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Posts: 791
Location: WI | Just bought a Honda 4 stroke 8hp kicker and was wondering what my best bet for connecting it to my fuel tank. There is a t connection in my existing fuel line for my big motor. I was planning on connecting it there but my buddy told me that may cause air in fuel issues and I'm better off running the line all the way to the fuel tank. By the way the boat is an Alumacraft tournament pro with what I believe is a 28 gallon tank. Any help is appreciated. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
When I added a 4 stroke kicker to my Alumacraft, I added a fuel/water separator that had multiple outlets. In doing so, you will always be pulling fuel from a reservoir, thus eliminating any chance of sucking air. Technically, if the T is before the primer bulb on your main line, you can use the T as your joint and the primer bulb for the kicker should not allow any back-flow of fuel all the way to the motor, sucking the line dry.
I have heard of some people putting in a shut-off T-joint that would shut off the kicker line when using the big motor and vice versa.
My reason to go with the fuel/water separator was two-fold. It gave me the second line, and it also filters my fuel so no water goes through the system if some had somehow gotten into the gas tank.
Steve |
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Posts: 73
| I have a 9.9 kicker on my boat and use a shutoff switch T as mentioned above. This has worked well for me. |
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Posts: 5874
| I like the water/separator filter option the best, for reasons stated. Run your kicker line, with bulb from there.
Lots of guys run the line with bulb from the Tee to the kicker. As long as you have a bulb in each fuel line to the motors, you'll be fine. |
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Posts: 791
Location: WI | Found a few seperators online. Any brand better than others. Saw a Sierra brand one which is pretty respectable as far as marine electrical parts go. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Mine is sierra... Have not had any issues with it whatsoever.
Steve |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | I did the water separator method as well, added protection/filtration for both motors. My 8hp motor came with a small plastic gas tank with line and primer bulb. The hose fitting for the tank was the same thread size for the fuel filter head and had a check valve. This is a nice feature with your big motors fuel pump trying to pull fuel away from your kicker when ran at the same time. Not sure if it will starve it for sure but it was mentioned to me by my dealer. I have no problems running both at the same time. Price was around $35 for filter and head then filters are $6. Mine was a Tohatsu brand and merc/quicksilver filters work. |
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Posts: 795
Location: North Central IL USA | VMS - 9/27/2013 9:45 PM
Mine is sierra... Have not had any issues with it whatsoever.
Steve
You have the one with the collection bowel? |
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Posts: 5874
| If the big motor is pulling fuel from the kicker, you need a primer bulb in the kicker line. Or, if you have one, you need a new one. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | hiya,
I don't have one with the collection bowl at the bottom. So...when I store my motor for the year, I first get stabilized fuel running through the whole system, then pull the filter and dump it into a glass container and let it sit to see if any separation happens. In the 3 years that I have had that set up, I have not had any water separation to speak of that I could notice.
The bowl would be nice, though...just drain it out as the water would be in the bottom.
Steve |
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Location: 31 | VMS - 9/30/2013 9:16 PM
hiya,
I don't have one with the collection bowl at the bottom. So...when I store my motor for the year, I first get stabilized fuel running through the whole system, then pull the filter and dump it into a glass container and let it sit to see if any separation happens. In the 3 years that I have had that set up, I have not had any water separation to speak of that I could notice.
The bowl would be nice, though...just drain it out as the water would be in the bottom.
Steve
That's a pretty slick idea Steve! I'm going to drop my water separator filter at the end of the year like you say, then after a 1/2 tank of gas again in the spring. |
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