FJ storage, is draining gas out of the carbs a good idea?

[Pat Conlon]

For folks who have multiple bikes which may not get ridden often enough or they need to put their bikes in to storage for months at a time, do you drain the carb's float bowls? *Would you, if you could do it easily?*

I know about fuel stabilizers and over the years I've tried them all, Yamaha, Honda, Stabil and my current fav. Star Tron....but after removing and cleaning the carbs on my '92 (once again) I want to try something different this summer.
I want to drain the float bowls before I put them away in a hot garage this year.

I know about the small *inaccessable* drain screws on the bowls and I thought to myself (uh oh) how about I install something so I can easily drain the bowls? Something like 4 right angle brass fittings threaded on to the bowls, connect all four together with some fuel line and T's ending in a single fuel hose with a drain petcock. So when it comes time for storage just open the petcock and drain 'em dry.

Question: Does letting your carbs stand dry cause any problems? Dry O rings, etc.. With the E15 crap gas, it's gotta be better than annual carb cleaning.

If Randy were to put together a kit, would anyone be interested?

[Hemi Bob]

yes yes great idea! send me one. yes i would buy one. I have left gas in the carbs and the tank  because its messy to drainit out
I will fill the tank put in stable start it every few week and hope for the best One of the best additions to my bike
was a battery tender this will be the  fourth year summer for the battery is always 100% ready to go.

[Dan Filetti]

Pat I have been using the StarTron you mentioned as well.  I have had high hopes for it, and good luck with it over the summer last year.  I used it in all of my machines, but especially the little Ninja, which has maddeningly small carb orifices that clog with varnished ethanol in minutes, seemingly.

It worked well throughout last summer, although I have not fired it up yet this spring.

You make me wonder about this now, this was my first winter of using it.

Going to go take it for a spin before the rain sets in.

I'll report back.

Dan

 

[andyb]

In theory you could remove the drain screw and block off the end of where it unscrewed from, then drill the drain hole itself, tap it, and go that route.

Never have drained fuel myself for storage.  When I do store something with the bowls empty, I find that stuck floats are the order of the day when I try to fill it back up.  I know that VP makes a fuel specifically for storage like C9 that comes in small containers, so you're not buying 5 gallons of the stuff.  Haven't had a problem with Stabil or Startron and carbs gumming up, myself.  I'm probably in the carbs more often than most of you guys though, so swapping orings while I'm tweaking jetting isn't any more hassle than I'd do anyhow.  I do add a bit of oil to the fuel though (Marvel usually) in addition to the stabilizer.  That way if the bowls do end up empty due to evaporation, I'll have some oil to lubricate the floats.  

Yes, I'm strange.  I hate hate hate stuck floats, but it's totally okay to pull and strip carbs.  

While we're on the subject, I have always used a high ethanol fuel in the tank for storage, filled to the top.  My idea was that the ethanol will help dissolve any moisture that is trapped in there and keep it bound up in the fuel; with it filled to the top, there's less air in the tank to potentially be holding moisture and causing rust from condensation.  Dunno if it's right or wrong, but I haven't really had problems with rust in my tanks.

As an aside, a friend who works at a Yam dealership says they store all of their used inventory with StarTron in them, and very rarely suffer from clogged injectors/carbs.  And their used inventory sits a fairly long while, as their pricing is ridiculous.  So that may be a good indicator for the stuff's effectiveness.

[Dan Filetti]

OK, so I just took the little Ninja for a 10 mile spin around my area.  I tested the range; high RPM accelerations (14K RPM!), slow speed, lock to lock turns in a parking lot, steady cruising at a couple of common speeds.  I am happy to report that it ran really well.  The Star Tron seems to have done it's job well, despite the bike having sat more than 4 months with only being started and brought to operating temperature, twice.  As reference,  last year, with nearly the same winter treatment, but no Star Tron, I needed to go through the carbs to get her running well.

Ergo, I am still a fan of this product.

Pat, I am curious what you saw with the FJ that forced a carb service, as again, I'm thinking the orifices on the little Ninja are actually smaller and easier to clog.  Do you folks in Kalifornia have even worse fuel than we do in PA?

Dan

[Pat Conlon]

Hey Dan, here in Calif depending on the season, we get different blends of fuel, a summer blend, and winter blend.
All of our fuel contains ~15% ethanol. In the future the amount of ethanol will increase in our fuel.
I don't remember having these carb storage issues back in the '80's and '90's before the change in fuel blends.
Andy's point of stuck floats is valid although after 3 or 4 hot months in my garage, my bowls are bone dry anyway.

It seems to be the pilot jets and the little holes in the jet nozzles that get plugged. (yes, I'm running 40 and 42.5 pilots)
Is from the E15 fuel evaporation?  Dunno, but it *seems* worse.

Yea Andy, those drain screws are small, but there is plenty of meat in the bowl casting for a drill and tap....to a point.

[Dan Filetti]

We're at 10% ethanol here in PA and we also adjust seasonally.

Guess that's the difference.

Cheers.

dan