'98 115 two stroke low speed problems

[Keven]

I have this recurring problem now it seems to be getting worse. It likes to sneeze and cough at idle and sometines shuts down. If I leave the dock and throttle it up nothing seems to happen other than the carbs open up but no acceleration and all of a sudden it takes off and goes up on plane. It seems to run fine at planing speeds but loads up and fouls the plugs if I am putting around the harbor. The last time out I put new plugs in and ran it 30 miles and came back into the harbor with it wanting to only run on 3 cylinders at low speed again. By the time I got back to the dock it got worse and was running on 2 cylinders at low speeds. After taking the new plugs out I found two of them fouled with carbon on them on the same side.
I was thinking of putting carb kit on both carbs, anything else I should look at or reset ??

[boats.net]

It needs the carbs removed and cleaned.

[Keven]

The carbs are super clean. One of the bowl gaskets was stuck in the middle and tore off the outer ring. Would that be a problem ?

[bwheel54]

clean those carbs!

Had the same problem with my 1998 115 2-stroke. Had my mechanic pull and clean the carbs and you'd think I had a new motor. Idles perfect at 750 rpm and I gained 200 rpm at the top end. Also, I he found one of the thermostats suck open which caused half the motor to run too cold. Might check that too.