Carb advice, please.

[tonyjh63]

A little background...I've had my boat (1999 Bryant 182 Ltd, with a 4.3 Merc, A1G2) a few years now, and it's always run pretty "iffy". This year I had a guy put a new (remanufactured) carb on it, and it has run great ever since! Starts right up, no problems. What I want to know is, what can I do maintenance-wise to keep this new carb running so well?
I've always wished I had fuel injection, but if a carb-ed engine can be this reliable, I have no problem with carbs.
Thanks for any advice!

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Ethanol gas is what does it. It's when it's allowed to sit, and separate, and cause corrosion. Run non ethanol gas, and you won't have problems with the fuel system. The gas tank in your boat is vented, the gas tank in a car is sealed, and that makes a difference why cars don't have problems. Just a breeze blowing over ethanol gas cause some phase separation. Check out YouTube there's a lot of people doing tests, and also how to remove it from your gas, which is what I've been doing for my small engines.

 

[Scott Danforth]

actually, simply sitting for 14 days is all it takes to have phase separation

Cars get driven

my advice, use the boat often, run it out of fuel at the end of the season

 

[Bondo]

A little background...I've had my boat (1999 Bryant 182 Ltd, with a 4.3 Merc, A1G2) a few years now, and it's always run pretty "iffy". This year I had a guy put a new (remanufactured) carb on it, and it has run great ever since! Starts right up, no problems. What I want to know is, what can I do maintenance-wise to keep this new carb running so well?
I've always wished I had fuel injection, but if a carb-ed engine can be this reliable, I have no problem with carbs.
Thanks for any advice!

Ayuh,...... Change the fuel filter atleast twice a year, 'n always examine the contents of the old one for anything but clean fresh gasoline,.....

 

[tonyjh63]

So occasionally hitting the carb with carb cleaner isn't recommended? I figured that might keep the gunk down...

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

So occasionally hitting the carb with carb cleaner isn't recommended? I figured that might keep the gunk down...

That's not getting into the fuel bowl and jets in the carb where the sediment will be, you will be wasting your time.

Watch these couple of videos:

 

[Scott Danforth]

So occasionally hitting the carb with carb cleaner isn't recommended? I figured that might keep the gunk down...

it may wash crud off the outside, however it does nothing to clean the passages. occasionally, you mush pull the carb apart, and soak it in carb cleaner and manually chase the drilled passages with a fine wire or piece of fishing line to get all the crud out.

just like occasionally you must pull the injectors and send them in for cleaning and flow testing.

fuel system maintenance is still required, regardless of EFI or carb. the only way to maintain a clean fuel system is to use it often and put fresh fuel in often. fuel systems do not like to sit