Honda carb gummed up

[fflynn]

I have a 9.9 Honda, bought new, in 2007. The engine has never run correctly. The problem is gummy residue in the carb. It jams the accell pump and the fuel passages. My dealer tells me this is due to the ethanol in today's fuel. It galls me that Honda has not engineered around this problem. This engine is used, infrequently, on a sailboat. I can't believe that I'm the only one with this problem. Never had this problem with my 35 yr old Johnson. "Search" was no help.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[hondon]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

Ethanol is a problem with infrequently used engines but we are forced to use what we can get at the pump which is currently E10 fuel which means that fuel is 10% ethanol.Currently there is a movement to move us towards E15 fuels that will only worsen the delicicy we now face.Ethanol bonds itself nicely to gasoline but also bonds itself even more readily to water molecules,which leads to the phase separation and makes that fuel unstable.Stabilzers help but are easy to get carried away with.Too much is not always a good thing.Ethanol is organic based corn liquor, for the most part ,in this nation and has come into interest icreasingly since 911 as we are trying to wean ourselves os foreighn oil.Run your engine out of fuel each time you finish useing it.A smaller portable tank will help as you can close the vent and eliminate water intrusion.

 

[pvanv]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

Everything Hondon said, plus...

Sometimes you can find non-ethanol fuel. In Buffalo, we have a marina and a land-based gas station (total of two locations I know of out of dozens) that have non-ethanol gas available.

Your old OMC OB did not have those problems because it was not running under the same conditions. All infrequently-used motors (of all brands) suffer from this malady.

 

[fflynn]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

Everything Hondon said, plus...

Sometimes you can find non-ethanol fuel. In Buffalo, we have a marina and a land-based gas station (total of two locations I know of out of dozens) that have non-ethanol gas available.

Your old OMC OB did not have those problems because it was not running under the same conditions. All infrequently-used motors (of all brands) suffer from this malady.

Thank you both. Actually, my Johnson was operating under the same conditions. I always run them dry and then tip up out of the water. I'm going to ask Honda about using Aviation fuel (100LL). I don't think the ethanol lunacy has reached aviation fuel yet. I use so little that cost is not a factor.

 

[pvanv]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

Thank you both. Actually, my Johnson was operating under the same conditions. I always run them dry and then tip up out of the water. I'm going to ask Honda about using Aviation fuel (100LL). I don't think the ethanol lunacy has reached aviation fuel yet. I use so little that cost is not a factor.

Depending on where you are located, you may not have been running E-10 gas 4 or 5 years ago, when you first got your new motor. If so, the conditions have indeed changed. The fuel has changed. I know that at our dealership, the first season that E-10 was rammed down our throats, we had a ton of carb problems -- on all brands -- not only on Hondas. We have also found that overdosing with stabilizer seems to make more ethanol gel in the carbs. In other words, more is not better.

10 years ago, we used to store motors "wet" without draining carbs. Now, we blow out the entire fuel system when preparing for winter storage. And the carb problems have gone way down -- almost disappeared.

 

[eipeldau]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

I suggest adding StarTron to the gas, a water-separator filter to the system and completely emptying the carb when you're done sailing.

You can drain the carb by disconnecting the fuel hose and letting the motor consume all the gas in the system. You should remove the last drops in the bowl by opening its drain screw. After that, you should still twist the throttle a couple of times to make sure the accelerator pump circuit is empty(it's the most delicate circuit in my opinion).

I know it's a pain doing it all, but my carb(Honda BF20D) has been 99% flawless by doing it.

Here in Brazil it's been more than 30 years that all gas has between 20%-25% ethanol in it, so 4-stroke owners don't have too much of a choice but treating their engines like babies...

Good luck,

Henrique

 

[fflynn]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

Depending on where you are located, you may not have been running E-10 gas 4 or 5 years ago, when you first got your new motor. If so, the conditions have indeed changed. The fuel has changed. I know that at our dealership, the first season that E-10 was rammed down our throats, we had a ton of carb problems -- on all brands -- not only on Hondas. We have also found that overdosing with stabilizer seems to make more ethanol gel in the carbs. In other words, more is not better.

10 years ago, we used to store motors "wet" without draining carbs. Now, we blow out the entire fuel system when preparing for winter storage. And the carb problems have gone way down -- almost disappeared.

Could be on the E-10. I do think though that the Honda carb system is more sensative to the E-10. I'm having trouble with a 2 week down time.

 

[fflynn]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

I suggest adding StarTron to the gas, a water-separator filter to the system and completely emptying the carb when you're done sailing.

You can drain the carb by disconnecting the fuel hose and letting the motor consume all the gas in the system. You should remove the last drops in the bowl by opening its drain screw. After that, you should still twist the throttle a couple of times to make sure the accelerator pump circuit is empty(it's the most delicate circuit in my opinion).

I know it's a pain doing it all, but my carb(Honda BF20D) has been 99% flawless by doing it.

Here in Brazil it's been more than 30 years that all gas has between 20%-25% ethanol in it, so 4-stroke owners don't have too much of a choice but treating their engines like babies...

Good luck,

Henrique

I like the idea of the water separator, AND the idea of cycling the accel pump after draining everything else.
I talked to the Honda rep and he said that any octane, at or above 87, was OK. I'm going to try 100LL av fuel. It has no ethanol.

 

[fflynn]

Re: Honda carb gummed up

UPDATE: Thank you all for the additional input. Late reply due to chemotherapy hassle. Disassembled and cleaned out carb. Put Turbo Blue racing fuel (no ethanol) in tank and engine ran fine. Ran engine dry, did NOT drain carb, tilted up. Started again, two weeks later and no problems. Have to conclude that the problem is the ethanol. Thanks for nothing,
"tree huggers" and Congress. Luckily, I only use about 10 gals/year.