Shooter

Ok so many of you might not remember me but I was one of the original pre-OSO members... well long story short I have not been on my boat for 2 years and it sat. What is the best recommended way to get this running again? I would assume have a service pump out the gas, clean the fuel system, plugs, oil, gear oil. Any other words of wisdom. I know I need a new starter and impeller. I live in Tampa and it was covered in overhead storage the whole time.

Thanks!

soldier4402

you got it nailed. I would get the old fuel out, dont see a reason on the plugs. Run premium fuel and fuel system cleaner and take her for a ride.

Shooter

yeah, some have said to top it off with premium and some fuel/water additive. That is what my marina sells anyway and there is no ethanol in it to begin with. Not sure that's the way to go after 2 years though...

soldier4402

depends on how the fuel was stored was it non E fuel in there with treat? If not and it was treated I may just run cleaner and go, but also depends on how much fuel you had in there. If it wasnt full id just mix with fresh and octane boost or cleaner and run it.

Either way plugs dont go bad, from sitting, dont waste your time, unless you ran them with junk fuel, but even then.

ThisIsLivin

I would pull the plugs and spray WD-40 in each cylinder and turn over by hand to make sure you don't have any stuck rings from cylinder walls getting rusted. I bought a boat that had been sitting in a garage for a long period, it only had 50 hours on it but I had to pull the motor as two cylinders where so rusted the rings weren't sealing.

Shooter

No stabilizer but it was 92 octane fuel specifically for boats - no ethanol. covered storage.

Blueabyss

Yey Shooter I live in Dunedin. Prob right down the road from you.

Chris

Shooter

I live in Safety Harbor, keep my boat up in Tarpon Springs at Turtle Cove Marina

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Good to see you back Shooter!

Was the fuel stabilized? Was it just parked or was it serviced to be put up for a long term storage?

One of the reasons owners in the north fog an engine is to lube and protect the fuel delivery system, be it carbureted or injection. IF it was not serviced for an extended storage, I would be very leery of the fuel system, ESPECIALLY if it has INJECTORS.

I agree with pulling the plugs, but I'd go with something thicker than WD-40. 2-stroke oil comes to mind.

Before starting:

Change the oil.
Change the filter.
Change the fuel water separator.
Change any other fuel filters (like an inline bullet filter if it has one).
If you can, pull the distributor and rig up an assembly to bring up oil pressure before starting.
Change the belt(s).

And if you can perhaps pull, test, and clean the injectors and rails, that would be a sound investment in time and effort. It would suck to have one or more lean or dry cylinders and burn something up.

It's not too hard to pull the plugs on a single 26' Sonic. Maybe even pull the plugs and stick a boroscope in the cylinder to check things out.

Reckless32

Since it's a single and everything is easy to get to....pull all the plugs, squirt some motor oil in there and spin the motor with kill switch off.

How much fuel is in there? Change separators, after it's up and running and you burn thru what's in there, change them again. Since it's non-Ethanol that's half the worry gone. If it's half a tank or less, top it off and burn it down to the half mark, then top it off again. Change separators burn it down to below 1/4 tank...top it off and change separators again.

You can pop the injectors off and tap out any particles that "might" end up there a any point.

Other concerns that might give you the most grief will corrosion of contacts like the wiring contacts at the trim pump son and so forth. Inspect and clean if warranted every connector you can reach or get access to. Humidity wreaks the most havoc on boats unless one has the luxury of keeping iot in a climate controlled environment. Boatels are not climate controlled.