Good stuff!
Thanks

I read several conflicting philosophies (articles) in various publications over the past year regarding winter storage of fuel tanks containing E-10 fuel. Go practically empty to reduce the amount of fuel to be contaminated due to condensation on fuel cell walls, and phase separation (ethanol octane separating from the fuel itself due to aging after 30 days) then fill up as mentioned above...........OR follow the full tank philosphy minimizing condensation, and pickle the fuel with Stabilizer and Startron to reduce phase seperation. Then add Pri-G fuel rejuvenator in the spring.

Personally I'm taking the practically empty approach with pickled fuel, then fill up with fresh gas in the spring changing separators frequently at the start until I see nice clean fuel poured from the separator into a glass container and allowed to set for a few minutes.

Regardless of which approach you take, I suggest next spring you change the fuel separators during the first 2-4 weekends of use to be sure.

Might also add to the a list some cross
refrenced fuel filters for the 496HO

Applicable fuel filters
Wix 33226 Short filter
Wix 33225 Long filter

Yamaha water seperating fuel filter "MAR-FUELFIL-TR":
10 micron
90 GPH
50hrs/6mos

Better filtration and twice the water capacity of the stock Merc unit. It is also twice the length.

ttt

I just winterized this weekend and I have taken the near empty approach. I added Sta-bil to keep the remaining gas as fresh as possible. I was fortunate enough to have able to get ethanol free gas all summer. The station that I was filling up at, has just changed over to E10.

ttt

In order to need the fogging how long would the boat need to sit without running?

Ditto on this statement with the ethenol in the fuel today I would want it as empty as I could get it to avoid moisture condensating in the tank as well as the octane dropping for those of us that have the boat sit almost 6 months the octane level drops substantially even using Stabil. The rest of it is pretty thorough though although changing the oil twice once in fall and once in spring again seems pretty wasteful due to the fact it's fresh oil.

Being your in Buffalo I'm guessing your winter is as long as mine so your looking at a minimum of 5 months I would fog it just to avoid condensation on the valvetrain as well as cylinder walls...For 2 minutes of spinning off the filter and pouring a little 2 cycle in it when you are doing your final shutdown it's piece of mind..