Hi, The shop I worked for is a Nissan outboard dealer, primarily selling the smaller size Nissan's engines. The little 9.8 is a very popular engine. Unfortunately, Nissan doesn't have any recomendations. Very few, if any, do. Why? That would severly cut into their after warrenty parts sales. They are pumping out carburetors as fast as they can to satisfy the demand. You can imagine that the dealers aren't wanting to suggest anything. At $300 or more for replacements plus labor helps a lot towards monthly sales for their sevice departments. The carb problems seem to be more related to the smaller engines used for dinghys. I feel that the manufacturers of these small engines are cutting costs to satisfy their bottom line by using inferior, metal alloys in their castings. This applies to all the engine castings, to keep their suggested retail prices cheaper for the consumer. Nobody wants to spend the money that a new dinghy engine costs, much less, the extra that it would cost if they were manufactured from quality materials.
So, with all that said, we are all left with the question of "What do we do to help solve this issue and prolong the life of our very expensive engines?" From back in my stock car racing days, I became very impressed with pretty much all of the "Lucas" products and "Lucas" does manufacturer marine additives of which I still use today. Although I have been searching, I still haven't found the, so called, Holy Grail of additives. For now, I still stick with "Lucas." One thing that seems to coincide with the carburetor problems is fuel quality. It seems that even extemely, small amounts of moisture in the fuel system greatly compound the deteriation problem. Moisture can found even in brand new fresh gasoline straight from the pump, especially, regular unleaded. If the engine is not run very often, as the gasoline is aging, it will absorb some condensation, compounding the problem. Even though the manufacturers highly recommend running their engines completely out of fuel after each use, either by turning off the fuel valve or diconnecting the fuel hose, that still doesn't erradicate all of the moisture out of the fuel system. But, it is much better than not doing anything. I drove eighteen wheelers for a while. Up north in the really cold climates, drivers would add a product called "Heet" to their diesel fuel to disperse the moisture in to microscopic droplets, thus, keeping their fuel lines from freezing up. "Heet" also makes a gasoline equivalent that helps with the moisture problem. I'm not sure if "Heet" has a marine approved additive but I would want to think that they would. It's worth investigating. What I tell my customers is to keep those fuel filters changed and add a small bottle of a moisture controlling additive, such as "Lucas" fuel treatment, to every tank of gas they buy. Don't skrimp just to save a few pennys. Buy quality stuff. So far, that has seemed to help prolong the enevitable. Hope this helps, Jack On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Perry & Cindi <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jack, > > My boat is diesel but I have a 9.8 gas outboard. When you worked for the > outboard shop, what did they recommend to use for small outboard engines to > protect the carburetor etc? > > Thanks, > > Capt. Perry > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Jack Smith > *Sent:* Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:38 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [UnifliteWorld] Re: gas > > > > Hi there, > > > > I can't really say anything about the possible harm that ethenol may cause > to your 350's, but I do know that it is eating up the carburetors on > outboard motors. I worked for a time for a shop servicing outboards, > primarily Nissans, and saw a lot of that. I think it depends a lot on the > material the carbs are made of. To go a ways to the other side of the > spectrum, this refers to race engines. The only way to make a fuel system > bullet-proof, that runs alchohol, would be to use stainless steel fuel > lines in place of the normal fuel lines. Even with that, the carburetor is > still in trouble. People racing with alchohol fuel would usually flush their > systems to help stop the chemical reactions that alchohol starts with most > carburetor metals. There are additives available that can be added to gas > that help protect fuel systems and some work really well. The problem is > that they aren't necessarily marine approved and their combustion > by-products are harmful to marine life. Using these additives can result in > a big hand-slap from the coast guard if caught. Whatever you decide to use, > make sure that it is marine approved. I, personally, like Lucas products. > > > > Hope this might help, > > Jack > > On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 9:24 AM, james clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > hi. I have a 1978 34' uniflite with 350 motors. I have heard that the gas > with ethylene or what ever it is will harm wy motors. I am 68 and this new > stuff in the gas is nuts. Please let me know what i can do. thank you > > > <br > > > > -- Jack Smith [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/UnifliteWorld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
