General Outboard Maintenance?

[LarryA]

We have a fleet of jonboats at the canoeing club, with relatively new tohatsu 9.9s (which IIRC are just Nissans). Due to the pandemic, they are not getting used much. Normally, coaches dock them, shut them off, pull the tanks off and go. Usually they are used again within a day or so thus it has not really caused a problem. Lately, the boats have sat for days or weeks on end and a few have developed some fuel related issues/clogging. When I was (much) younger, we used to always disconnect the fuel when coming in to dock and run the fuel out of the engine to minimize fuel issues later. Is that still done with modern outboards??? (be gentle, remember I am primarily a blow boater ).

[OneWayTraffic]

I still do that with my old school two stroke. I think the only issue is a few seconds of lean running. Shouldn't be a problem for a 9.9. Alternatively drain the carbs.

[tcason]

Add marine Sta-bil in each tank if you don't run the gas out of the tank in a month.
Close air vents on tank?

[LarryA]

Add marine Sta-bil in each tank if you don't run the gas out of the tank in a month.
Close air vents on tank?

Hmmm. we don't leave the tanks connected so I don't think the vents would matter. we don't typically put marine Sta-bil because we go through so much fuel but maybe for the time being, we should, that's a great suggestion - thank you!

[TomW1]

Larry set up a maintenance schedule and run each motor once a week for 10 -15 min to keep it lubricated well, if they have not been used that week. Cracker Larry taught me this trick when I bought his boat. I would also add the marine Sta-bil it doesn't take much for a 5 gallon tank.

Tom