The Atomic 4 I had was very similar to my 1947 John Deere M tractor engine,
read SIMPLE & DURABLE. There is nothing to lose by starting it up, put a
little oil down each spark plug hole, drain out that OLD gas and go. The
carb may leak or overflow, a dangerous thing in a boat. Get a carb rebuild
kit from Moyer Marine and spread some newspapers on your kitchen table. It
takes about an Hour and the instructions are detailed. The main cause of
end of life on these motors is the coking up of the coolant passages from
salt water.
Lee Haefele
"Larry" wrote in message
...
"steve_hayes_maine" wrote in
ups.com:

I am negotiating the purchase of a sailboat (Pearson 323) with an
Atomic 4. It has been unused for four years, with an unknown amount of
gasoline left in the tank. It has been suggested to me that I should
have the tank pumped and the gasoline disposed of prior to running the
engine. Will some of the oil you suggest prevent the shellac from
creating a new problem without pumping the gas?

Yecch....What it needs is to take out the engine and transmission and
send it off to a shop for disassembly, inspection and repair/overhaul, if
necessary. 4 years unused is a long time for everything inside to rust
up, freeze up, seize up, gum up, plug up and every other kind of up you
can think of. I wouldn't even turn it over without a real mechanic doing
it. 4 years....everything in the carbs is already turned to shellac, the
jets are plugged up and even if it does start it's going to run LEAN, too
lean for good measure. The carbs should be overhauled and cleaned while
they're staring up into the crankcase, making groaning noises and shaking
their heads in dismay.

The gas in any tank, filters, hoses, valves after 4 years of "letting it
go" in a half full tank has gotta GO! Nothing is going to save it.
After you get the fuel out, someone needs to look around inside the tank
for rust, corrosion, weak welds, gook on the bottom and, please, CHANGE
EVERYTHING MADE OF RUBBER...hoses, belts, IMPELLERS, seals, even the
vents. If the gas still resembles gas, save it and burn it in your car
mixed with new gas 20:1 or so. Took me nearly 3 months to empty my
neighbor's 250 gallon oil drum filled with home heating oil poured into
my diesel Mercedes. It'll burn so you won't notice any difference. Just
add it sparingly to the car or truck gas tank.


More importantly, this 30-year old engine was not made for gasohol.
Should we be mixing some of the oil with every tankful, in addition to
filling up at the dock upon each return? I don't expect to go through
more than 20 gallons in a summer; will the oil stablize the gas?


I think that's a mistake, too. Engines need to be RUN, especially around
corrosives like salt water. This poor guy needs to be run and have an
oil change every 10 hours for a couple of hundred hours as he flushes out
the crap into the oil pan.

I'm sure the mechanic is going to suggest a good top oiling for any
primary starting of it, at least I hope so. The "engine tune"
decarbonizer/cleaner they spray into the gullets of 2-stroke outboards
will help make sure it has some lube in the cylinders, especially those
first few minutes. Dump some in the tank, too. The instructions are on
the side of the jug. We're trying to prevent scraping rusty cylinder
walls with bare metal rings that have no lube film on them....one big
GRINDER....yecch.

If you already are running it, don't tell us and make us sick. That may
do permanent damage to the poor ol' girl. Just cranking it over
shouldn't be done before a mechanic has had the heads off to see how much
damage has been done to her from just sitting there....rusting away.

Of course, now would be a fantastic time to start looking for a low hours
YANMAR diesel that's a great improvement, even used....No gas fumes
blowing up the family and all that....