>Hi Gang
>I always like it when someone throws in another alternative! Here
>goes anyway. A while ago when I was in Florida the Suzuki 2hp on my
>Potter 15 refused to start. I took it to a mechanic/ Suzuki dealer
>who said that the trouble was that I had clogged the carburator with
>varnish by shutting off the fuel. The fuel in the carburator had
>dried up and the remaining varnish had clogged the system. He told
>me not to use foggers or stablizer in the gas, simply to never close
>the shut off valve. He said that would assure that there would always
>be gas in the carburator and end the problem -- even in Florida heat.
>Then he told me that he couldn't fix the motor for a reasonable cost
>and it was junk. He offered to "give me a nominal trade on a new
>motor."
He sounds like a real crook. I wouldn't believe anything he told me.
>I took the unit back and bought a can of carburator cleaner and
>sprayed it in every opening I could gain access to in the carburator.
> I also sprayed a liberal amount in the spark plug hole. I thought
>maybe the reed valve had seized. When I replaced the spark plug,
>Wala! It started and has run fine ever since.
> I have taken his advice and have kept the carburator valve open
>and for the past two years the motor has been trouble free. Of
>course, I always close the vent on the top of the motor when it is in
>storage. I also leave the motor on the trailer in the garage and
>would not consider bringing it into the basement near the furnace.
> In the old days, O.M.C. used to recommend stopping outboards by
>pulling the choke when they were to be stored for an extended time.
>That might work for models with separate tanks.
My ancient Seagull is apparently not anything like the modern outboards,
but standard procedure on the Seagull is to close the tank vent and shut
off the fuel valve before tilting up the engine to the horizontal position
for sailing. The manual also recommends running the carburetor dry at the
end of a day's sail by shutting off the fuel, but that is apparently no
longer considered good advice, at least on modern engines. That's a little
hard to live with anyway if you're trying to maneuver up to a dock under
power since you have to guess when the engine will quit and hope you will
have enough momentum to carry you to the dock. (There's no neutral.) But
I've found that if I leave gas in the carburetor when the motor isn't used
for a while that it does get gummed up and hard to start. The normal method
of shutting off the Seagull is simply to close the throttle. But I don't
leave the fuel valve on when the motor is stored for fear the motor will
leak fuel. I should probably drain the tank but usually don't.
Incidentally, my Seagull is now 31 years old and has never been
disassembled, and I don't flush it. It's never run better or started more
reliably than it has the past year.
As you probably are aware, the fumes from any gasoline leak in your garage
can be ignited by the sparking in an electric motor such as in a washer,
dryer, forced air heater, power tool, etc, or by the flame of a pilot light
in a water heater or furnace..
>
>A friend told me recently that emissions from the large two
>cycle motors used in PWC's can equal in two hours the hydrocarbon
>emissions from a modern automobile driven 130,000 miles. That sounds
>incredible, but run your outboard in a bucket of water sometime and
>you might be surprised at the film that quickly develops on the water-
> not to mention the smoke that bubbles out of it. I am interested in
>your responses.
That's one of the reasons that I'm about to try electric motor propulsion
(if the motor I ordered ever arrives!).
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA