Is This OK?

[TD_Maker]

I have a 1989 88 spl. The motor is very strong and runs very well; however, I primarily run in salt water. When I get back home with my boat on the trailer, I will put on the muffs,disconnect my fuel lines, and run the engine until it is out of gas to empty my carbs and clean out the motor. I also spray down the motor with WD-40.<br /><br />I have always done this with my salt water motors. Now a friend tells me this is not a good thing to do because it starves the motor of lubrication, and WD-40 could actually start a fire under the cowl due to a spark. I told him since I mix my gas and oil, it makes no difference, and WD-40 is not that flamable.<br /><br />Who is correct?

 

[noelm]

Re: Is This OK?

HI<br /> I have seen WD40 burn many times before though I doubt it is really a very big risk to spray it on your motor, people have been doing it for years, including me, as I live in a salt water environment, as far as running out of fuel goes there seems to be mixed ideas about this, with my small 20Hp I run it out of fuel if I am going to store it for a while but during summer when it gets used regularly I do not but still flush it on the muffs, my larger engines, 115 Fichts I never run it dry and my older motors before them I never did and they were carbed 120HP

 

[djzyla1980]

Re: Is This OK?

One of the guys on here.... sprays there motor down with WD40. I remember reading the topic on it. Don't think you need to run til gas is gone... I just unhook the gas lines and let her sit til the next time,as long as she's not gunna sit some time. If anything you might be doing more harm running it dry because it will give the gaskets time to dry out and become brittle. <br /><br />One thing about the WD40... You don't take a match and drop it on the block. The block warms slowly.. burning any oil off slowly. <br /><br />Just my opinion.

 

[imported_Curmudgeon]

Re: Is This OK?

I told him since I mix my gas and oil, it makes no difference..<br /><br />Might want to rethink this. Oil injection will supply oil as long as the crank is turning; premix will only supply oil as long as there's fuel. Does your engine just stop, or does it drop a cylinder or two before all fuel is exhausted and the engine dies? I figure my carbed motors turned enough without complete lubrication when I started 'em, not gonna repeat the feat when shutting down.

 

[willamettejeff]

Re: Is This OK?

The problem with pulling the fuel supply line and letting the engine run out of fuel is that in a multi-carb setup it is very unlikely that all of the carbs will run out of fuel at exactly the same time. In fact, the top carburator will most likely run out first as the remaining fuel in the interconnecting fuel line between the carbs will flow by gravity to the lower carbs as the fuel pump stops pumping fuel. Unlikely too that all carbs are drawing the same amount of fuel over time or that their floats are all set exactly the same. Just my .02.

 

[umblecumbuz]

Re: Is This OK?

I suppose the basic question is: Why do you want to run out of fuel every time?<br /><br />You are not running the carbs completely dry, hence the question. Even if you were, what for? Unless you purge all the lines and the tank, they're only going to get filled with the same fuel next time you start up.<br /><br />And when you run the motor out of fuel while it's still delivering a spark, the last few revs are without lubrication. So are the first few revs at the next startup. When you shut the motor off by killing the spark, the last few revs pull in unburnt fuel-oil mix, lubricating on shutdown and on the next startup.<br /><br />Just my VHO

 

[willamettejeff]

Re: Is This OK?

What SF says. If your doing this because your worried about fuel going bad in the carbs, then the better approach would be to put something like Stabil in your fuel tank and run your motor long enough to insure that it has reached the carburators. Really don't need to do this at all unless it is going to be a month or so before you use the boat again. Two or three weeks even should not be a problem.