Honda 225 VST removal

"My motor is starving for fuel

"My motor is starving for fuel, anyone know where the vst (vapor separator tank) is located and how to remove it?

Thanks in advance"

"Why do you want to do that? I

"Why do you want to do that? It seldom needs to be removed. Just drain it. On the back starboard side of your motor, you will see a plastic tube looped around a holder. Unhook it, and look down at the base where it connects. Beside the connection is a set screw. Use a long flat blade screwdriver to open the set screw - slowly. With the end of the hose extended downward into a clear container that will hold at least a quart of liquid, start opening the set screw. Do not open too far - if it comes out, you will need to remove the lower cowling to retrieve it. Anywhere from two to three pints of gas, and maybe some water and gunk will come out of that tube. If there is water, or a lot of gunk, then your fuel-water seperator and low pressure fuel filter have failed and need to be replaced. At that point, you should also change out the high pressure filter which sits just above that set screw. To replace the high pressure filter, and or the VST, you need to remove the under cowling. The Honda shop manual takes you through the process. I think it is Chapter 3 - maintenance. But again, what makes you think you need to remove the VST?"

The vapor separator is in the

The vapor separator is in the rear of the motor under the cowling. You will probably have to at least partially remove both side cowlings. There are several water hoses and vacuum hoses and vacuum tank in this area. Take lots of pictures as you are taking things apart.

It would be very helpful to have a manual.... I am not sure if you will have to remove the intake manifold to get total access to the vapor separator. I hope not..

Get that manual.

"Toby & Mike - I actually

"Toby & Mike - I actually just drained my VST today during 100 hour maintenace interval. You can remove it without removing the intake manifold. But do need to remove the under cowling and disconnect both water and fuel hoses. But again, I'm not sure why Toby wants to remove it. Normally, it just needs to be drained, and if gunk or water is found, replace the fuel-water seperator filter, the low pressure filter, and the high pressure filter. Of course, the additional step is to drain the gas tank and get rid of the original source of the water and gunk. Toby - by the way, I avoid a lot of those problems with a Racor fuel water seperator installed inline between the gas tank and the pressure pump up bulb. Change it out every year."

"W D, You are right on...I act

"W D, You are right on...I actually started my last post before you but had to stop in the middle due to other things going on in the house...so it posted after you...

Anyway,

I agree with everything you said especially the Racor filter. As you probably know, some of the earlier 225 high pressure fuel filters had a finer mesh than the current and tended to accumulate a lot of stuff (scientic term) and it caused runability problems around 100 hours when running at high speed.

Stopping all the major particulates before they get to the motor is the way to go.

All fuel injected motors we install do not leave without a racor filter. Although, the boats we service in the midwest do not have the hours the boats do along the coasts, we have not run into any fuel injected motor with a racor filter that had a water or debris in fuel issue."

"Mike - roger that. Lessons le

"Mike - roger that. Lessons learned from too many years dealing with old boats, bad gas, and old gas tanks.

This Honda 225 I have is the first four stroke I ever owned, so it has been a learning experience. Before having it installed (replacing an old Johnson 200 SeaPro), I completely drained the gas tank - must have had 5 gallons of water and a pound of crude in there. Then installed a new Racor filter-seperator. Have had no fuel problems since. During this last 100 hour maintenance (total of 380 hours) the Racor had captured about a 1/4 thimble full of crude, and a few drops of water. The onboard engine fuel-water seperator, LP fuel filter, and VST were totally clean. I've been running 80 to 90 gallons of fuel through that engine every week since mid June."

WD I have been working with To

WD I have been working with Toby on this 225 Honda so Wednesday night we took it out on the water after talking off the VST completely off the motor and talking it apart we found about a tomb size gob of water in the float bowl we clan the entire VST system including the high pressure pump and new filters including the in line Racor filter. When we ran it at home in a 55 gallon drum the motor sound like her old self again but was a deferent story when we pushed off from the dock we went about 200 yards at about 1300 RPMS and it shuts down on us no warning lights no buzzer just stalls and dies a check of the bulb and it was soft and I was able to pump it about five times before it got hard again wait a minutes and it started right backup again and kept doing the same thing. Any clue?

