[smj]

Hi All,
I have a new Honda 2hp used on our inflatable. We have maybe 3 hrs. on her and I noticed a sheen behind the boat after I ran her. Upon further inspection it appears I have oil coming out of the air intake to the carburator. Any ideas?
Thanks A.J.

[JackCB]

As you probably know these motors can only be laid down on one side or oil problems pop up. This problem can apparently also manifest itself when tilted the wrong way on a dingy as indicated in the post from another forum below;

In my case I was using the motor on an 8-foot inflatable dinghy. The
dinghy was in the slip next to the "big" boat (30' sailboat) and the
motor was on the dinghy, tilted in the "up" position to keep the prop
out of the water. One morning I took the motor off the dinghy (hadn't
used it for a couple of days) and mounted it on the stern rail of the
big boat in preparation for departure. At that point I noticed that
something was dripping from the motor and making rainbows on the water.
Hmm, not good. Fuel cap was closed, vent was closed, gas lever was in
"off" position....

Further investigation showed that oil and gas had gotten mixed together
inside the motor. After a call to the dealer (the motor was relatively
new) and some head-scratching, what we figured out was that when the
motor was tilted up - and if it happened to be "flopped" to the side on
the side most resembling the "wrong" side, then when the dinghy rocked
on the occasional wake in the marina it caused things to happen inside
the motor just as if it were laid down on the wrong side. Luckily we
had caught it before trying to start the motor. I could easily see
this happening on a boat as small as an M-15, as it moved around in a
seaway or even in a slip.

At that time we took care of the problem by only flopping the motor
over to the "better" side when it was tilted up, and then securing it
with a bungee cord so it wouldn't flop the other way. At that time
(2001) I didn't see any mention of this possible problem in the owner's
manual.

[Jake Windemere]

When you lay the engine down on the wrong side the cylinder will fill with crankcase oil.

My buddy set my engine on the wrong side. After mounting the engine on my boat I went to pull the rope. I was reminded of how you cannot compress a liquid when the rope recoiled out of my hand leaving my hand in a lot of pain.

It smoked for a few seconds but ran just fine once the smoke cleared.