Algae?

[mini-motors]

Not an old motor, but my question is somewhat timeless. 3 or 4 weeks ago, I went through a carb from a ’01 Mercury 6HP 4-stroke for a non profit I volunteer for (Alexandria Seaport Foundation). It was a bit gummed up, but otherwise looked like new on the inside and outside. I got it running, but we think there was water in the remote tank, so I left it up to the other volunteers to take care of, and they did. It stopped working about a week and a half ago, so I went back. The carb looked like crap, inside and out. It had algae lining the bowl.

My question; how long would it take for algae to grow inside a carb? I’m thinking years, and would like a second (or more) opinion. My theory is that someone swapped carbs one night. The motor and boat are chained up, but are accessible. Another clue was the overflow hose was missing, which I remember being there. I checked the jet sizes, and they are correct, so If I’m right, it came from another 6 HP. Some of my compadres have doubts as to my suspicions, and ask why. My answer to that is a new carb is $140.00. And to pay someone go through it could easily be more than half that.

Opinions?

[frankr]

I’ve never seen algae in a carburetor, but under the right (wrong) conditions, it can grow a basketfull of the stringy variety overnight in my landscape pond.

[sydinnj]

I would think that if someone was stealing a carb, would they take the time to stay there and put one back on.

[chris-p]

Yeah never met a thief that would take the time to install the bad carb!

More likely is that there was junk in the tank which was then pumped into the carb. That is very likely.

[mini-motors]

It was suggested that it was in the fuel line, but it wasn’t floating, it had grown on the interior walls. And it took about a half an hour in a heated ultrasonic cleaner to get it out.

As for the "why would a thief put one back" theory, I’d say inside job. We have 30 or so volunteers, virtually all of which are boat people.I only know 6 or 7 of them. And if the perpetrator knew the Foundation had a "guy" who could fix it (me), it could be weirdly justified as some kind of "no harm, no foul" situation. I just know this, this motor looks new, like low hours, always covered, despite it being 17 years old. The first time through the carb, the bowl looked clean. 3 weeks later it had algae.

I’m surprised you all haven’t seen algae in a carb before. One of the things ethanol in gas does is attract water. In even newer carbs, I’ve seen a steel seat for a jet, rusted. Who puts steel inside a carb?

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