Most absurd statement by Honda dealer. You won't believe this!

[Bash]

Originally Posted by rwidman

I have been sick and my truck (with E-10 fuel) sat for three months or so without being started. I had to put air in one of the tires, but the engine fired right up when I turned the key. No treatment either.

Whenever the fuel in my dink gets to be more than a month old, I pour it into my truck. The pickup seems not to mind fuel that will choke the outboard.

[DefinitelyMe]

Not sure about the Honda but i have a Tohatsu 3.5hp 2-stroke that i run out of gas if i'm not going to use it for a while, put a few drops of oil into each cylinder and pull it over a couple of times to coat the cylinders. After a 2 year stint sitting it started right up with no problems. The same engine also went under water while running at full-throttle (don't ask!) and got taken apart with a pair of pliers and a penknife before being flushed with brackish water, set on fire, doused, put back together and runs beautifully :-)

[S/V Antares]

The 2.3 hp has only forward unless you turn it around. It has a centrificul clutch to give you neutral at idle speed.

There is a small screw on the carb bowl that allows you to easily drain the carb fuel out. There is a clear plastic tube thats leads the fuel outside of the engine housing. One can insert a WD-40 red tube sprayer into that tube and put some in the bowl for long term storage. It really helps.

Fuel and perhaps some water in the bowl dry up and clog the miniscule metering jets. The Idle jet is not even cleanable without "modifying" the carb.

Look... this is an aircooled weed wacker motor. It is not very powerful but it will push a 8-9 ft dink to the dock at several knots and a few knotheads on board.

As for the "Use aviation fuel" comment... things get out of context fast. I suspect the tech was making an inocent comment based on the E10 or E15 conversation. I have heard others (No Tech) say similar things.

The current trend for "Green" cleaning of small HP carbs is a sonic cleaner like they use for jewlery but bigger. Short of spending a few thousand on one of these I find if you dissasemble the bigger parts and soak them in Lemon juce for a day or two it will often work.

$90 for a carb job? Thats about right...If you cannot do this simple task yourself you are at their mercy. Most Dealers charge $80 + an hour. (Ouch!)

[S/V Alchemy]

^^^

Some good advice here! I have to devarnish my Honda 2 as I didn't run it dry last winter and it's clearly gone funny in the carb. Lemons are cheaper than a hundred bucks.