I've got a Honda GX390 that I have running my mud motor on my boat. Here is the deal. It acts like the float is getting stuck possibly and letting the carb bowl run out of gas. I've cleaned the carb and everything moves freely. I am starting to believe that it might have something to do with the levelness of the motor when I'm running it. unfortunately it is intermittent so I can't nail it down. Do you guys have any thoughts on this problem?

Also, I'm running this on a Lundau 1648 that is decked up front (whole rig with 2 guys: +/- 700lbs) and I'm running a 8x5 prop. Does this seem to be the right pitch? It seems to rev out but its pretty slow. Won't plane out even with just me in it.

This should probably be moved to the Engines forum..... A little moderator help would be appreciated. Sorry for putting it in the wrong place.

little off subject but my mower was doing the same thing last week and it had a bad needle a seat replaced it and has been fine i know you clean yours but mine had a slight rip in the rubber stopper tip for what ever reason it did what yours is doing. carbs cant live with them but sure cant live ith out them

Did you order the new needle or did you get it from a local guy?

Does it have a fuel cutoff solenoid on the carb?? Should be just a wire goin into the carb, if so cut that needle off of it they've been known to stick starving the carb fir fuel

I don't know if it has a fuel cut-off or not but it got me thinking, don't these things have a low oil cut-off? That could be causing the issue when running it on an angle?

If you do a search on here, there was a thread a while back about problems with Honda Carbs and what the fix was.

I am pretty sure what Paul is talking about was the issue....

There were a couple of guys that had issues and had figured it out....

ya i just orderd the needle i have also saw the otheir issue these guys are talking about but like i said most of my problems been with mower motors on mowers

sounds kinda like a fuel tank vent problemo to me, see if it runs better without the cap on the tank.

I initially thought the same thing that it wasn't venting and vapor locking the fuel supply but ran it without the cap with the same intermittent stalling result. And by stalling I mean that it doesn't spit and sputter it shuts off. Fires right back up immediately which is sounding more and more like a sensor.

Your oil sensor is the little metal box by the ignition switch. You can unplug it and it will run fine. You may be a too much of an angle that its tripping the sensor to shut off the engine. Do you notice that it does it at certain times? How long does it run before it stops? Try running the engine out of the water with the engine flat and see if it still does it, then tilt the engine like you have it in the water. If it dies then the oil sensor is the problem. Most people don't know that these engines will run with out it. They have oil dippers that splash oil up onto the crank and moving parts, running without it should be fine as long as it doesn't stay at a steep angle for a long time. Your transom might be too high causing your angle problems. Good luck

I'm going to unplug it and take it out in a little bit. It seemed pretty consistent with shutting off when either a sudden speeding up or slowing down (sloshing oil) and it would completely shut down. Feathering the throttle did nothing. But it would always start immediately. I'm pretty sure this has to have been the culporate.

Unplugged the sensor and worked like a charm! Added a little extra oil (maybe 1/2 cup over full) and it ran great. Thanks guys for the heads up!