MacGregorSailors.com

Good point on the starter. There is often a plastic label on the starter body. It gives you information about the starter. It's also there to serve as a witness device as to whether the starter was cranked for more than a few seconds without letting it cool down. If it gets hot enough, that label will shrink to half its size.

Don't ask me how I know. (Hey I was just a kid).

-B.

If your concerned with alchohol Seafoam is the last thing you want to be pouring in your tank, as it's about 90% methanol.

mastreb wrote: I think the ETEC manual says no more than four seconds...

And running dry always involves cranking quite a bit.

I think my Suzuki has an electric fuel pump. When I've run it dry, pumping the fuel line bulb until hard seems to be all I need. A quick crank and it starts right back up.

It's probably a lawyer speak issue to void a warranty claim from Joe-idiot who runs his tanks dry habitually, and then damages his motor. Much more likely this than an engineering analysis of an actual damage mechanism.

Grunge in the tank is caught by the filter. In cars, the "don't run dry rule" isn't about grunge, it's about cooling the fuel pump sitting in the tank.

I have always found that running my Merc 50HP out of fuel - and out of the water - was a alternate means of stopping the engine.