Master of Disaster
06-19-2012, 12:37 PM
I updated an old thread earlier this morning, but thought I would start a new one because I don't think anyone wants to read through my long story.
So here is my long story short:
60HP Mercury 2 stroke outboard. A year ago I had a bad fuel pump that was literally falling apart and floating trash (looked like black pepper flakes) up into the fuel filter and carbs and causing fuel starvation problems. Before I knew that it was the fuel pump I replaced the tank, pickup tube, all fuel lines, water seperator, inline filters, etc. So that's all new. After I rebuilt the fuel pump all my problems were solved for over a year and at least 50 hours on the motor.
Yesterday I went over a wake of another boat and the motor bogged down and died. I started it back up and it ran ok, but I was back to the dock within a few minutes.
I talked to a mechanic today and he told me I probably still have some of that fuel pump trash/pepper sitting in my carb bowls and the wake from the other boat sloshed some up into a jet. He tells me to rebuild the carbs.
I'm thinking about opening the carb bowl drain plugs and pumping a pint or more of fresh fuel through to 'rinse it out'. Will that work or do I really need to rebuild the carbs? I don't think it's gummed up from ethanol or anything. I think that because it happened when I sloshed over the wake, the mechanic's theory is probably right. I also don't think it's water in the fuel, because I dumped the seperator into a glass and it had no water in it. I pulled the inline filter past the fuel pump and it didn't look even a little bit blocked.
Since I rebuilt the fuel pump last summer the motor has run like a dream. No hestiation even once. Is it reasonable to think the the trash has been sitting at the bottom of my carb bowls for over a year and 50 hours of great performance?
So here is my long story short:
60HP Mercury 2 stroke outboard. A year ago I had a bad fuel pump that was literally falling apart and floating trash (looked like black pepper flakes) up into the fuel filter and carbs and causing fuel starvation problems. Before I knew that it was the fuel pump I replaced the tank, pickup tube, all fuel lines, water seperator, inline filters, etc. So that's all new. After I rebuilt the fuel pump all my problems were solved for over a year and at least 50 hours on the motor.
Yesterday I went over a wake of another boat and the motor bogged down and died. I started it back up and it ran ok, but I was back to the dock within a few minutes.
I talked to a mechanic today and he told me I probably still have some of that fuel pump trash/pepper sitting in my carb bowls and the wake from the other boat sloshed some up into a jet. He tells me to rebuild the carbs.
I'm thinking about opening the carb bowl drain plugs and pumping a pint or more of fresh fuel through to 'rinse it out'. Will that work or do I really need to rebuild the carbs? I don't think it's gummed up from ethanol or anything. I think that because it happened when I sloshed over the wake, the mechanic's theory is probably right. I also don't think it's water in the fuel, because I dumped the seperator into a glass and it had no water in it. I pulled the inline filter past the fuel pump and it didn't look even a little bit blocked.
Since I rebuilt the fuel pump last summer the motor has run like a dream. No hestiation even once. Is it reasonable to think the the trash has been sitting at the bottom of my carb bowls for over a year and 50 hours of great performance?