Man I tell you what I have had the worst couple years with carb'd outboards. First was the 2 stroke 15hp I took to the bahamas. The usual scenario is this, plug in the fuel tank in and start pulling the motor, fuel starts pouring out of the carb. Then it happened with my 6hp. I ended up just buying a brand new carb cause it gave me extra hp. So I bought a new 15 hp 4 stroke tohatsu, brand new. when I got it home I figured i would run it and my other 6hp at the same time, 15 hp runs great of course, but now I am worried since I am not going to use it until May.



I go to start the 6hp up and fuel starts pouring out of it. So I take the new carb which had maybe 2 hours use on it off and sure enough the float is stuck, I get it running only to find out the primary needle is plugged up tight.



What I don't get is I've been running these things dry when I store them and yet they are still filled with yellow guck 3 months later. I'm going to have to come up with something to connect to the fuel line and run some sort of solution through it when I store them. The question at hand is what? I use the ethanol fuel treatments and I use the startron crap, but nothing keeps these carbs from gumming up after sitting. I even drain the bowls to make sure they are totally empty.



I'm seriously considering not buying ethanol fuel at all for them, I never had this issue prior to ethanol. That 15 hp 2 stroke ran for 5 years fine on regular gas, put the ethanol gas in and the carb clogged up and then i blew a piston out of it (prolly not due to the ethanol).



I've got a 9.8 i just rebuilt the carb on and am going to sell it, it hadn't ran on the ethanol fuel guy just used marina gas (no ethanol), but I decided that it probably needed a carb rebuild. After sitting for two years, not having the fuel drained when it was pulled it had no varnish at all in it.



Anyhow if anyone is interested I've found that the stuff at west marine called "de-carb" eats the varnish off the carb parts if you soak it for an hour. I've also found that soaking it in PB blaster overnight removes the crap as well.



So back to my point, what should I run through the carb prior to storing the motors? Any suggestions????

I dunno about those marine engines but pretty much all engines require special gaskets and seals in the fuel system. Ethanol is alcohol based so it dries out and shrinks the gaskets. Thus allowing fuel to leak out and water to get in. But again, I don't know if those engines are built for flex fuel or not though.



In other news, why'd you post this in the new members section? Lol

Lol you moved it I gather haha

The issue seems to be what's left behind after it evaporates. It's a yellow substance and it's as hard as a rock a wire brush won't remove it.



There's got to be something I can run through the fuel line when storing to keep it from varnishing.

run some regular gas before storage is the only thing i can imagine. i have a good history with marine engines and i never have carb problems with regular gas. take it out on its final trip before storage with premium pump and some fuel injector cleaner and you should be right as rain.

Those deposits are from the ethanol. Its not as bad as methanol, but it still gums up fuel systems badly. Ive been having similar issues with my carbed bike getting gummed up constantly, and its a relatively new thing. I think the gas companies are adding more ethanol than they used to.

I am trying spraying DEEP CREEP in my chainsaw when I store it

I'm thinking about sticking the fuel pickup in a bucket of seafoam before I store them.

Does anyone know what the cutoff is? I mean 1 month, 3 months? When does it hose the carb.

My chainsaw is screwed after 2 weeks.

Well this is what I am trying for now. I bought a gallon of the seafoam, this **** isn't cheap it's $65 for a gallon, but I've used it to clean carbs in the past with very good success. Anyhow, I basically stick the fuel pickup line in the seafoam and run it until it stops, I'm letting that sit for an hour or so, then draining the carb. I'll let you guys who are also having issues know if it works, obviously I don't know how effective it will be.



As for me, in my boats and outboards I'm not using ethanol fuel anymore, **** it it's not worth it.

Damn, so THAT'S what's wrong with my weed wacker. It's got that yellow hard-as-rock build up, I rebuilt the carb, could never get it to run right, I'm guessing it's the ethanol issue.



I need to ask my dad what he uses, he has a 90 hp (or is it 110? I forget) Mercury "Saltwater" outboard with carbs and oil injection. He doesn't go out very often, but his motor always runs well. I know he fills up at regular pumps.

Yea the ethanol is a serious issue. I think I mentioned it back when you were talking about your weed wacker. If you want to clean it off take the carb apart and soak it in pb blaster for at least 2 days.

Like douse it, or get enough to submerge it?

You need to submerge it. I bought a gallons and I just keep recycling it, I pour it back into the can with a funnel.

Nice, I didn't know you could buy it in anything but a spray can.

The autozone near me sells it in gallons, I think it's $35 for the gallon, but like I say I've used very little and I have done this on 3 carbs so far with great success. I need to do one more which is my pressure washer.



Make sure you remove the main jet completely, if you can't get it out soak it for a day and it should drop right out.

I've noticed two problems, one is the float valve gets glued in by the ethanol guck and the second is the main jets holes get plugged. This **** is like glue when it tries you can barely chip it off. The first will cause fuel to simply pour out of the carb when you put fuel to it and the second will basically kill the engine when you give it throttle. It pissed me off the first time cause the motor was idling perfectly and as soon as I gave it gas it would die.

That's how it was for me, I could make it idle perfectly but not throttle, or it wouldn't idle at all but would throttle great.

If it won't idle it's the idle circuit, that's the jet on the outside of the carb, remove it and soak it with the carb.

This is probably why ive been having such issues with mowers lately too. Ill have to keep this one in mind. I had a 6hp honda engine stop running on me due to carb issues and i saw the same buildup. although for me i just gave up and bought a new one..

This is absurd. I cleaned the carbs on my bike a while back. Ran 2 tanks of gas through it(with fuel stabilizer), and it was running fine. It sits for a month, and then wont start. Pulled the carbs again today, and the idle passages are partially clogged yet again.



Im thinking it doesnt affect fuel injected engines because the gas never collects in places where it can evaporate, unlike carburetors. Pure gas evaporates cleanly, but ethanol leaves deposits. So all the ethanol the gas companies are putting into modern gas is wrecking havoc on carbs, and it looks like the winter blends are even worse.



Maybe I should just start running 100LL in my bike...

Deposits hell that **** is hard a rock it leaves concrete lol



Well I think we can safely say a month is too long and I've found no fuel additives that keep it from forming. The gas still evaporates leaving the **** ethanol " deposits" behind.



Here's a list of ethanol free stations http://pure-gas.org/



With any luck there's one in yer area.

Luckily there's a station a couple miles from my house.



I have gas cans for kerosene, 2 cycle, regular gas, I guess I need another one for "pure gas".