Ran rough after sitting idle.

[gpfishingdude]

The 25 horse merc. ran rough after sitting in the garage for a couple of months. The fuel in the tank didn't look like it had evaporated down very far and I would have thought it was mixed up pretty good after the distance towed and the number of starts and stops along the way. I still have 4 gallons left in the 6 gallon tank. Do you think I should add a gallon of straight gas to see if it will help the motor run smoother?

 

[Joeshow]

Re: Ran rough after sitting idle.

Yeah gallon of mixed hi test or just some octane boost should fix it up

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Ran rough after sitting idle.

I think I found what caused the hard start and rough idle problem. We had been using the pontoon boat for a couple of months while the vee bottom sat in the garage. The pontoon boat has a 50 horse merc. with a key choke. The vee bottom has 25 merc. and a hand choke that pulls out for cold starts that I forgot was there to use. While checking the spark plugs and putting the cover back on I noticed the choke that I was supposed to use until the motor warms up. I remember now that I used to pull the choke all the way out to start and then push it half way in until it warmed up. I was probably lucky that it started and ran at all.