how long can carbs sit

[Guest]

Hi all,

In another thread I shared the sad scoring on my cam bearings...so I'm just about sorted with "new" parts.. head cams etc... The bike is a 79 GS1000N

Since this is going to take me a while to get sorted, I'm starting to worry about the carbs. Assuming for a moment they were properly dipped and cleaned very recently, how long would you leave carbs, with gas in them, sitting before you started thinking they needed another tear down and dip?

Thanks

[rustybronco]

The ones on my 80 850 sat two years on the bike with fuel in them. I ended up having to go through them again before it ran correctly.

A year or so maybe?

[5azzmonkey]

If you are worried why don't you just drain them?

[RobertGS]

I've drained the bowls but figured fuel would still be lurking around in all the passageways.

[tkent02]

I drain the bowls every time they're going to sit more than a month.

[wymple]

Fuel stabilizer helps for a long time.

[salty_monk]

With stabil in it you could go a while... Use seafoam after.

I think if you've drained the bowls and use some seafoam after you will be ok anyway. I've gone a few months like that before.

[RobertGS]

Alright thanks.

I'll try to get on it. Should be able to get it down within a couple more months.

[JTGS850GL]

Draining the float bowl removes virtually all the liquid fuel in the system. Evaporation would eliminate the rest rather quickly. Nothing left to cause any problems. On my generator at the house I run the genset with the fuel turned off until it stalls. Two years later it still runs like new with no carb rebuild required. I do the same for my outboard motor.

[tkent02]

Draining the float bowl removes virtually all the liquid fuel in the system. Evaporation would eliminate the rest rather quickly. Nothing left to cause any problems. On my generator at the house I run the genset with the fuel turned off until it stalls. Two years later it still runs like new with no carb rebuild required. I do the same for my outboard motor.

I do the same on the bikes, then pop the drain open to get the rest, always a little more comes out. Fuel up in the passages moves down into the bowl where it can't hurt anything.

Never had a problem after doing this.

[mcycle-nut]

The carbs on my ES sat for 3 years, although I drained the fuel when I parked it. I found the fuel tubes connecting the carbs leaked once I put gas in it though.

[hjfisk]

If I have carbs that I want to preserve I drain the fuel from the bowls then spray in through the drain hole with WD 40 or some kind of penetrating oil. Just something to sort of coat things so that nasty white powder can not form in the carbs.