Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Old 2 stroke vs new outboards (2&4) stroke › Re: Old 2 stroke vs new outboards (2&4) stroke
The big disadvantage of the 4 stroke fishing motors (IMO) is the weight. the carbureted models don’t do well setting around with old gas in them…. ethanol is a death sentence to the fuel system. To be fair though, many of these engines that fail to start or are hard to start, is due to lack of proper care and maintenance. Like I always say, fill it up with ethanol, go fishing, push the stop button and put it in storage… The tiny passages in the Japanese carburetors are easily plugged. On the other hand, if cared for properly, they are nice running engines. I have a 2003 115 Merc (fuel injected) in the shop right now, that has set for 2 years with old gas in it. I’m not sure if it had ethanol in it or not. It was running on 3 out 4 cylinders, once we were even able to get it to start. But again, it was just turned off and left setting, so it’s hard to blame the engine.