Winter storage and preventing plugged carbs

[Crazy Canuck]

So I rebuilt my carbs om my '79 about 3 years ago, and the thing ran like a champ....taking in to account the piss poor hone job and leaking valve seals....it ran pretty well. Last summer I took it out and it was running great on the throttle, but at idle or very light throttle, it popped and farted and generally wasn't happy.

Investigative work led me to the conclusion #4 at idle was not firing and I'm assuming that the idle tube/jet whatever you call it the thing you have to pull out, is blocked once again. Before storage I filled the tank with premium ( I always run that) and once in the garage I drained the float bowls and called it good for the winter.....not so good I found out.

So thinking about how to prevent this I first thought of running the carbs dry and then filling the floatbowls with varsol for storage. next I thought of kerosene, then AV gas, and finally I came up with White Gas (camp stove fuel.)

White gas isn't supposed to have the additives that car gas has and is supposed to last 5 years.

What do you guys think of either Av gas, or White gas for storage 6 to 7 months....would using either of these help prevent plugged idle jets?

[daves79x]

You absolutely did the best thing for storage. Every once in a while, an idle jet will get plugged with something random that you just can't prevent. Continue to do what you did, there is nothing better.

Dave

[hondaman160mph]

After I drain my float bowls I close the choke and crank the engine over from a minute or two thinking that helps suck out any residual gas in the idle jets. Whether that's true or not I don't know.

[Larry Zimmer]

My Winter storage has always been as yours. Drain carbs and Stabil to the tank. No problem in 30 years sitting through Michigan Winters in a garage. (Incidentally, I always drain the carbs any time if it is going to sit beyond a day.) The dry cranking with choke sounds good. However, I would not crank for a minute or two. I think that might fry a starter motor. Maybe 10 seconds. Also, hard on the battery.

[jt]

What I do is after a ride I drain the bowels, then I usually give about 6 good twist of the throttle (Clears the enriching circuit) and hold it partially open with no choke and run the starter several seconds.
I get slight rev from the fuel squirted into the cylinders and I hope the revs provides some intake suction and helps clears the jets. I think closing the chokes defeats the purpose of allowing good airflow thru the carbs.

[Crazy Canuck]

Usually I don't have the battery in it when draining the carbs, but I like the idea of cranking it over and doing the throttle twist to clear the circuit....the choke idea is good as well as it would put a lot of vacuum on the idle circuit while cranking.
Thanks for the ideas guys, I will put them into standard practice for winter preparation!

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Forrest, i hope you're not too close to the wildfire crisis?

[hondaman160mph]

My Winter storage has always been as yours. Drain carbs and Stabil to the tank. No problem in 30 years sitting through Michigan Winters in a garage. (Incidentally, I always drain the carbs any time if it is going to sit beyond a day.) The dry cranking with choke sounds good. However, I would not crank for a minute or two. I think that might fry a starter motor. Maybe 10 seconds. Also, hard on the battery.

I agree Larry, when I said a minute or two I wasn't speaking figuratively, I should have said crank it over briefly.

[Larry Zimmer]

I was going to assume that. Then, I thought someone new to these things might take it to the letter. Hope your Summer has been a good ride.

[Crazy Canuck]

Forrest, i hope you're not too close to the wildfire crisis?

There are fires around us, but we've only had 2 or 3 days of smoke this summer. Hopefully it stays that way. Last summer in late August I was preparing for my house to burn to the ground, that was not a good feeling....I have precious things (Motorcycles and Cars)

Thanks for your concern Steve.