cpiefer06

Been seeing this topic in some magazines lately and they are making it out like it is a big issue. The articles are saying that if you are using 10% mixed fuel it could be very bad to your engine if your getting any moisture in the fuel. That the alcohol and water combine and sink to the bottom at the pick up and then you are burning a bad mixture of fuel. I may be saying rougher than they did but if you get my meaning please comment.

With this then what would you think the best course of action would be if you just bought a 99 boat and are not sure if you have a problem or not???

MikeyFIN

If not sure I´d put more ethanol to get the water out and go running the tanks dry...we´ve had 10% ethanol in our gas for at least a decade an no problems...

t500hps

With the switch to ethanol in the US you simply have to be more careful about fuel quality. It used to be that you could pump gas in the tank and use it sporadically all summer with minimal use. You wouldn't buy a gallon of milk, leave it in the frig, and sip on for 3-4 months would you....well can't do that with ethanol fuel either. Don't keep the fuel for extended periods...burn off the tanks low and the end of each use (unless you run every weekend). Keep water seperator filters clean and changed at least once a year (some people never change them). Various additives will help a little, find one your comfortable and use as directed.

baja25sst

My buddy told me to keep running the STABIL product year round that has something in it especially for this ETHANOL issue. He said spin off the fuel filter and put some in there too and then run the engine before putting up for winter and to always keep the tank near full during the off-season.

mrv8outboard

Startron is the best to use when in use. Pump your tank dry for storage. You can not properly stabilize E10. You will loose the ethanol out of the stored fuel in three to six weeks depending on the quality. This in turn lowers your octane rating. We all know what happens with low octane fuel. Phase separation is only prevalent when you have water existing in your tank or it is being introduced into the tank i.e. a leak previously not noticed. Ethanol mixed with water is corrosive. So if the boat used MBTE extended fuels in the past and you are going to start E10 run it out of fuel. Use Startron as directed and you should be prepared to change fuel filters. Knock on wood none of my regular customers have had any real troubles with the transition using this method. As well many things you used before in fuel do not mix well with Ethanol. Just because a product says it will does not mean how well. Stabilizing the fuel with the new formulated stabilizer will stabilize the base fuel but there is nothing that can be done about the E10 loss and phase separation if you have water present. Because Ethanol can absorb 100% of it's volume in water.

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

There have beentons of boats at my marina that have been complaining about their gens and motors not running very good last summer. All said it takes long cranking time to fire up. I filled up my 150 gal tank last fall, but only used a small portion. We hauled the boat home for winter work and had to remove the tanks. I been using that gas in my vehicles to use it up. Ever since, both of my vehicles instantly started running like chit. The couple times we filled up at gas stations with fresh gas, they instantly ran good. Put in more 'boat' gas, again instantly hard to start. We thought maybe the marina got bad gas, but this was over the whole summer and bought from more than 1 marina. Thinking it has alot to do with a very shot life span of the ethanal fuel since most of the issues are with houseboats that have large tanks and last for a long time between fillups.

t500hps

I had my motors dyno tuned then sat for 6 weeks...after that they ran lke chit. Mounted a 6 gallon outboard can in for a quick test run and they improved greatly.....this was with a Merc tech and his computer hooked up and IN the boat during this test.....ethanol SUCKS and does start breaking down in just weeks.

obnoxus

yep,,,,used to be keep your tranks full to keep moisture out.

Now its the complete opposite,,,, moisture is the least of our worries.

I change my fuel/water sep now in the spring after I run the first tank through the boat

Irishtornado

They make a Stabil for Ethenol fuels, but I've never used it and it's about double the cost of the regular Stabil it also says on the bottle to use with every tank. Talk about a sales gimick. I just run the boat as low as possible before storage then load it down with stabil and make sure I run 2cycle oil out of the filter to properly fog the EFI engine. I'm guessing from what I've seen and read that it's just going to get worse. I had the same problem though when I bought gas on the water vs land. I try to buy most of it on on the road before getting to the water seem to have less problems.

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I just had my second terrible experience with ethanol,the **** should be illegal to even sell!!!! Filled my sleds and a 5 gal clear racing jug up w/premium on x-mas eve,ran up north to visit relatives. We took the sleds off the trailer for a few hour ride,got about 1 mile away,they both quit and would not start. Drained the carbs,was finding almost 100 % water. Got one to run enough with the choke on to limp it back to the truck towing the other,looked at the clear jug and saw a clear seperation at the bottom of about 1" of what I assumed to be water. Got home,pumped the tanks dry (26 gallons plus the 5 gallon jug),the first gallon out of the sled that was filled first was what appeared to be 90% water.
After reading up more on ethanol I realized what I was seeing was phase seperation,a little bit of water makes ethanol completely seperate from the base fuel,sleds were sucking a combination of 95 % ethanol/5% water,luckily the stuff was so bad the wouldn't run enough to actually get damaged,a lesser amount would let it run hard enough to self destruct,this crap really suxz,Smitty