"Two possibilities come to min

"Two possibilities come to mind immediately - One, you have an air leak in the fuel line somewhere between the pump up bulb and the HP filter. Check all connections and especially the O ring seals around the fuel-water seperator and low pressure filter, and especially the fuel line between the low pressure filter and the VST. Make sure the drain screw for the VST (the little set screw where the drain tube goes into the VST) is set tightly. Consider using some clear plastic tubing to test between the low pressure filter and the VST and see if you observe any air bubbles.

Second possibility is a bad fuel pump - but that sounds unlikely since your barrel test went so well.

BTW - I assume you immediately checked the fuel-water seperator filter again to make sure you didn't pull any water out of your tank into the system."

"This is where we are, we ran

"This is where we are, we ran a hose with the bulb from a 6 gallon gas tank with new gas straight to the incoming line to the low pressure pump and it still stalled In the 55 gallon tank, all new o rings, screw for the VST (the little set screw where the drain tube goes into the VST) is set tightly. Yes Second possibility is a bad fuel pump - but that sounds unlikely since your barrel test went so well. Brad new VST high pressure pump in there tested the low pressure pump fuel was pumping everywhere when I turned the motor over.
BTW - I assume you immediately checked the fuel-water separator filter again to make sure you didn't pull any water out of your tank into the system. Yes we did no water in there. We will try the clear hose next, thanks."

"WD, FYI, the reason we took o

"WD, FYI, the reason we took off the VST is because the drain screw was JAMMED, we had to grind a new groove into the screw, and impact driver it out. but me and Dwayne were able to jar it loose though."

"Hummmm. Strange about the dra

"Hummmm. Strange about the drain screw. Just for grins, try plugging the VST drain tube and putting a dab of silicon on the top of the drain screw just to make sure you're not sucking air through either into the VST - long shot, but worth a try.

If no visible air bubbles coming into the VST from the LP filter, then I'm stumped. Only other thing I would consider is the intake air bypass (IAB) control solenoid. But that seems like a long shot also. It's easy to test - just unplug it and test the resistance across the prongs. Should be about 40 ohms +/- 3 ohms. Also, check all the vacuum hoses - there's a bunch.

Mike - any ideas??????"

"It would be nice to know what

"It would be nice to know what the high pressure fuel pressure is during all this. That would be the first thing I would check. You measure it at the screw in the middle of the high pressure filter cover.

Are there any fuel leaks at the high pressure fuel filter cover? Many times the o ring will be cut when you install the filter cover. You can see it if you turn the key on and off several times to build up fuel pressure without running the motor.

Double check all the hoses (vacuum, fuel, water) that you took off when you took off the vst. May sure you put the correct hoses on the ins and outs, etc.,

I doubt if it is the Intake Air Bypass since it does not normally open until almost 4000rpm. It doesn't sound like they got that far.

It sounds like the high pressure pump was replaced...were all new o rings used like the book recommends?

Did you put the small filter seal back on the high pressure fuel filter?

When it stops, does it stop like you are turning off the key or little by little (loosing fuel pressure)

When in the water, will it run for any length of time without putting it in gear? If you rev it up out of gear, what happens?

Will it run at all just at an idle in gear?"

"Mike, I put a new O ring on t

"Mike, I put a new O ring on the HPF filter cover as it was damaged when first removed. no leaks.

small filter seal is back in place and all hoses are on tight and in the correct location.

motor starts right up and purs on all six cylinders. It seems to die in about a minute or two regardless of wether it's in gear or at WOT.

we put it all back together and the same exact thing is happening

Dies gradually. doesn't just shut off.
Anyway, I just dropped off my boat at Specialty Marine. The owner, Eric prides himself on knowing alot about hondas. So we'll see. I'll be sure and let you guys know what it turns out to be"

Hope it turns out to be someth

Hope it turns out to be something simple and inexpensive.

Ditto - this has been an inter

Ditto - this has been an interesting trek and I would like to understand the resolution.

"Toby,

Whatever was the out

"Toby,

Whatever was the outcome of your Honda 225 problem?"

"the little seal that the floa

"the little seal that the float valve pushes back and forth was coroded and did not make a propper seal. like a runny toilet. replaced that tiny little part and whoalla, she purrs again!"

Toby - Can you provide a bit m

Toby - Can you provide a bit more detail? I'm still learning about this engine. Float valve where?

I assume you mean the float va

I assume you mean the float valve in the VST.

Thanks for the feedback.