Growing up and fishing in my dad's old boat, we had an old Mercury 9.8 which was later replaced by a Mercury 25 in '90 or '91. When we were done fishing, he would always run the gas out of the fuel line and engine before loading the boat onto the trailer. I was always told to do that so the gas wouldn't evaporate leaving the oil behind to gum up the spark plugs. I was thinking about this, and as far as I know, the oil in a 2 stroke helps to stabilize the gas, right? Also, I know it would just be a short period, but wouldn't it be bad for the engine to run it lean like that?

Is this even really necessary or just a waste of time/gas?

Don't do it. When you run it out og gas, you run it out of oil.

This is a crazy bad idea for sure....leaning out a motor like that is about the worst thing you could do to any two stroke motor.

Running to motor out of gas was a good thing in the old carb and premix days. It helped to keep the carbs from gumming up.
Now with cleaners in the gas plus additives I don't think it would help at all. Especially if you have an efi or direct injected motor.

Allison is right, I had a old Evinrude v-4 100 hp 1989 model and ran it out of gas every winter.Did that for about 13 yrs with that motor. Sold the boat and she still ran like a champ.Never even had the water pump replaced either lol.

Yeah, I stopped doing it because it was a pain when I used the boat about 10 years ago lol. I'm about to start using it again and I was just curious.

ive never run the fuel out and ive owned a boat since 72 always ran fuel stabilizer or kept fresh fuel in them

My dad has a 83 200 carb and runs it out of gas everytime. Drives me crazy but he still does it even if it's only gona sit for a few days. Runs good though. It takes about 60 seconds fast idling on the trailer in gear.

A co-worker of mine has an old mid 80's model Evinrude 50hp motor that he does that to and has done forever with no problems. For me though, i wouldnt do it at all.

I don't do it.

This came up a week or two ago. I have a 1977 Johnson 175 and have always run it out of gas. Everyone told me it was a bad idea though. I am still going to run mine out of gas if it is going to sit for a while.

I used to do it with my older carbed motors. Never had any trouble. I don't do it with my EFI engine or any of the oil injected engines.

It's either a bad idea, or it's a horrible idea...
If it's a non oil injected motor it's bad, the fuel is the only thing that lubricates a two stroke motor, so no fuel, it's running dry. Bad idea.

If it's a oil injected engine, when you shut off the fuel line, now it's going to pump straight oil through the motor. Horrible idea, now you've made a really good mess.

Old school ideas are not always the best.

I've got a late '70's Johnson V-4. I never run it out of fuel. Well I did once, but that was running across the lake, and completely unintentional. But I use my boat at least every couple of weeks, so the fuel stays refreshed, and never sits in the motor long.

Plus that, I get kinda peeved sometimes when I'm waiting to launch my boat and someone is sitting on the ramp running the fuel outta their boat holding up everyone else at the ramp. Trailering is not such a big deal. But when I'm waiting to get on the water, that's another matter. LOL

Jay

I run mine dry at WOT every time... motor is an '85 and runs like a top.

If your injected dont bother... But yes the gas DOES evaporate and will gun stuff up if you let it sit without running it dry.