engine maintenance

[dave craig]

After reading an article 'small boat owners guide' or words to that effect, i have become slightly worried as to cut long stories short it said once you have had the muffs on your engine and ran clean water through it, then disconnect the fuel pipe until the engine runs dry to prevent any build of of oily sludge.
As i have not disconnected the fuel pipes after having the muffs on i was beginning to become concerned and was wondering what peoples take on this is and do/dont people disconnect their fuel pipes to stop this build up of sludge?

Any feedback appreciated

[mark]

wouldn't worry about it. the idea with disconnecting the fuel is it will run the carbs dry, so there'll be no fuel left in them to slowly evaporate and potentially leave a gummy glazing on the carbs.

in practice you'd need to have hundreds and hundreds of carbs full of petrol evaporating before it becomes a problem. It takes a fair while for just one carb full to evaporate from a sealed carb

what engine is it? if its a modern fuel injected 4 stroke its irrelevant anyway

only time I'd ever even think about maybes letting the carbs run dry is if I was putting the motor away for months on end

couple of years ago I pulled an old seagull engine out of the shed - it hadn't been run in nearly 10 years, still had what used to be petrol in it - stuck fresh fuel in and it started 3rd pull

[dave craig]

Yeah thats what I suspected. The engine is a 50hp 2 stroke autolube (2007 model). I run it every 6-8 weeks during the winter so im pretty sure the problem wont occur.
Cheers for the reply.