Small outboard - service or disposable?

[Robin]

Re: Gasoline storage

Thanks again Nigel, it was 4 stroke only and I decided to put it in the car and get new stuff to add the magic gunge to, rather than risk it gumming it up again. The trouble with the little Honda 2hp is that it can take 10 minutes to run the float chamber dry as I always did with previous engines, and then if it does get gummed up it is a major task to get at the carburettor which has to come off to clean a jet according to Honda.

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[Guest]

Re: Gasoline storage

My engines sit for months unattended ........ and I';m really unfair on them by calling on them to start first kick when I return !!!

I have trouble with my diesel engine - but thats due to water having got into the sump and running the engine caused it to lock up !!! We all live and learn ..... otherwise as many on the forum know - I do very little in way of potions / servicing etc. to my gear ...... Now I have to find a BIG spanner to turn the engine over !!!


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
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[Heckler]

petrol is made of different volatile substances, (sorry nigel im making it very simple) if you leave it exposed to air the light ends evaporate. thats why stale smells different. the light ends are what burn easily thats why you use a choke in cold weather, it richens the mixture and gets more light ends into the cylinder to ignite easily.
if not enough light ends, cause they have evaporated, in the fuel, even when it is warm the motor will still not run on much more than half throttle easily
stu

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.beneteau-owners-association.org.uk

 

[supermalc]

I'm not a chemist, nor a petroleum engineer.....however unleaded is very different from the leaded variety we used a few years ago. Having run out of parafin, I have used petrol for cleaning engine parts etc. on occasion. Mindful of the fire hazard I was conscious of leaving an open containerfull when finished.

I recently had cause to use a drop of unleaded. I don't do much cleaning nowadays, so it is the first time I've had to use unleaded. When I went out about an hour or so later, the container was empty. I wondered if the dog had knocked it over, but no.....it had evaporated. So now I know the cause of all the modern car fires. It is far more flammable and volatile than it used to be. Thank God I run a diesel....have done since 1991. Only used unleaded in small motor bikes, which I had to give up riding even these, last year.

So it seems the main reason unleaded petrol goes off, and gums up the works, is because it evaporates much more than 'proper' petrol does.

<hr width=100% size=1>Malcolm.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.angelfire.com/malcsworld/>http://www.angelfire.com/malcsworld/</A>
Take a look at my boating pages.

 

[andyball]

Spot-on .

Another tip,hard-learnt from annoying motorcycles engines, is that the gum or varnish from stale petrol can form on the hole in a carburettor jet.....reducing the size & making the motor run very weak/need choke all the time....not at all obvious unless you've a clean jet of a similar size to compare it to.

Easy enough to cure with new jets, though a problem with press-fit/non-removable ones & sometimes v.expensive if 4 carb's with 2 main jets each + pilots.

Worth remembering, since presumably the same thing can happen with outboards.


Had a number of tight-wad customers, refusing to pay for new primary/secondary mains, sold their bikes with a rag stuffed up half the airbox intake to mask the problem.

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[supermalc]

New carburettor engines also need a squirt of carb cleaner, as the varnish to protect them can bung up the jets.

Again I leant this the 'hard way'. See motor bike pages on my site. Briefly I bought a crashed GPZ 550 in 1986. Bought new in August 1985 it had only done 800 miles before a 'gentle' 25mph crash in town. No comp. insurance it ended up at my friends. It had a replacement second hand engine with new carbs.

In the 3 years I had it, it ran weak. Could not find the cause. Only learnt the cause i.e. varnish in the jets, about 3 years ago. There are lots of small holes and passages in carbs that are impossible to clean any other way. As this engine had never had it's first service at the main dealers, so the carbs were never cleaned out.

There is STILL no substitute for experience.

<hr width=100% size=1>Malcolm.
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Take a look at my boating pages.

 

[Robin]

Carburettor Cleaner

How does carb cleaner work, do you spray it in the intake or do you have to dismantle the carb to use it? It seems like a useful thing to carry if it is easy to use, bearing in mind on our boat the tender is only used very infrequently with the outboard on it! However if you have to take the carb apart I would be back to square one since Honda carb is very inaccessible.

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[supermalc]

Re: Carburettor Cleaner

It comes in an aerosol spray can. There is a tube to direct it where you want. I don't have the can here (I've just given it to a friend as I now have an inboard diesel) so I cannot read the instructions, but I don't think it matters if you remove the carb or not. As long as it can dissolve the gunge blocking the holes, it will work.

Until I saw my friend using it in his garage about 6 years ago, I didn't even know there was such a product.

<hr width=100% size=1>Malcolm.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.angelfire.com/malcsworld/>http://www.angelfire.com/malcsworld/</A>
Take a look at my boating pages.

 

[Robin]

Re: Carburettor Cleaner

Thanks Malcolm, I just bought a can of cleaner for £3-50 which has to be a good thing to carry on board. Armed with fresh petrol, treated with fuel stabiliser and a can of this stuff it won't dare misbehave next time!

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