carb cleaning is all the rage!

Around these parts. (We clearly enjoy projects.) 😉

We have a sneaking suspicion that our dinghy motor, a 2007 Yahama 8HP 2 stroke, wasn’t used much (at all) in its previous life. Why do we think this?  Well, when an engine isn’t used regularly, the carburetor can gum up (basically meaning the fuel kind of reduces and becomes gummy and dirty, clogging the holes where fuel “should” freely flow). This, subsequently can cause engine problems, big ones!

We had already done an initial first check of our engine awhile back to see if it would even remotely work, and after some tinkering, it finally did!  However, we knew we still needed to do a bit more “testing” to make sure both our dinghy and outboard are in ship shape for our big cruise.

Jereme and his buddy Chris took the dinghy (along with the engine, obvi) out for another test run recently.  The engine worked great at first, but died about five minutes into their test run.  We clearly could tell that the engine wasn’t in proper working condition so we added this back onto our project list.

The other day, Jereme manhandled the engine off the boat and home so he and Chris could work on it from the comfort of our garage.

They got to work removing the carburetor and used a carburetor rebuild kit and carb cleaner (basically acetone) to disassemble and clean all of the key parts (which were in fact gummed up from what is likely a lack of use). They soaked some of the smaller parts in carb cleaner; sprayed the carburetor with the same cleaner product; and used compressed air to blow out any remaining “gummy” stuck-on particles (real technical description, I know).

After a thorough cleaning job, Jer and Chris put everything back together and tested out the engine (in the driveway), where it worked perfectly for a solid 20 minutes. Yay! We went ahead and checked another item off the project list, and brought the engine back down to the City Dock to secure it back aboard s/v LAHO.  And this is where the story doesn’t end.

That same day, Jer and I decided to take the dinghy out for another test run. Why wouldn’t we want to test our now clean and perfectly functioning dinghy motor, right?

Things didn’t go so well.

To start, we were missing our dinghy kill switch key, but were able to borrow one from another nearby cruiser (thanks guys!). After starting up our trusty Yamaha, we tooted around the City Dock a bit, getting an up close and personal look at the dinghy dock and doing a quick run around the mooring balls. Things were going great, so we headed out into Naples Bay to “really” test things out. After a few minutes of dinghy cruising, the engine died. Out of nowhere. Seriously?! WTH?

Jereme tried and tried to get the engine restarted, but we just couldn’t seem to make it work. Typical. I thought we would just float ourselves over to a neighboring mansion’s pretty little dock and “walk” the dinghy back home, but a passerby boater saved the day and came to help tow us back to the City Dock. Yay for good samaritans! (Btw, we do actually have a Sea Tow membership and could have easily called them for help — as I’m sure they would’ve loved being called in for a dinghy tow. lol.)

So…we brought the engine home for round 2 of cleaning! Fun times.

Jereme and Chris did the same cleaning process ^^described above^^ last night, but are letting everything sit overnight this time.

Hopefully that (along with maybe some fresh gas) does the trick! We will most definitely let you know. 😉  Or we will be figuring out “Plan B” for a dinghy engine.

To be continued…