Discoloured metel reeds , what is the cause

[phillnjack]

Just took a reed housing apart and found the reed leafs are discoloured !!! the reeds in question are original metal reeds in a 1995 omc 56 ci motor.
I have not seen this before, the metal is stained / etched and I am wondering what causes this.
is this what todays fuel does to the metal ? or is there something else going on.
the motor gets run on normal pump gas at 50 to 1 on mercury premium 2 stroke oil.

here is a pic of the reed leaf to show what I mean, you cannot get the stain off the leaf its like sort of burnt in like its been etched...

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[mn808gade]

put an unmarked one in and I bet it stays the same,betten the stained reed was that way from the getgo-th

[phillnjack]

I di not even think about them being like that from new, bit of a poor show if that is the case...
but in the mid 90's omc didn't take a lot of care about a lot of bits n pieces in these motors, so your probably right..

[DanUmbarger]

Can't imagine them being like that since new...you can see the stained edge around where the reeds touch the reed cage...seems odd that they would be stained with that shape before even being installed. Could possibly be some sort of coating that was not cleaned off before installation and was "baked" on somehow? I too have never seen that on any reeds I've removed.

[FMP]

Salty?

[phillnjack]

they had a very slight film of oil on them but a lot drier than I would of expected.