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falame arrestor


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Hey guys hows it goin...i have a 1989 sunsetter and I was wondering what the main purpose of the flame arrestor is?...and will the boat run without it on just to get the old gas out

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To keep flames from shooting out the top of your engine in case of a back-fire & igniting any fumes in the engine compartment. Why would you want to run without it? It's a safety thing.

If you think the gas is that bad, syphon it & replace it. You could put the old gas in your tow vehicle at about a gallon per tankful.

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To keep flames from shooting out the top of your engine in case of a back-fire & igniting any fumes in the engine compartment. Why would you want to run without it? It's a safety thing.

If you think the gas is that bad, syphon it & replace it. You could put the old gas in your tow vehicle at about a gallon per tankful.

i was jus gonna see if it ran untill the new flame arrestor arrived in the mail..although the carb was throwing a flame and also making a loud popping noise with very poor performance at 10 mph and up...im hoping all that was caused by no flame arrestor and not nothing else

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Sounds like a nice backfire you got going there. It's most likely something more than just no flame arrestor and/or bad gas. With the flame arrestor, the loud popping will be a little muffled and the flame won't shoot out the top, but it will most likely have the same problem at 10MPH & up.

Sounds like you could use a little help from a reputable mechanic. The problem could be caused by many different things, but a missing flame arrestor shouldn't do that.

Just curious - Why a new flame arrestor?

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well for some reason last year i took mine off to clean it during the winter and i moved so I guess i left my old flame arrestor at my old house....well ill put some fuel injector cleanor and run the old fuel out then put all fresh fuel in the boat and see if that does the trick.

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The boat isnt smoking at all it runs great untill it reaches about 10 mph, then the carb starts makin a popping noise and starts cutting out.

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The boat isnt smoking at all it runs great untill it reaches about 10 mph, then the carb starts makin a popping noise and starts cutting out.
It's not the carb making the noise. The noise is traveling up through the intake manifold and out through the carb. I had a similar situation not too long ago. Spent a lot of time checking timing, distributor cap & rotor, plug wires,...I decided to replace the plugs just to be sure. While removing one of the plugs it's ceramic jacket just disintegrated in my hands. New plugs solved the problem completely. Edited by NorCaliBu
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If you left your flame arrestor off all winter, and didn't cover the carb, maybe you got mice or something living in there.

Yeah, or spiders.......

On a serious not, it is in the timing. You can check your plugs, wires, cap and rotor but you should probably replace it all. If your timing is ok, then worst case it would be a loose timing chain throwing off valve timing and could very well be a burned valve, most likely exhaust but it would have a miss and the engine would shake. I don't know how many hours your boat has, but if it's carb'd then it has to be in the mid to late 80's, it could also have a TB which looks like a carb and those also use FA, what type of ignition system also makes a difference but it's really hard to tell from just what you described unless you have really check it from top to bottom.

Duh, I just saw your post you have an 89', just ignore all the babble on how many hours.

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