help tuning 351w

I'm having trouble getting my ski nautique 2001 to WOT. The tach as shown in the video below just bounces as soon as the RPMs get above 3200 RPM. I have the commander 351.

I played around with the ignition timing yesterday and no effect. tried 8, 10 and 12 btc. I haven't touched anything on the carb yet. Hoping people here could point me in the right direction of stuff to try before i start messing things up on my own!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D96B4xxeu-M&feature=youtu.be

the engine has 800 hours and the compression was good 3 years ago...

Sorry for the poor camera work, i should narrate what i'm doing a bit: at 18 seconds and 30 seconds and 47 seconds i bring the throttle past 3200 rpm. I back down to below 3200 rpm after it bounces around for awhile. what i'm feeling in the boat and hearing in the engine matches the tach, pretty confident that's not the issue.

Also brainard thanks for always answering my questions on this board. still waiting for the day my 2001 turns into a g23, but this site has always kept me on the lake!

well here's an update. I took out the ignition module to take a look at the mechanism. Looking inside, I found a broken spring. Below are pics:





I went to the auto parts store and got a mr gasket advance spring kit. I just put in 2 mediums, i have no idea why the PO had put in this second giant spring that's broke in the pic. My guess is the timing was advancing too much causing the boat to stall or just all the way advanced as soon as i turned it on. Now for the sad part - i don't know if the fix worked. I tried starting up the boat and of course it will barely idle. I grab my timing light and the timing is way off. I adjusted by ear a bit, am starting to point the gun, and then the pick up coil wire goes into the belts and is torn to smithereens. classic hah. decided to cut my losses and stop for the day.   next time at the cabin is friday and will be going up with a new ignition light. will try to post some updates next sunday, fingers crossed this finally gets things running right!!

he is revving it with no load. the secondaries should not be opening up with no load. i followed his first forum and wondered what he was up too with the problem.

I feel you are most likely on the right track with it being an ignition, tuneup issue.

That being said, quick check, is your carb's choke plate opening all the way?

How about plugs and wires? Cap and rotor?

SN2001fan wrote: is my distributor/timing chain is bad Video

You can check the timing chain easily by watching the dizzy rotor, while turning the crank back & forth. If you can turn the crank without the rotor reacting immediately, the chain is worn out.