should i have??

[phatwake360]

drained the carbs on my merc 90 3 cyl 2 stroke (93)

to winterise it i ran it up on muffs discoonected the fuel pipe waited until i started to die the fed it loads of fogging oil though each carb. then eventually it died so i removed the plugs and liberally coated the cylinders with fogging oil again the turnd the engine over buy hand, to proper coat the walls. but a reliable friend of mine later told me i should have also drained the float chambers on each carb!!!! my boat is in storage for the winter so do i need to go drain the floats to make sure or should it be ok??

 

[Texasmark]

Re: should i have??

The venturi of the carb generates a vacuum (lower than atmospheric pressure condition) as the air passes through it. There is a tube (that you can see from the front of the carb) which I call the venturi tube which sticks down into the bowl of the carb.

When you ran your engine essentially out of gas causing it to start to die, you essentially drained the bowls. What's left isn't much and next spring make sure your first tank of fuel has a can of Sea Foam in it and by the time you finish off that tank, whatever was left has probably departed the scene with no detriment to your engine's performance.

That's what I'd do and not loose a minutes sleep over it. Others will have their opinions, but you have mine......Oh, and I happen to own a later model of that engine.

Mark

 

[lindy46]

Re: should i have??

On twin carb engines I just run Seafoam and Sta-Bil in the last tank of gas and don't drain the carbs. Works for me.

 

[emckelvy]

Re: should i have??

The other issue on oil-injected motors is that when you run them out of fuel, the oil side of the system keeps pumping in oil. So you get a progressively oilier mix going into the carbs. Gonna either gum up or make a heck of a lot of smoke when starting the motor the first time next season.

Better to do as the O.P.'s suggest and run a preservative in the fuel, without draining carbs.

Or, fog the motor, shut 'er down, and drain the float bowls at the end of the season.

Make sure you have fresh gas for the first-of-the-season lite-off, and it wouldn't hurt add a dose of Sea-Foam, too. She'll probably fire right up.

HTH & G'luck..........ed

 

[j_martin]

Re: should i have??

My XR4 getting put to bed for a long winter's nap gets fogged till it kills, then fuel line is disconnected, fuel in the tank goes into the family bus. Main jets get loosened up to drain the bowls, plugs come out and a healthy dose of fogging oil goes into each cylinder. Turned over 1 turn by hand, plugs back in, check or change the foot lube and to bed she goes.

In the spring she gets fresh gas in the tank, started on the muffs, (watching for wind direction, it's gonna be smokey) fogging oil burned off, fresh set of plugs, annual lube job done, and she's good to go.

just my 02
John