E15….coming

[The Boat House]

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by The Boat House.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by The Boat House.

[outbdnut2]

quote Tubs:

. The best
thing is to just not let water get into the fuel.

I agree – but with inboards and inboard/outboards, you can’t shut the vent on the gas tank when not in use, so humidity gets in and the ethanol will combine with humidity in the air on the surface of the gas. With temperature swings expanding/contracting the air, more air with humidity is sucked in and expelled every 24 hours – take this over a winter storage season up north and it can be a problem. Same for collector cars that have vented tanks built before gas tank vents went away when vapor recovery canisters were added – tanks were vented until sometime in the 1970s. Small engine tanks for most engines other than outboards are vented all the time too. A friend paid $80 a couple years ago when his snowblower wouldn’t start after all summer. The shop told him it was likely from humidity and ethanol – it had the phase change at the bottom of the tank.

Dave

[The Boat House]

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by The Boat House.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by The Boat House.

[amuller]

Very little US corn and beans is eaten by humans–generally it’s animal feed. But in a globalized market any increase in grain prices impacts people at the bottom of the economic ladder.

There is nothing new about ethanol/methanol as motor fuels. Henry Ford was into it.

Ethanol in gasoline has it’s pros and cons. Recall that we used to put it in intentionally (‘Dry Gas") to deal with accumulated moisture in tanks.

Gasoline is about 114,000 btu/gal and ethanol is about 76,000. So the energy content is a lot less and this is reflected in mileage. But ethanol has a higher anti-knock ("octane") value so cars with adaptive engine management might partially offset the difference with advanced timing, etc. Ethanol-only vehicles (Brazil, mainly, I think) can use higher compression ratios to take full advantage of the properties of ethanol.

There are lots of odd factors at work. EPA was into "oxygenated" fuels as a way of de-facto leaning the mixture ratios. Does this have relevance to injected vehicles with closed loop mixture control? Not sure but I doubt it.

[jerry-ahrens]

People that know me also know that I hate ethanol… that being said, I use ethanol free fuel in my Ranger bass boat, 2 Alumacrafts boats, a 24 ft Sea Ray with a Mercruiser, and a Reinell also with a Mercruiser. I also use it in a 318 John Deere with an 18 hp Onan. All of the above set outside year round, and all of covered during periods of non use. The sterndrive powered boats that I have also have water seperating fuel filters. I have never had any water in my fuel tanks, ever. I only use regular gas stabilizer in the winter time, only. No magic ethanol gas treatment whatsoever. Having said all of that, I don’t think I have ever ran into any boats that were using ethanol fuel that had water in the gas, except for being rained on. What I notice about ethanol, is that the gas is always stale and smells awful. Many of the engines I see won’t idle very well with this stale gas. The other thing I’ve noticed is the yellow looking varnish that seems to be present throughout the carb and fuel system. Actually, I think if you fill up with fresh ethanol, your engine will run just fine. The problem is when a fuel tank is left to set around, and the stuff goes bad. IMHO, I don’t think any kind of additive will prevent or fix this problem. I think removing the said fuel from the engine and fuel tank is the only way to prevent problems.
One example of this that I can share with you, is a city work boat that I repaired a few years ago. It is owned by a city near me, and is used in our annual shoreline clean up, and various other things. It has a 70 hp OMC outboard for power. The boat came in with gummed up carburetors, and needed the usual service. They were using ethanol fuel that was purchased in town. After the boat was picked up and the bill paid, I instructed the man in charge of this boat to be sure to NOT use ethanol in this rig, because the boat sets alot. I also tried to get them to bring the boat back to me in the fall, so I could take care of winterizing it for storage. Well, that did not happen! About a year later, here it comes back to the shop… they say it’s down on power. The guy driving it said ”it was down on power, so we added a can of (mechanic in a bottle) additive to the gas and continued to run it, hoping it would come out of it. Turns out they were running it on the ethanol fuel from last year! The motor had a plugged carburetor, and it burned up the top cylinder from running lean. I threw my hands up in the air when I thought about all the work I did to that motor the prior year, which included rebuilding all three carbs. Such a waste of a good motor. These are just my opinions, respectfully.

[PugetSoundBoater]

Jerry, I have run into the same issue , asking people who I have worked on their motors to have me come over to their home in the fall and winterize thelr outboards for free. I would fog them and run new ethanol free gas ,with 2 oz of Seafoam per gallon.
Not one of them called.

"Some people want to know how a watch works, others just want to know what time it is"
Robbie Robertson

[outbdnut2]

I find when I recommend ethanol-free gas for outboards and small engines to a lot of friends and neighbors, especially those who I’ve fixed stuff for that had problems due to ethanol, they don’t have a clue what ethanol is or that it’s in the gas. A common response is "Oh do you mean unleaded?" ……and then I have to explain. The response I got from a couple people wass "Oh – but I’ve never put E-85 in that motor!"
Dave

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