it started. Just my 2 cents.

Guru's please save me if I'm off base.... http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/USA1.gif

I appericate your .02 cents worth, maybe I'll get a $1.00 worth by the time I get this completely figured out. I really need a good use 13.5 x 20 SS prop to put on this thing as well.

I didn't think about the oil being too thick. GOOD THOUGHT!!! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/bows.gif
It did worm up but not much at all. But, it wasn't 27 degrees either by the time I ran it again. Thanks for your input!!!!

Okay, I'm sad to say I have the compression number;

DRY
1. 50 psi, Top left
2. 50 psi, Btm left
3. 60 psi, Top right
4. 60 psi, Btm right

OIL ADDED
1. 100 psi
2. 125 psi
3. 150 psi
4. 160 psi

Does this mean I need to re-ring it?

Plugs looked okay, not carboned for didn't seem to be fouled. Cranked right up! Sprayed bottled it and it didn't seem to matter much.

COME ON LET'S HEAR IT!!!! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emhammer.gif

<U>UPDATE</U>

I pulled both carbs off and cleaned them. They had a couple of port clogged and the top carb had water in the bowl. Hope there no water in my tank!! Put them back on and it fired right up and idled much better. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif Looked at the clear connector for the VRO and I saw some air passing through. Does that mean the VRO is working? Hope so. As I said earlier, the bulb on the oil tank in hard. Not from pressure but from time I beleive. Can this be replaced with a normal fuel pumping bulb? Do you think I should go ahaed and premix my fuel for the first couple of tanks to be sure the VRO is working properly. I figure the oil tank should show oil useage.

I think the cylinders were washed down earlier when I did my compression check. It's running to good to not have any better compression than that. I thought I'd run it this weekend and re-check the compression after that. Any PRO opinions???? http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/praying.gif