Originally Posted By: John_Conrad
My question for you guys is: Does it or can it take a lot of cranking to get it started back up if you are not able to drain the MMO out completely when it comes time to restart it?
In my experience, MMO clears out of the carb quicker than things like 2-stroke oil or (heaven help you...) straight engine oil like my grandfather used to use when he stored a car. In the case of my '73 Satellite that sat for six years, I squirted some fuel down the vent tubes and into the carb float bowls before I started cranking. I also pumped the accelerator pedal about 6-8 times so that it would force some of the MMO out to make room for fuel to come in from the fuel pump. It fired after about 10-15 seconds of cranking, smoothed out and was running on all 8 within another 15-20 seconds (I'm sure it started first on the 4 cylinders fed by the driver's side float bowl where the accelerator pump draws from), and was running clean and smoke-free within a few minutes. Based on previous bad experiences, I doubt that I could have started it at all without removing the carb and cleaning the bowls, replacing the accelerator pump seal, jet well gaskets (Thermoquad, remember) and a few other things if I hadn't used an oil to displace fuel for that length of time in storage.
Stored OPE is a little different in that most of those carbs don't have an accelerator pump to help you pump the storage oil out and make room for fuel, so they might be a little more of a pain to fire off- but still easier than other oils in my experience. All my OPE now has float-type carbs, so cracking the jet cover nut on the bottom of the float bowl and letting the oil drip out is my preferred method. With "Pulsa-Jet" carbs, I probably wouldn't store them with 100% MMO (or any other oil) anyway- I'd drain the fuel and then squirt MMO down the carb throat to coat everything and call it good.
My question for you guys is: Does it or can it take a lot of cranking to get it started back up if you are not able to drain the MMO out completely when it comes time to restart it?
In my experience, MMO clears out of the carb quicker than things like 2-stroke oil or (heaven help you...) straight engine oil like my grandfather used to use when he stored a car. In the case of my '73 Satellite that sat for six years, I squirted some fuel down the vent tubes and into the carb float bowls before I started cranking. I also pumped the accelerator pedal about 6-8 times so that it would force some of the MMO out to make room for fuel to come in from the fuel pump. It fired after about 10-15 seconds of cranking, smoothed out and was running on all 8 within another 15-20 seconds (I'm sure it started first on the 4 cylinders fed by the driver's side float bowl where the accelerator pump draws from), and was running clean and smoke-free within a few minutes. Based on previous bad experiences, I doubt that I could have started it at all without removing the carb and cleaning the bowls, replacing the accelerator pump seal, jet well gaskets (Thermoquad, remember) and a few other things if I hadn't used an oil to displace fuel for that length of time in storage.
Stored OPE is a little different in that most of those carbs don't have an accelerator pump to help you pump the storage oil out and make room for fuel, so they might be a little more of a pain to fire off- but still easier than other oils in my experience. All my OPE now has float-type carbs, so cracking the jet cover nut on the bottom of the float bowl and letting the oil drip out is my preferred method. With "Pulsa-Jet" carbs, I probably wouldn't store them with 100% MMO (or any other oil) anyway- I'd drain the fuel and then squirt MMO down the carb throat to coat everything and call it good.