Runs poorly after taking in water

Hi all,

My 94 GTX once had a slit on one of clear water hoses (5/16" I think). It slowly took in some water when it sat while we were eating lunch. When we were ready to go home, the ski wouldn't start. I looked inside and realized that water had made its way in to a point where it wouldn't take in any more water. I'm guessing that the water reached to about the base of the carbs. I put the ski on the trailer, drained the water, and went home. Later, I fixed the hose and took the ski out again. During this trip, the ski won't rev up very high. Hitting the throttle doesn't make it rev higher. Whenever I would get some air, the motor would wind up and will stay revving high until I slowed down again. Acceleration was also really poor.

When I got home, I suspected that I needed a carb rebuild so I had them rebuilt. The guy at the carb shop also convinced me to replace my fuel lines as he says that the old gray ones deteriorate and clog fuel filters. And so I did. I didn't (yet) replace the return fuel hose or the vent hoses, though. I also put in a fresh tank of gas. It still ran poorly while on the trailer. I tried using a different fuel feed which I dipped into the fuel tank and it appeared to run better. With this, I was blaming the pickup and/or the fuel selector. I ran a new line from one of the two connectors from the top of the fuel tank. I tried using one of the ones which went to the fuel selector. Still ran bad. I tried the other one with no luck. Motor runs bad and I'm getting backfiring from the carb. That sounds like a lean condition, right? I forgot to mention that I also installed an inline fuel filter just before the carb so that I can see fuel as it makes it into the carb.

What could've happened? Any insight? I can see how I can have fuel delivery problems but I can't see how that could've been related to the ski taking in water. Please help. I'm running out of ideas. The last thing I can think of that went bad is the fuel pickup assembly that sits on top of the fuel tank. I'm talking about the piece with 4 fuel connectors on top.