storing with fuel drained

tnc110

tnc110

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With all the fuss from ethanol gelling up in carbs and what not, why not store with fuel drained out of the carbs? I just cleaned mine and was wondering if there are any down sides to leaving them dry for the summer?
 

not that i know of, thats what i will be doing this year. i have always dont that with my boats, bikes, quads and every other motoized machine i own.
 
If I can remember, I drain my carb bowls by running the sled until it dies with the fuel shutoff.

I've tried all ways of storing my sleds and other toys. Full, empty, stabil, no stabil, carbs dry, carbs full, no differences. Even with using e10 For about 20 years now. No issues at all.
 
the only thing with running dry is you do not get all the gas out of the carbs, you lean it out befor it dies and no oil on all the parts since theres no fuel. your best to kill it by spraying large amounts of fogger in the carb throats then draining the carbs, and running stabil in the last tank. just how i do it
 
I use ATF mixed in a "auxilary tank". I use a 80/90 weight type jug. I pull the 90 elbow apart at the back of the airbox and jam the nipple on the jug in there. Onceit starts rolling a good ATF fog I HOG to with the fogging oil. Wait a month or so and clean carbs and dry they sit. Late summer I clean the power valves, soaking in ATF is AMAZING. Litterally not much more work than wiping them off! About the time rideable snow flys I hit the clutches with green scotch brite pad put the belt back on, tighten track back up and add fuel and away i go! I check over/replace skid bearings, change chain case fluid and other random maintance thew out the summer.
 
I store mine dry. I have always done it with my outboards and such. I drain the gas tank using one of those jigger siphon hoses. I'll run it on what's in the bowls while I fog it then when it sounds like its ready to die ill kill it. Open up the bowl drains and let out what's left in a towel and she's ready to sit. I still clean the carbs in the fall, and it makes half the mess when I pull all the hoses off since there's no gas. I fill the tank full in the fall, gravity helps push fuel back towards the carbs and I use a squirt bottle with a gas/oil mix to prime each cylinder. A few cycles of priming it and letting it run on that and it will refill the bowls and start burning off the fogging oil on its own. I like fogging oil over ATF or any of the other home remedies. It's a sticky oil that's meant to cling to everything to it provides a nice coating of oil on everything. A burst down each carb once it dies and down the plug hole for good measure and forget about it for the summer.
 
Backwoods M Max said:
I store mine dry. I have always done it with my outboards and such. I drain the gas tank using one of those jigger siphon hoses. I'll run it on what's in the bowls while I fog it then when it sounds like its ready to die ill kill it. Open up the bowl drains and let out what's left in a towel and she's ready to sit. I still clean the carbs in the fall, and it makes half the mess when I pull all the hoses off since there's no gas. I fill the tank full in the fall, gravity helps push fuel back towards the carbs and I use a squirt bottle with a gas/oil mix to prime each cylinder. A few cycles of priming it and letting it run on that and it will refill the bowls and start burning off the fogging oil on its own. I like fogging oil over ATF or any of the other home remedies. It's a sticky oil that's meant to cling to everything to it provides a nice coating of oil on everything. A burst down each carb once it dies and down the plug hole for good measure and forget about it for the summer.
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X2 - pretty much what I do but also run the fuel out of the carbs with the choke lever while using fogging oil at the carb inlets to keep it running. I did use ATF last year and also drained as described above.

I've always stored with an empty tank and haven't seen any change in the tank's elasticity but with the tank empty the hydrocarbons that have leached into the plastic (and replaced the plastisizers) will become airborn and can cause brittling of the tank plastic... with or without E10.

I still had white goobers in my carbs although I tried to fill and go without pulling the carbs this season (jr. was anxious for a ride) but using ATF.

IMO - Probably the most important thing to remember regardless of how you store - use fresh, in season, fuel for the first ride after cleaning the carbs.
 
basically I run the carbs dry(shut off valve turned off),spray the carb throats with fogging oil.But I am also going to try a few capfulls of ATF in the tank when there is a little gas left it there even after I siphon all I can out.Run it with the ATF/gas until the engine is all warmed up..then shut the gas.. spray fogging oil thru carbs until she dies and should be good.I made up a hose from the fogging can that splits up 3 ways(like a W)and can spray all 3 carbs at once.Make sure the fogging oil can is nice and warm as it will spray better.
 
I dont use the ATF(fogging only) on the girliefreinds red head SXR. Just on the SRX's for the soak on the power valves really. I have spare sets of valves so when they are good and dirty I swap valves out and clean the dirty ones at my conveince. Since adding ATF to the routine its litterally spray them down with carb clean wait about 30 seconds and whipe off with a paper towel. Occasionally theres a spot or two that needs to scrubbed a little harder with the same paper towel and they go right back in.
 
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