Lionheart has a 5hp Nissan driving a 12' Fold-A-Bote. You're right about
the tiny carbs. Too tiny. The throat of it is about the size of a pencil.
All the components are very tiny, indeed, including jets. Diesel-fuel-in-
a-can like Stabil is nonsense. Save money and just put diesel fuel into
the float...same stuff. Gas doesn't "go bad" unless you let the tank
breathe in and out so the lighter elements can escape, leaving behind the
heavies. There's a 1987 Honda 5KW genset in my shed that has gas in it
from Hurricane Hugo in 1989 in a STEEL tank. The tank is kept full with
new gas, probably a pint. It will crank on the 2nd pull on 1989 gas.

If you're going to run the engine a lot and leave it in place, 4-stroke is
fine. Running it will keep the tiny float carb clean. But, if you're
going to transport it a lot or use it infrequently, I think a SIMPLE 2-
stroke that doesn't have some damned computer that requires a systems
analyst with special equipment to repair is much better. Premix gas has
OIL in it. OIL doesn't evaporate when the gas does, keeping the carb all
greasy and protected. The 10:1 in that Seagull protects everything from
the tank to the exhaust, covered in a film of motor oil. Doesn't take a
rocket scientist to see why.



sherwindu wrote in
:

Hi Larry,
You are possibly right about the floats, although in preliminary
discussions with
outboard mechanics, they point the finger at the extremely fine jets
in the 4-stroke engines. One mechanic said gasoline dries to a
powdery residue, which then can become imbedded in these jets. This
problem seems peculiar to 4-stroke engines. My former 2-strokes never
needed a carburator cleaning or rebuild. Why is this sensitivity of
4-strokes one of the world's greatest secrets? I would have taken
extra pains to run something like 'Stabil' through the carbs before
storing the engine. I might have not bought a 4-stroke if I thought
they would be so problematic. I checked the engine today and gas is
definitely coming out of the hose that supplies the carborator. I
will probably have to get my boat towed to the nearest mechanic. I
hope they don't have to remove the engine from the boat to do this
job.

Sherwin D.




--
Larry