Grey lines...
O k I took my 97 xp out the other day and it started losing power like it was not getting fuel so I replaced all of my gray fuel lines and cleaned out my carb filters. I then took I back out on the river and it ran good except it seemed to be running at a lower RPM than normal but all and all it was running good .It ran like that for about 15 min then I hit a wave a little hard and it just died. I figured that the lanyard just got knocked loose from the hard hit but when I tried to restart it it did not want to turn over. I waited a min then tried again and it started but when I tried to give it some gas it sputtered and died. I then checked the engine to see if it was hot and the PTO side cylinder was too hot to touch. I am not sure how hot it is suppose to be but it felt pretty hot. If the engine did overheat what symptoms could I expect? I am not sure how it would have overheated because i could see the water squirting out so there was water flowing through the system. What could cause the engine to overheat?
The root cause is probably going to be your grey fuel lines. Did your temp sensor go off?
When you replaced the grey lines, did you remove the low speed screws and blow out all the trash from those crappy fuel lines.
So many members will come in and say, "hey, I replaced them but they seem o.k..." The problem is deterioration. The vent line is about the only line not affected by this stuff. What happens is over time, the fuel causes the inside liner of the Tempo lines to dissolve. When soluable, the goo travels through your fuel circuit. When it finds a place where the fuel isn't moving so briskly, it settles down and re-hardens. This happens in your diaphragm area and needle valves (low speed screws).
What it sounds like with you feeling the heat is, your mag carb may be running good but the goo has gummed up your low speed screw internal porting.
You need to, at the very least, remove this screw and spray some carb cleaner into it. I'd personally remove the carb and go through it again.
The micro mesh filters will look clean but I've tried to blow through one before, to find it was blocked up bad.
Read your plugs. See if your PTO spark plug looks like it's run hot/lean. There are a couple ways to read them. When your problem is present, you need to pull the lanyard off and read them right then. By backing off the fuel, your changing the actual condition of your plug and reading it would give you no input.....