Boating season has started

[Donald]

Donald, that boat has been sitting up on racks for a few years now that same old gas is in it. Do yourself a favor siphon most of it out into 5 gallon containers or something.
It’s way too old.
Depending if you’re going to use the boat this season either fill the tank up or fill it back up halfway and when you do, add a small dose of stabilizer.

The above is what I would do. Hopefully repairs are all done now and you can enjoy your boating season.

Technically, a full tank of gas is better because there’s less room for condensation, however, and this is big if the boat is not going to be used much, it is not a good idea to store a boat on a rack long-term with a full gas tank. Being the boat does not have equal support like when it sits in the water a heavy fuel tank in the subfloor could theoretically curve the hull or the supporting structure not that you’ll ever notice it but ….

I started the engine today for the first time today. Started right up ran fine. Brought the coolant up to 120F. So can I assume the gas is likely to be OK?

 

[FZ1]

Fork lift service started April 1 so I now have access to my my boat. They can pull it off the rack to the water or to work rack.

I decided to order 2 AGM batteries from Walmart as I found them for just under $200. Try and sell my two flooded ones. So all 3 now will be AGM.

On the fence about pumping out the old gas.

No pump out. Just go put some additional fresh gas in the tank with the old gas. Enjoy!

 

[alarmguy]

I started the engine today for the first time today. Started right up ran fine. Brought the coolant up to 120F. So can I assume the gas is likely to be OK?

I honestly think it’s an impossible answer to honestly answer
I’m glad it started right up. Glad it ran fine but that doesn’t mean out on the water things aren’t going to go wrong.
Up to Three year-old gas and trying to figure out if the stabilizer did it it’s job or not, to me it’s just guess work.
I trust stabilizers for over the winter and even up to nine months, but a mix of up to three years?
I just don’t know i’m not sure anyone can give you a truthful answer. If very well may be fine, but certainly not optimal by any stretch of imagination.

I also don’t have a problem, possibly with the additional stabilizer and topping off the tank, but then within a reasonable amount of time, make sure you burn almost a full 75 gallon tank full of gas before putting fresh gas in again

These are just thoughts I have if it was my boat

 

[BigCahuna]

It's been over 20 years since I sold my boat, but my experience with storage was this. I went overboard with winter storage. I would run the gas down to 1/4 tank or lower, and put a touch more treatment then the bottle required, and topped of the tank with fresh gas. Then take it out for a short run to get the treated gas thru out the system. For 2 years in a row when spring came around. my boat didn't want to idle for beans when started. So I had to take the carb apart and clean it out. It had some green film in it that I could only assume was from the gas treatment. I always carried a spare gas filter / water seperater with me in case. But that tank of treated gas, always seemed to burn up faster then the following gas fill-up. I don't know why you would have 3 year old gas left in a boat, but if it was my boat I'd take it out for a hard run with a can of gas, and burn that old stuff up, and put the new gas in when it gets almost empty. Gas is not like wine, that gets better with age.,,

 

[Bishoptf]

I have a 2012 Tracker Pro Guide V1750 with a 115 Optimax. It ran perfectly. I bought it 2 years ago with only 18 hours on it.

I took it out Wednesday and it ran perfectly. Two issues cropped up...the fuel gauge is not working and the trolling motor is not working. I'm having the trolling motor checked next Friday. The fuel gauge will have to wait until next fall when I take it in for 3 year servicing. I'll probably have a tracker dealer do it.

But it was a perfect day!

Going to say this as a public service for all optimax owners, just a huge fyi, if your not pulling your air and fuel injectors and having them serviced then your rolling the dice. Opti's have 2 injectors stacked per cylinder and if either one fails even partially its bad news...ask me how I know. Service manual or maintenance schedule doesnt call out servicing them but they should. l had to fully rebuild my powerhead due to injector failure that led to a lean condition on cylinder 3, melted piston.

There are plenty of places that will service them and swap o-rings and clean them and make sure they are working to spec. I didn't put a lot of hours per year and had mine done every 3 years, just passing info along to any optimax owners....

 

[IndyFan]

Going to say this as a public service for all optimax owners, just a huge fyi, if your not pulling your air and fuel injectors and having them serviced then your rolling the dice. Opti's have 2 injectors stacked per cylinder and if either one fails even partially its bad news...ask me how I know. Service manual or maintenance schedule doesnt call out servicing them but they should. l had to fully rebuild my powerhead due to injector failure that led to a lean condition on cylinder 3, melted piston.

There are plenty of places that will service them and swap o-rings and clean them and make sure they are working to spec. I didn't put a lot of hours per year and had mine done every 3 years, just passing info along to any optimax owners....

Thanks, I will make a note of this. How often should it be done? Did yours fail even when doing it every 3 years, or is that the schedule you adopted after experiencing the failure?

Mine is going to get servicing done this fall, so I´ll have them do this, for sure!