Any harm in letting engine run idle for long periods of time?

[ProfitOfDoom]

I had a post about engine bogging, so I'm trying to go through steps to figure out what it is. The marine shop guy said pull filter to see if there is any water in it before I proceed to pulling the carb off. So took off old filter water separator dumped it, nothing was clear. It actually looked like a jar of pee, but the gas smell was not real strong. He recommended that I should try to go through most of this gas then add a higher grade and then see how it goes. So I'm going to take it out for a spin, but I thought maybe I can just let it idle some gas out, so can I cause any harm by just letting it sit at the dock and run?

 

[Gofirstclass]

It's always been my understanding that letting any engine idle for long periods is not good for the engine. For an engine to run well it needs to be under a load. Otherwise it just gets a buildup of carbon. There are also some technical stuff that happens with the oil but I don't really feel qualified to coment on that.

I would pick up a couple of extra water/fuel separator filters and take them with you. BTW, the more of the old/bad gas you can burn off before you put in new gas, the better off you will be.

 

[Firerooster]

Idling a gas motor is the hardest use on it. It really causes carbon build up, wet stacking and anti foaming properties of the oil begin to break down. Extensive idle times is not recommended.

Add some carb injector cleaner to the tank and as previously stated get a couple extra filters. Tell someone your trip and navigation plans, get out and run the tank of bad gas out

 

[mwph]

The above posters are more qualified than I but I'd like to add....It would take a really long time to idle out, "at the dock", any significant amount of fuel.