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| I'm in the process of rigging a 8hp Mercury four stroke kicker on my boat. My main motor is a Mercury 115hp carburated two-stroke with oil injection. My dealer wanted me to put a single selector gas valve from the fuel tank to seperate the two engines. I just used a "T" connector with seperate primer bulbs. The dealer told me that I will have to disconnect the kicker gas line when runing my big motor to prevent damaging or sucking out the fuel pump on the kicker. I assumed that the check valves in the primer bulbs would prevent each motor from sucking from each other. I would appreciate it if anyone has any experience or thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Dale |
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Member
Posts: 617
Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | Do yourself a favor and install a valve. I have heard of some people having issues without the valve, but the most important consideration is the cost of an inexpensive valve as opposed to possibly blowing your powerhead because of an improper fuel mix. |
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Member
Posts: 142
| Your dealer is giving you good information.
I'd tell you the same..
I have lots of experience on this.
Edited by T-Mac 4/21/2008 9:34 PM
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| I would even take it one step further and use a different gas tank. Part of the reason for a kicker is so that if your main motor dies you can still get back home on your kicker. If you main motor died due to a gas problem sharing the same fuel tank doesn't do you much good. |
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Member
Posts: 102
| For 8 seasons, I ran a "T" connection on my last rig after the fuel filter/water seperator and never had a problem with my motors. 150HP Johnson and a 15 Evinrude 4-stroke. When you think about it, how much force can a motor exert sucking gas when there is a straight connection to a fuel tank? The only way I can see it harming the small motor is if the fuel line to the tank is blocked and it destroys the antisyphon unit in the primer bulb to the kicker. Not likely, but if you want to be super safe you can use seperate lines. |
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Member
Posts: 617
Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | Almost -
It's not the small motor you need to worry about. My Optimax would suck the gas out of the kicker line, then pull air through it, causing the engine to run too lean and even miss from time to time. Its great that you were able to get away without having to add a shutoff, but why risk doing damage to a $6,000 motor when a $15 valve would eliminate the potential issue? |
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Member
Posts: 1656
| Do yourself a favor and get the selector valve. Yes it takes a few seconds to swtich which is a pain. But there have been so many people that have had issues with check valves on their kicker fuel line. And as Brad stated the other option is to ignore it and hope for the best and run the risk of blowing your main engine.
Good Luck |
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Member
Posts: 102
| Never thought about it sucking air in through the kicker. Good point! I still don't see how it would if the bulb was functioning correctly, unless there was no gas in the bulb to start with, but why take a chance? Good idea using the valve for added safety. |
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| Hey Guys,
Thanks for the advice. I installed the valve tonight. The only thing that Mercury would recommend is seperate tanks, but I feel a lot better about it now.
Thanks,
Dale |
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| Did you check to see if your main fuel tank has a fitting for the kicker? This makes for a nice simple and proper installation. Most Lunds have this fitting. |
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Member
Posts: 17
| I know a guy who ruined a powerhead on his big motor when it sucked air through the kicker bulb and tee in his line. Trust me, that's not a good way to do it. Pull directly from to tank or install a valve. |
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Kicker fuel line