Limited Use Maintenance

[PeterPalmieri]

As you guys know the baby is 3 weeks old and his big brother just turned 3 yrs old.

I'm not anticipating using the boat often until the fall. I've got 1985 454s and wonder how often I should go down and start the motors or run the boat and if I should top off the tank or leave it low, should I treat the fuel?

At this point I'm going down to the boat twice a week, once just letting the motors warm up at the dock and the other taking it out the river and getting her up on plane for 15-20 minutes.

[In Memory Walter K]

Peter- that's more than many of us do.

[Ed Curry]

Make sure to add some fuel stabilizer. I've been getting hammered by carburetor problems this year.

[Tony Meola]

Peter

That is more than enough. Make sure try to take her out at least once per week otherwise you will be scrapping a bunch of barnacles off of the props. Ask me how I know.

[Carl]

The last couple years...if I made it down to boat once week and started them every other I was happy with myself.
If I made it out of the slip once or twice a month I was ecstatic with myself.

Good paint so had little issue with growth...other then running gear...but a jump over the side with a scraper took care of that.
Electrical issues start popping up as corrosion does its magic. Using the boat seems to rectify that from happening as much.
Motors and fuel where okay...but a bit of Stabilizer and a small dose of fresh fuel couldn't hurt (other then hurting the wallet)

I have heard short idles can do more harm then good...creates condensation inside motor as it doesn't get hot enough to burn off moisture...I don't know if true...but I used as an excuse not to make a special trip to boat after 13- 14hr days. So take that tidbit for what it's worth.

[John F.]

The rides will really help get rid of bottom growth/barnacles. When I had my gasser B31, I was very wary of ethanol fuel--too many bad stories. I used stabilzer, and tried never to have more in the tank than I'd use in hte next couple of weeks or month at most. I think what you're doing is more than enough, but I wouldn't keep my tank full--bad gas is really, really hard and expensive to get rid of.