C-Pup lesson on ethanol woes

C

C-Pup16 in Los Angeles

New member
Hi Phil,

I was disabled last Sunday in the shipping lanes. Pretty scary. Lucky it was Sunday and no ships threatened me. I also had a clear, sunny day with flat seas, so swells or ship wake to roll me over. I had to wait three hours for Boat U.S. to tow me back to MdR. I kept drifting further into the shipping lanes.

My problem was that I left the boat unused for a year without running the gas out of the motor, or adding stabilizer. Stupid me. The carburetors became gummed up from the corn syrup that ethanol leaves after the alcohol evaporates. I did have the motor serviced in June. I told the mechanic (M&K Marine) it had a problem starting, and told him about my mistake of leaving stale gas sit in it for so long. He blew "gunk-out" into the intake and added fuel cleaner to the gas to try to clean it, but that wasn't enough. Last Sunday I had trouble starting the motor cold, but did get it going with starter spray and it seemed fine at cruising speed. Then when I trolled in the shipping lane, it conked out and that was it. Even starting spray could not get it started again. I called Kimiko at church and asked her to interrupt the service to ask everyone to pray that no ship would appear and run me over. My tithe pledge was current, so they did. I then did a bit of praying, recounting all my sins (three hours goes by fast doing that) and asked God to give me a second chance. He did.

All this past week, C-Pup was at Regency Boats (a Yamaha dealer) in MdR where their mechanic did a diagnosis, removed the four carbs, striped them down to parts, cleaned the parts and reassembled them for $750. I had no time for a sea trial, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Kimiko wants to know if my life insurance is paid up.

Anyway, I'll have the sweet corn and butter, so the crew who likes their corn better tow me to the Isthmus if all the money I paid to end my outboard woes has not done the trick.

Lesson:
1) Use fuel stabilizer (expensive stuff) if you have a fixed tank; I always have a 3 gallon tank to switch to before entering MdR on a return trip. I'll now always have fuel stabilizer added to that tank.
2) When at the dock at the end of your outing, disconnect the gas line and let the outboard run dry.
3) Probably also good to have a $100 bill pinned to your pennant flag when asking another boater to be helpful and tow you...

I look forward to seeing you again.

Be well,
Keith
 
Keith-

Glad you're OK, and the ships didn't materalize with you and C-Pup in their crosshairs! :smileo

You're account is hilarious (once one realizes you're OK, and the danger has passed. :lol:

Enjoy your trip to Catalina, hopefully without another Adventure Grande! :smiled

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Times like that is when your kicker is worth it weight hanging off your transom. Sea conditions were in your favor. Glad things turned out well.
Cheers
Chris
 
C-Pup16 in Los Angeles":1omektgk said:
Lesson:

2) When at the dock at the end of your outing, disconnect the gas line and let the outboard run dry.
Click to expand...

One note is that letting the outboard run until it is out of fuel does not get the gas completely out of the carburetor(s). So it can still gum them up. After you run the engine dry you would then drain the carburetors, if you want all the fuel out of them. There is typically a small screw you turn right on each carb - just a small amount of gas comes out.
 
we had a problem with fuel when we first had our 16 cruiser we put in a 10 micron water separator filter and used only non ethanol fuel probably hard to find in CARB land ? then had carb redone and no fuel problems again . when you lay up boat with carbs you must get all the fuel out of carbs . We use startron and buy only MARINE fuel no 10% ethanol fuel . Hope your problems are behind you . If going out in Pacific Ocean I would get a little kicker a 3 1/2 hp would be plenty for a 16ft . there is no where to hide Good Luck .
 
Yep, only sin you committed was not having a little 2 hp kicker on the stern. Might only use a kicker to get yer butt out of the sling a couple times in a lifetime, but for the price and piece of mind, well worth it. My kickers have a separate fuel supply carried under the engine cover of the kicker. Winterizing is just tip the gas out into a container, run the engine 'till it quits, and you will be good to go. Oh, by the way, only run non-ethanol in the kicker.

I also use the kicker for trolling and save the wear and tear on the big motor (s).
 
THE best thing to do is avoid ethanol added fuel PERIOD.
Around here I asked a new Shell station to add non ethanol fuel and they did,very good seller for them .
There is a bill,H.R. 875, sponsor Jim Sensebrenner (R-WI) which is supposed to encourage evaluation of the scientific research on the detrimental effects of this additive . some people would increase the mix to 15 or 20 percent if they can get away with it. Nip it in the bud ,friends don't let friends mix corn and boating.
 
