Anyone running their carbs dry to winterize?

[jgibbs2037]

Hello... First time poster here. I found this site very useful last year to do the maintenenace and winterization of my new (to me) 2000 Four Wins 190 Horizon, with Volvo 5.0GL PEFS (carb'd engine) and SX drive.
I was curious about one thing though. When I put an outboard away, I unhook the fuel line and run the carbs dry. Why not disconnect my fuel pump or pull its fuse when I winterize my I/O, to also run the carb dry?
Any thoughts/opinions on finding ways to to that? Most folks seem to not even fog, just leave the fuel system full and store it like that.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Scott Danforth]

welcome aboard.

to fog or not to fog
to run carb dry or not to run carb dry
to use ethanol or not
which oil to use.

these are all topics that have been hashed and re-hashed to the point where we call them popcorn threads. opcorn:

however to answer your question. it is up to you. I generally only had the boat in storage for 5 months max (December 1st thru April 1st) when I lived in WI. I used sta-bil once, ran the carb dry once or twice. however generally just filled the tank with non-ethanol, changed fluids drained the cooling system, blew out a few water hoses and called it a day. a few times I even ran in anti-freeze after draining

If your outboard is a 4-stroke, I have no problem with running dry. However 2 strokes are another issue. both injected and pre-mix have their own issues when running dry. If you run it dry, make sure its not under load. Outboards with fuel quick connects make life easy to run the motor dry.

however I/O's and inboards are a different story. long story short, if you want to run it dry, go ahead. if you dont want to run it dry, then dont. it is your preference.

If I were to store a boat for a long term event (longer than a year), I would fog, completely drain the fuel system and treat it for corrosion, drain the cooling system and treat that as well. I would then block up the trailer taking all the weight off the wheels. I would also pull the outdrive, batteries, and anything else that could go awry. with long term storage, rust happens just from the humidity in the air.