[Fr. Frank]

But now the brand new plugs all look the same (black but not necessarily fouled). And again out of gear she'll go to 5500rpms...
... above the bowl there's a tiny bit of black gunge buildup.
By the way, all the fuel lines, tank, fuel water seperator, everything is brand new except for the motor itself so I know it's getting clean fuel.
... should I have someone go through and clean up the carbs.
Or will the ethanol fuel just keep cleaning the system til its done?...

If this is a looper engine, I suspect electrical fault may be a possibility. But definitely clean your carbs and rebuild and clean your fuel pump as that may be all it is. They're not difficult to do yourself on that motor.

I had an '88 225 Johnson on my 23' Tsunami that ran great, but would end up limping back to the dock. Had the carbs cleaned, VRO pump replaced, new fuel line, filters, everything. It turned out to be the stator assembly, with a temperature hidden fault that only showed up when the stator assembly got hot. Cost back in '06 was about $900 what with all the time tracing down the problem. I bought a blown motor on ebay, got the used stator assembly off and the problem was fixed. I spent less on the blown motor than the cost of a new stator.

BTW, the ethanol fuel is not good long-term for your system. According to a friend of mine who is a Merc dealer, more than half of all repairs he is now performing are because of ethanol-related failure or damage. He says the first motors actually designed to run ethanol fuel were the '07 and '08 models. Even my '06 Opti has rubber gaskets that will deteriorate rapidly.