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Carb Cleaning with "white gas"?

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Dave-K

New member
I was talking with an old Northwoods outboard repair guy and small marine store owner last Sept. 2020, about cleaning my carbs with Gumout before my trip. He said "you don't need any of that expensive stuff, just run some white gas through the carbs and it'll clean them right up". I was clueless. Any idea what he meant??
 
There are 2 types of White gas one was for marine use and the other is for Coleman lanterns. In my lifetime I have never seen "Marine White" gas.
If this is a 2 stroke engine is "Gumout" safe to use, remember, the fuel/oil mixture lubricates the bearings and pistons , I prefer to use Power Tune by Mercury because it's designed for safe cleaning of 2 strokes.
How badly are your carbs clogged? there's no need to dump more chemicals into your fuel system if all your motor needs is better oil - new plugs or the correct low speed needle setting and if they are badly plugged up they should be removed and cleaned by dipping. I'll bet that Northwoods guy says that automobile oil will work instead of marine.
fuel-requirements.jpg
 
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When I was a kid we had an old gravity feed tower at the Gulf station. There was a hand pump on top of the storage tank to pump out of the storage tank watching the clear glass container at the top of the thing...cylindrical, probably 10' tall overall with the top 2' a clear glass container with gallon scribe marks.

The attendant cranked the amount you wanted to buy by using the measurements on the glass for a metric. When ready to deliver, he put the nozzle in your receiving equipment, gas can, lawn mower, Coleman lantern or what have you and he pulled the trigger dumping the contents by gravity feed. We were told it was low octane fuel but don't remember the particular application unless I already named it. Out front you had Regular Leaded gas at the M rating and Ethyl for the higher octane premium gas, both with lead...Ethyl chemical was an octane booster. Lead was a method of getting the desired performance out of the gas at cheap price but it was an engine killer. You can thank uncle sugar for cleaning that mess up and sorely needed.

Today just fill her up with Ethanol. It will keep your engine squeaky clean if you keep it fresh. My last engine was a 2002 90 Merc 2 stroke. Bought it in 2004 and ran it for 10 years before I started having engine fuel line degradation and that led me to go into the carbs to get the little black specks out. After 10 years usage with E10 and SeaFoam, my bowls and carb interiors looked like brand new.
 
Good info. What year motor are we talking about, Dave? My Dad bought "white gas" for me for all my parts cleaning. I constantly had my hands "bathed" in leaded fuel before that. It hasn't a effected me a bbbbbbbbbbbittttt!!!
 
About my carb cleaning: Last Sept. the '97 Mercury 40 Horse wouldn't start after sitting for two years in the garage. Cranked fine but wouldn't kick. I pulled the two carbs and disassembled. Gave them a thorough cleaning with Gumout and cleared that with compressed air, reassembled with new gasket kits. This worked out fine. I shouldn't have let fuel sit for so long in the carbs, my bad. Last fall I drained the float bowls for winter storage. The old fellow up north has quite a few old outboards all in a row, clamped onto a long wooden frame. I'd call it his "collection". Anyhow, I figured he probably knew what he was talking about. I didn't. :)
 
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