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

[over40pirate]

After buying a 2.3 hp 4 stroke honda, and realizing it didn't seem to have enough power, my friend took it to a Honda dealer for warranty repair.
When he picked it up, they charged him $90 to clean the carb.
They told him, he needed to use aviation fuel in it!!!!!!!!
That would be convienent for a cruiser!

[onestepcsy37]

your friend probably hasn't learned to run the engine out of fuel before putting it away. with the ethanol flavored gasoline being sold today it's a requirement. we do it to all our club boats and don't have trouble starting them again weeks later.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

your friend probably hasn't learned to run the engine out of fuel before putting it away. with the ethanol flavored gasoline being sold today it's a requirement. we do it to all our club boats and don't have trouble starting them again weeks later.

I had good luck with the Sta-bill fuel stabilizer. Probably had about 4 month old gas in there chugging through without any problems. I'm on Mexican gas now so I think I'm free of ethanol but I still put stabilizer into the 5 gallon jerry can when I take it to get filled. Both my Honda 2000 generator and Honda 2.x outboard are happy as little clams.

[David M]

I tried the fuel stabilizer...no luck. I just pull the fuel line and let the engine burn all of the fuel out of the carb...no problem this way.

Alcohol in fuel is evil. It only benefits corn farmers and politicians.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by David M

I tried the fuel stabilizer...no luck. I just pull the fuel line and let the engine burn all of the fuel out of the carb...no problem this way.

Alcohol in fuel is evil. It only benefits corn farmers and politicians.

Do you shut the fuel off when you're not running it? I'm pretty religious about that switch. Anything more than stopping to talk to someone for a few seconds and I kill the fuel supply. It's just weird that I would have so much better results than others. I've heard quite a few people complaining about US gas.

[David M]

Not sure I understand the question. Pulling the fuel line is the same as shutting off the fuel supply.

I'm in an area with gas that has 10% alcohol. Now they want to increase it to 15%.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by David M

Not sure I understand the question. Pulling the fuel line is the same as shutting off a fuel supply valve.

I'm in an area with gas that has 10% alcohol. Now they want to increase it to 15%.

I saw this thing on TV where they explained they want to switch to wood instead of corn. They calculated that they could replace 60% of US domestic gas usage with alcohol from cellulose. That won't work I think but I also don't know how high a percentage is possible?

[bobconnie]

Darn, We are lucky down the bayou! We have 2 stations selling alcohol free gasoline right in our little town !! We have so many outboards down here it's really nice to be able to just go to the station and fill up! makes all our gas powerd stuff run a lot better and last a lot longer !! It even runs better in 4 strokes !!

[downunder]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I saw this thing on TV where they explained they want to switch to wood instead of corn. They calculated that they could replace 60% of US domestic gas usage with alcohol from cellulose. That won't work I think but I also don't know how high a percentage is possible?

Cellulosic fermentation ethanol is the holy grail of ethanol production which will reduce costs dramatically allowing it to compete as a fuel without subsidies. This however is still in development and whilst there may be many different technologies being developed there are none at full commercial stage yet to my knowledge.

[onestepcsy37]

and now that you've mentioned the little honda 2.3 four stroke, what is the collective opinion on these engines?

i'm still running my 15 year old 3hp yammie but thinking about its eventual replacement. i like the little honda because it's as light as the old 2 strokes, unlike the other little four strokes now available.

i once heard that they had problems with the mounting bracket separating from the rest of the engine and falling off, but don't know how true that was....

[rebel heart]

My little 2.3 has been giving us flawless performance for almost a year now. Sometimes at marinas where it's laid up, sometimes at anchorages where it's chugging for 20 minutes from A to B. It's not winning any races but for us it's been great. If it was stolen I'd probably buy the same engine all over again.

[HopCar]

Does the little Honda have a neutral gear or does it start in forward?

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Does the little Honda have a neutral gear or does it start in forward?

It's in neutral when you don't grab any throttle, but there's no other way to select it. Drop down the RPMs and you're in neutral, if that makes sense.

[ggray]

If my ob has not run recently, I remove the sediment bowl, dump it, and pump an oz of fuel out before replacing sediment bowl. Starts up right away.

I've heard that removing all the gas (I used to do this religiously) could cause problems as well. Perhaps because you can't drain or burn off everything, and introducing more air allows what remains to dry off and leave varniish.

[Reefmagnet]

I don't see how running it out of fuel will do any harm, even with a two stroke (I shut off as soon as the revs increase). My theory is is that varnish and gunk inducing constituents in the fuel are best burnt off before they become varnish or gunk. I have a Johnson 3.5 2 st that spends weeks at a time unused that I've just had to clean the carbi on, mainly because there was water in the tank but I figured it was due for the full service after 8 years untouched anyway. All I found was a little bit of crystalized gunk in the bottom of the float boal and very little varnish staining.

Small four stroke are more susceptible to problems with fuel because of their much finer jets then either corresponding 2 stroke or bigger 4 st engines so it is possible that gunk in the jets could dry and harden and then require mechanical removal. Having said that, I think the fuel in your average float bowl would evaporate within a couple of days anyway.