Just drained the carbs on my Tohatsu

[craiglaforce]

I removed the lowpoint drain screws on the bowls after seeing the posts that gas remains in there even after running the motor out of fuel to winterize. I was amazed at the amount of little black pieces of crap in there. I got a can of carb cleaner and shot a bunch in there using the straw to rinse out the bowl and more junk came out. Can't wait until next year to see how much better it runs. I'll bet there is a huge improvement.
I couldn't see a way to reach the bottom carb drain screw, so made a hole through the outer housing so I could reach the screw with a long screwdriver.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Yea, that's how one of my carbs' main jets got plugged up almost a year ago. A bunch of those little black pieces came together after running some contaminated gas through. I couldn't understand how this little rock got in the main jet with 2 fuel filters to go through. But when I pulled the "rock" out, and pressed it between my fingers, it crushed back into a bunch of little black pieces. So, it seems that it will kind of crystalize into an obstruction if you get too much of that crap in there. I had tried squirting carb cleaner through the bowl drains about 2 or 3 times as well as a whole bunch of other liquid cures. Nothing worked and I ended up having to dismantle the carbs to get the thing running right again.

Probably a good idea to drain and flush the bowls every so often...and especially when you change the filter(s). I'm getting ready to build a better fuel system for my Mac with a spin-on fuel filter that will hopefully work better than the little cheapos I currently use.

[GARY WEEKLY]

TWO YEARS AGO I INSTALLED THE SPIN ON TYPE FILTER WITH THE DRAIN IN THE BOTTOM TO GET THE WATER OUT,,WHAT A DIFFERANCE I EVEN USE THE SAME GAS FROM THE YEAR BEFORE WITH NO ILL RUNNING EFFECTS,, WHAT COLOR IS YOUR GAS LINE? MINE IS THE GRAY TYPE AND I DON,T EVER FIND ANY RESIDUE IN THE BOWLS WHEN I PULL THEM EVERY SPRING THERE CLEAN AS A WHISTLE..

[craiglaforce]

The fuel hoses are black. I bought the boat with one year on it in '98 and quickly added one of those little clear fuel filters. I'm thinking the dirt got in before I installed the filter, but who can tell? This was the first time I drained the carb bowls. Is it difficult to completely remove the fuel bowls on a tohatsu? Might not be a bad idea to make sure all the debris is removed, rather than the blind flushing I performed. The fuel tanks have always looked clean when I've peered inside. I have always added the fuel stabilizer at the end of the season and just leave the tanks alone for the winter.

I bought one of those little cheap 800-1000 watt generators and the carbs came from the factory with junk in the little carb. Dang thing would barely run until I dropped the bowl and removed the black debris (which looked exactly like what I saw come out of the tohatsu). Maybe this free dirt in the carb is an extra feature companies occasionally provide.

[Newell]

Not to suggest that you do anything different but I have never drained the carbs or gastanks and have only run the engine dry on 2 of the 7 Winters I've owned it. No problems, no down time.