put some Teflon tape on the fuel/water separator 90' fittings,,, seems to help keep the primer bulb primed quite a bit. put about 20 more gallons in the tank on Saturday morning and she started right up! cruised around most of the day and didn't have any problems! I'm pretty sure there's still some stuff floating around in the tank so I'm still researching getting it cleaned out (or just dealing with it till I can get a new tank this fall). I still have a new fitting for the tank but I couldn't resist the perfect weather we had this weekend!
Still a work in progress but thanks everyone for the input!