[Rhodes22-list] ALICE WEISZ - comments by Paul and Rik

[Tootle]

Paul and Rik

Excellent comments.  Now for some pictures?  or page references in a manual?  

Again, great posts to add to everyone's knowledge.

Ed K
Greenville, SC, USA
attachment:
http://www.nabble.com/file/p19032113/Bolivian%2BRhodes.jpg
Bolivian+Rhodes.jpg 



Paul Krawitz wrote:
> 
> Alice,
> I too expressed distressed helplessness, directly to
> Stan, when my engine died on me a minute AFTER
> starting, leaving me a dead duck on my mooring.
> And I'm out frequently - three times per week - so
> all the disuse/old gas explanations didn't apply.
> 
> And like you, I used to be "hands off" with the engine.
> 
> I've done less than you, but with the guidance of the
> good Rhodies and my Yamaha mechanic, have figured
> out the problem with these Yamaha 4-stroke engines
> (Stan previously used the 9.9, but is now using the 8HP).
> 
> Previous posts have correctly noted that Ethanol, (ethyl
> alcohol), binds with water, resulting in a gas-water separation,
> with water at the bottom where the hose rests in your tank.
> This is primarily a problem with lengthy cold weather storage
> of incompletely filled tanks.
> 
> But because Ethanol is a small
> molecule<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol#Physical_properties>with
> a small carbon chain,
> it acts not only as a water soluble solvent but also as an organic
> solvent.
> This latter characteristic is why Ethanol is able to dissolve crud
> and old plastics, dispersing the material in small
> particles<http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/westadvisor/10001/-1/10001/Gasoline-EthanolYourBoat.htm>that
> foul up the engine.
> 
> Now here is the Achilles heel in the whole system...
> 
> Unlike two stroke engines, which have large jets
> that vacuum the gas/oil mix into the carburetor, those on the
> four-stroke engines are so narrow that my mechanic cannot even
> use his normal tools to clean them out. Instead, as he showed
> me yesterday, he burns the end off of a twist tie and uses that
> to thread through the carburetor jets.
> 
> The jets are so narrow that holding them up to the sky,
> I could barely see daylight through them. And that was
> after they were cleaned out.
> 
> The bottom line?
> 
> You could clean out the fuel line, filter, and carburetor itself
> till you were blue in the face, and fail to fix your problem.
> 
> In fact, my engine, which failed me for the second time
> this weekend, had NOTHING VISIBLE blocking the the
> gas flow. But after my mechanic threaded the twist ties through the
> carburetor - Voila! It started.
> 
> Once the jets are cleaned out, the answer to reduce these incidents is
> to get an inline filter that fits immediately after the gas tank.
> My mechanic said he would have recommended a 10 micron
> filter, such as this one previously
> posted<http://www.crockersmarinestore.com/servlet/the-44/Yamaha-10-Micron-Fuel/Detail>,
> but that "because
> my boat was so small," he'd put on a tiny one inch filter instead.
> 
> That's not a problem, I told him. Give me the big sucker.
> Thanks to the excellent design of my Rhodes
> 22<http://www.rhodes22.com/contruction_detail.html>,
> I've got plenty
> of room below my cockpit bench.
> 
> He's actually recommending another filter that's similar, but
> not identical. Apparently, the Yamaha filter isn't entirely
> aluminum. The screw of the top rusts inside; he showed me one
> that this happened to.
> 
> My mechanic said that new boats should be installed with
> the filter already in place and that the ethanol related fuel
> problems are ubiquitous on four stroke engines, both large
> and small.
> 
> I expect that this filter will reduce, but not eliminate the
> starting problems that I've had. It's a system destined for
> failure, with the constant battle raging on between the
> Ethanol-laced gasoline and those puny carburetor jets.
> And I hate feeling so  paralyzed on a day that I really
> want to get out and simply sail. After all, one of the
> characteristics of Rhodes 22 sailors <http://www.rhodes22.org> is that we
> actually
> use our boats.
> 
> Now don't laugh, but during my second painful fiasco,
> I entertained the idea of having a backup electric battery outboard
> motor, such as the Torqeedo electric
> outboard<http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/265317/377%20710%20884/0/Electric%20Outboards/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/0/0?N=377%20710%20884&Ne=0&Ntt=Electric%20Outboards&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&page=CategoryDisplayLevel1&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=5005&subdeptNum=10&classNum=820>.
> It's portable,
> takes only a few minutes to assemble, and would be terrific
> insurance. Unfortunately, even the long shaft version, which I
> envisioned hanging off the transom while my outboard gets its next
> inevitable
> service call, is too short as described on the Torqeedo web
> site<http://www.torqeedo.com/us/hn/products/base-travel/technical-data-measures.html>
> .
> 
> A final recommendation about the choke on these engines from
> my mechanic. He said not to try to start them with the choke
> fully open unless the weather was cold. First, try starting
> them with the choke closed. Next, start it with the choke
> closed and during the cranking, open the choke for three seconds
> before closing it again. If that doesn't work, open the choke halfway.
> Only
> as a last step should you start with the choke fully open.
> 
> One more note to SS: The technique of putting the throttle
> in gear and opening the throttle back and forth a few times
> before putting it in neutral and starting doesn't work on the 8 HP engine
> because there is no accelerator pump in the carburetor on that engine
> (per my crusty old Yamaha mechanic).
> 
> The bottom line? We're going to all have to take measures to reduce
> these engine failures. But be prepared for more frustrations, because the
> engines are not yet designed to counteract the minefield of gasohol.
> 
> Paul Krawitz
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> 
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