Back in May of this year I did a Carb overhaul and got my Yamaha 50TLRB running again. I've had it out a number of times (not as much as I'd like or should have) and it ran great. Last time was about a month ago and I had no issues. I had new spark plugs, new fuel filters, new water separator, new fuel lines, new vac hoses.
I got some free time yesterday and got out to the lake and immediately had the same issues as I had had in May. Idle great and bog down and die on acceleration. I limped in and ran some straight Sea Foam into the engine, let it sit for 30 min and ran it out again with gas. I went back to the lake today. Started perfect, idled perfect, accelerated perfect, ran at 5500 RPM perfect, .... for about 2 min. Fortunately went out into the wind. The motor died. I got it started and began limping in again. Barely made it to the ramp and it would not start to load the boat on the trailer (I had to load it old school).
I came home and blew out all the fuel lines, siphoned 20 gallons of gas out of the built in 27 gal tank. I shoved an old cast net weight inside my siphon hose to get it all the way to the bottom corner and jacked up one side of the trailer to get the gas into that corner. Then I cut a small hole in the hose and blew air through it to suck all but some drops of gas out. When I look in the tank I can see all sorts of crap (specks, and just general gunk).
I put new filters again and blew out the fuel lines. I'm going to get a small portable gas tank so I can make sure I'm getting absolutely clean gasoline into the engine the next time I run it. I'm going to do the Sea Foam thing again as soon as I can get new gas.
When I drained the gas in the tank it was slightly off color, but the gas in the water separator was brown.
Now, to the question. I no doubt have to clean out the gas tank. I can remove mine with some degree of trouble and I'd rather not. What is the generally prescribed method for cleaning built in tanks? I thought about using soap and water and then jetting it dry after rinsing it real good. I also thought about putting in another 5 gal of gas and then draining it while sloshing it around to keep the crapola in suspension. Last resort will be to pull it out and clean it. I know that I should probably skip straight to last resort, but I'm a little lazy these days.
Alan
I got some free time yesterday and got out to the lake and immediately had the same issues as I had had in May. Idle great and bog down and die on acceleration. I limped in and ran some straight Sea Foam into the engine, let it sit for 30 min and ran it out again with gas. I went back to the lake today. Started perfect, idled perfect, accelerated perfect, ran at 5500 RPM perfect, .... for about 2 min. Fortunately went out into the wind. The motor died. I got it started and began limping in again. Barely made it to the ramp and it would not start to load the boat on the trailer (I had to load it old school).
I came home and blew out all the fuel lines, siphoned 20 gallons of gas out of the built in 27 gal tank. I shoved an old cast net weight inside my siphon hose to get it all the way to the bottom corner and jacked up one side of the trailer to get the gas into that corner. Then I cut a small hole in the hose and blew air through it to suck all but some drops of gas out. When I look in the tank I can see all sorts of crap (specks, and just general gunk).
I put new filters again and blew out the fuel lines. I'm going to get a small portable gas tank so I can make sure I'm getting absolutely clean gasoline into the engine the next time I run it. I'm going to do the Sea Foam thing again as soon as I can get new gas.
When I drained the gas in the tank it was slightly off color, but the gas in the water separator was brown.
Now, to the question. I no doubt have to clean out the gas tank. I can remove mine with some degree of trouble and I'd rather not. What is the generally prescribed method for cleaning built in tanks? I thought about using soap and water and then jetting it dry after rinsing it real good. I also thought about putting in another 5 gal of gas and then draining it while sloshing it around to keep the crapola in suspension. Last resort will be to pull it out and clean it. I know that I should probably skip straight to last resort, but I'm a little lazy these days.
Alan
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