Good advise from all. I did not have an easy way to get non ethanol fuel. I used Startron in every tank of fuel. My Honda 90
had carb problems from early on in life. It may have been dirt from the factory. I stopped draining the carbs on my lawn equipment just used Startron. Even the old two stroke lawn mower always started in the spring. In the C Dory I left about 1/8 tank of fuel over the winter dosed with Startron and did not run the fuel out of the carbs. In the spring I filled up with fresh fuel and the 90 started up just fine and always ran A OK. Just the way it worked for me.
 
We had a problem with our new Honda kicker, which we didn't use last year, (only 3 hours on it). It wouldn't start, so we took it to King Salmon Marine in Tacoma. We were advised that we had a LOT of water in our fuel, both tanks, and it was a miracle that our Honda 90 fuel injected motor ran ok. They drained our fuel, which was ethanol free, and then drained and cleaned both tanks, saving a small bag of fuel line chunks (which settled in both tanks) to show us. Very sobering! Our motors are just 2 years old, and we always use fuel stabilizer and try to get ethanol free fuel. Our C Dory is a 2006. We had so much trouble with the original carbuerated Honda engine that we bought a new one and added a kicker.
If the fuel in both tanks is contaminated with water, your kicker won't be usable. They recommended having a small tank with a gallon of fuel as a stand by tank, for emergency use. What a pain!
What is the benefit again of having ethanol added to our fuel? Helps the farmers????
We spent over a $1,000 but at least, our new engines were spared from the chunks of dissolved stuff in our tanks.
 
I have a six gallon portable tank between my main tanks for the kicker.

Bill Kelleher


Taran":2xblbzrp said:
We had a problem with our new Honda kicker, which we didn't use last year, (only 3 hours on it). It wouldn't start, so we took it to King Salmon Marine in Tacoma. We were advised that we had a LOT of water in our fuel, both tanks, and it was a miracle that our Honda 90 fuel injected motor ran ok. They drained our fuel, which was ethanol free, and then drained and cleaned both tanks, saving a small bag of fuel line chunks (which settled in both tanks) to show us. Very sobering! Our motors are just 2 years old, and we always use fuel stabilizer and try to get ethanol free fuel. Our C Dory is a 2006. We had so much trouble with the original carbuerated Honda engine that we bought a new one and added a kicker.
If the fuel in both tanks is contaminated with water, your kicker won't be usable. They recommended having a small tank with a gallon of fuel as a stand by tank, for emergency use. What a pain!
What is the benefit again of having ethanol added to our fuel? Helps the farmers????
We spent over a $1,000 but at least, our new engines were spared from the chunks of dissolved stuff in our tanks.
Click to expand...
 
Not to be a contrariant, but to me it seems like the primary problem here (and another example above) was not due to ethanol but due to lack of use over an extended period of time without draining the carbs. On my previous 22, I used fuel with ethanol in it almost exclusively since that was what was available where I fueled. I never had a problem in 8 years of operation. But I either ran the engines dry prior to long periods of disuse and/or I used the boat at least once every month. Also, if you have a fuel injected engine, don't run it dry.
 
There has already been a lot said here. But one item that I did not see mentioned and I think is very important if you are going to run a single engine, is to be thoroughly familiar with operator's manual and in particular the maintenance schedules and storage procedures. This is especially important if you will have extended periods when are not going to run your boat. We have had 3 Honda engines between our two boats and all of them are, or were, different when it comes to draining the fuel from the engine. None of them ever let us down. At least not as yet but when it is time to drain fuel, I have the book right so that I can follow step by step. While it is not in the book, I always filled the permanent tanks completely and spike them with generous amounts of fuel stabilizer, and empty the portable tanks completely to eliminate moisture in the fuel.
Jack
 
Others, like myself will only leave a few gallons in the main tanks when in storage with some stabil in those few gallons and rely on fuel water separators to take care of any condensation. I've never found water in the fuel water separator. I don't know if that is because of my dry climate in Utah, or the fuel tanks material or what. I just don't like old fuel in the spring no matter what stabil says. So many different ways to treat the storage processes, and different folks are comfortable with what has worked in the past without regard to strict adherence to the manufacturers suggestions. But if a person has no experience and history with state of the art outboards, the manufacturers instructions are the very best way to go.

I also tow with only a few gallons in the tanks as I don't like the added 300 lbs or so on the rear of the trailer with full tanks. Not concerned with a short tow, but I'm typically towing 200 to 1000 miles. So, I fill up the boat close to my launch point.
 
If I remember correctly, Keith on C-Pup has portable fuel tanks.... I would run the motors dry every time I was done using it and make some sort of fuel transfer device so he can burn off any excess fuel in the portable tanks by putting it in his car...get fresh fuel every time he uses the boat if he expects any long term storage... Stabil would not be a bad idea either.
 
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