Ethanol In Gas

[dave potts]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stor...97?OpenDocument

Here is a link to an article in today's St. Louis Post about the harmful effects of ethanol in outboard motors. Note the ethanol producers are trying to up the ethanol content even higher.

I would say that everybody should contact their representative about this but when I voiced my concern to mine last year I didn't even get a reply from him. Of course, he is also a corn farmer so I didn't really expect a response.

Maybe he will buy me a new motor when mine gets ruined. Or as the article points out, maybe they will wake up when a fuel line starts leaking and causes an explosion killing someone.

Dave

[Bird Watcher]

I was nabbed by this on Friday. I had to be towed in by another fisherman. Come to find out it was the ethanol in the gas. It had attracted water and ate up the fuel line. I didn't even know it was a problem, but my mechanic says it's an epidemic. Stabil or Seafoam year round for me now.

[fishinwrench]

Stabil or Seafoam year round for me now.

Just curious, How would that help ?

[taxidermist]

USE PREMIUM GAS. There is another post on this from last year somewhere here.

Anyway I was talking to a fellow at the bulk plant in Little Rock, where many truck fill to haul fuel into North Arkansas. He said that almost all the low grade 87 Oct. has some ethonal in it. Some distributors request no ethonal, but at this time The Fina Distrib. in Harrison is the only one who refuse any ethonal.

He also said none of the PREMIUM has ehtonal in it.

Ethonal does absorb moisture!!! Nothing will keep that from happening.

My Bass boat suffered the crap too.

Built in gas tank, hum how to get the ethonal blend out?

Cut your fuel ine near the motor, point the boat up hill, tak e air compressor with a long nozzle and insert into the fuel filler spout, use a flat tip screw driver and stuff a terry cloth towel into the filler enck around the air nozzle. about 35 psi air pressure and some time will pump out all the old fuel.

Connect the the fuel lines, and fill with PREMIUM SHELL GAS, and a can of SEAFOAM. Change the spark plugs, for some reason the ethonal ruins the plugs and causes a misfire.

You may need a can of ether to keep the motor running until the fresh fuel is running the motor, then take it for a spin down the lake for about 60 minutes and 1/2 throttle. This will allow the SEAFOAM to do its job!!!

This is eactly what I did today!!! MARCH 30, 2009!!!!!!!!!! Now my 90Hp Johnson starts first crank, I fished over a mile of bank and just touched the key and the motor started!!! Repeated this several more times and now we are ready to chase fish on the lake.

JOhn

[fishinwrench]

Cut your fuel ine near the motor, point the boat up hill, tak e air compressor with a long nozzle and insert into the fuel filler spout, use a flat tip screw driver and stuff a terry cloth towel into the filler enck around the air nozzle. about 35 psi air pressure and some time will pump out all the old fuel.

With all due respect, This won't work. Onboard tanks are (or better be) vented, and some are equipped with anti-syphon valves....Besides, pressurizing fuel that way is kinda dangerous.

for some reason the ethonal ruins the plugs

Not so.

[grizwilson]

I disconnected my out fuel line from the tank, hooked a siphon pump and got most of it out and ran it through my truck which did not seem to mind. Sea Foam or the Stabil Ethonal treatment are needed. mess

[wily]

my mechanic told me to run all the fuel out of the motor before leaving the ramp, so i disconnect the fuel line from the motor and run the engine about 1/4 throttle when it it's on the trl just before pulling it out of the water. after about 3 minutes the engine dies from lack of fuel.

voila...no alcohol is left in carbs while it's sitting in the garage.

[taxidermist]

Well it did work or I would not have posted it. and yes the entonal caused the plugs to run to lean for the heat range and fried the electrode. Appying 25 psi to the fuel in now way makes it dangerous, you better find some proof!! Not old wifes tails. Beside if pressurized E-1 fuel were dangerous, then your fuel injected car or truck is nothing more than a bomb waiting for ignition.

Its not the alch left in the carbs, this motor is hard to start on ethonal period many two stroke will not run on e based fuel or e blended fuel.

[fishinwrench]

Well it did work or I would not have posted it. and yes the entonal caused the plugs to run to lean for the heat range and fried the electrode. Appying 25 psi to the fuel in now way makes it dangerous, you better find some proof!! Not old wifes tails. Beside if pressurized E-1 fuel were dangerous, then your fuel injected car or truck is nothing more than a bomb waiting for ignition.

Its not the alch left in the carbs, this motor is hard to start on ethonal period many two stroke will not run on e based fuel or e blended fuel.

Well for starters, blowing the fuel out with an air compressior isn't going to empty the tank any faster or more efficiently than syphoning it out the old fashioned (safer) way. Besides, unless you left the inlet cap on and blew through the vent hose it wouldn't work very well anyway.

EFI/DFI engines with pressurized fuel systems are designed to contain a relatively small amount of pressurized fuel with appropriate seals, fittings and vapor separators suited for the pressure involved.

Advising someone with unknown mechanical ability to pressurize their 12 to 25 gal. fuel tank without regard to how well the fuel is contained in THEIR particular boat is just not good advice ...IN MY OPINION. Someone could end up with raw fuel in their face or a few gallons in the bilge of their boat from a bad clamp or alcohol affected hose. And raw fuel in the bilge of a bassboat is (as you say) "a bomb waiting for ignition".

I'm sure your intentions were to be helpful, and I apologize if I insulted you in some way, but I felt obligated to point out that people sometimes get hurt bad doing dung like that. I can introduce you to a few that lived through it if you actually need "proof".

As far as "alcohol causing your plugs to run lean for their heat range"... I'm not even gonna touch that

[taxidermist]

Hell It worked fopr me and anyone with a lick of sense will of course be carefull. Any yes it remove almost all the fuel. 25 psi is not much and well if the system could not take 25 psi, they there are other problem that certainly would need to be repaired.

As for syphoning the old fashioned w3ay, well it just did not work with this boat.

I looked for a pump that could be used with a drill and nothing was certified for gasoline everything that I found was water only. Even hooked a hose onto the fuel line and tried to get the syphon started with the primer bulb, it did not work either.

I have had a mechainc that tunes a Top Fuel car look at the plugs and he said the blistered ceranics happens when the alcohol causes the heat range to go beyond the plugs design. If it had been one plug then it could have been a manufactor problem but not on all four.

Anyway use either premium fuel fromt he pumps or buy your fuel at the marina.