My boat has gas in it from last season, should i burn it out?

Question

my boat has gas in it thats about 6 mos old. it started up pretty good but when you take off it kind of hesitates before it takes off. once it gets going its good. should i just add an octane booster and burn it out? if i drained it out how much trouble is that? its an i/o.

Answer 1

Gonna agree with Josh.

Fill your tank with premium and add a product like SeaFoam.

If it continues to hesitate check your filters.

Next fall add StaBil or SeaFoam to the tank, but run it a little bit to induce it into the fuel system.

Answer 2

Don't know how much help this will be, but it's about winterizing a boat.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors...

They may be able to advise you though.

Best,

Blogs4others

Answer 3

Do'nt try it drain it. Gas with out a gas stableizer goes bad. Empty the tank and then put in fresh. The hesitation can be the gumming up of the carb ot it can be the octain is to low. In any case drain and install fresh.

Answer 4

Josh & TrueNorth have you on the proper track. I believe TN was referring to changing your fuel/water separator(s). You can check to see if you have water in the fuel by taking the filter off and pouring the contents into a jar or glass (make sure it's big enough to hold the contents). Let it settle and take a look. You'll be able to tell if there is water present for you'll see a distinct separation of the two.

Answer 5

If you have half a tank or less, just fill it up with fresh gas and put some carb/injector cleaner into the tank and you should be OK.  It will idle rough and might hesitate on acceleration for awhile, till the cleaner does its job.

Be sure to add stabilizer next fall while the boat is still in the water and run it long enough(at least 10 minutes) making turns and hitting waves  to mix it into the fuel and get it into the engine.