Tohatsu smoke

[neil76]

Hi, I recently bought a 3.5hp 2 stroke Tohatsu outboard, which is in more or less new condition. It has only been used once for about 10 minutes, and was then stored for about 2 years. The motor starts and runs fine, but puts out alot of grey/blue smoke. I have drained and changed the fuel etc, but it still smokes even at idle. I have read about doing a decarb, but i'm not sure if it's needed as it's had very little use. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Neil.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Tohatsu smoke

If your running it in a barrel it will seem very smokey.You may be able to adjust the idle mixture.If it seems to run normally get it on the water and see how it does.
Some motors require a richer breakin oil mix which would smoke more.

 

[neil76]

Re: Tohatsu smoke

Yes, it's running a ratio of 25:1 as it hasn't been broken in yet. I took out the spark plug and it had some black oily substance over the electrodes, I cleaned it and put it back ran it for a couple of minutes and checked again, the black stuff was back. It's not too bad on idle but if you give it a blip of throttle you get clouds of grey smoke, is it likely to clear if I run it for a while?

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Tohatsu smoke

It's supposed to smoke. At 25:1 it will smoke more than it will when you cut back to 50:1. There's nothing wrong with your outboard. Go use it and get it broken in so you can switch to the 50:1 ratio.

If it doesn't smoke, you should be worried. Seriously. Two-strokes smoke. You can cut down some on the smoke by using one of the synthetic 2-stroke oils. But you won't harm anything by sticking to the cheaper TCW3 oils.

Go enjoy your new outboard.