Ethanol Killing Outboard Motors

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

One of the big things I have found while dealing with this, is that ethanol absorbs into fuel (rubber) lines causing them to swell. A line with, say, a 1/4" hole will swell to, say, an 1/8" hole restricting half of the fuel. A few mechanics, here, have been caught changing fuel line and charging for injector cleaning. On outboards, 2 stroke or 4 stroke, if you burn the whole tank or run it dry, ethanol will not be as dangerous. I still avoid using it because gas without ethanol is easy enough to get here. Honda has also decided to go back to running the fuel out of the motor on its updates. FWIW

 

[captain]

The only thing good about ethanol is you can get drunk on it.

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada

 

[Nemrod]

Knock on wood but I cannot avoid ethanol up here. The fuel reeks of it. The Mercury Opti does not seem to be bothered by it. I run the DFI Mercury oil, Mercury Quickclean continuously and Startron. I try to keep the fuel fresh and if I am not going to use the boat for a while I pump the fuel out into my cars and leave the tank bone dry.

Someday we are going to have to take the country back from the politicians and bureaucrats before they completely ruin it but first people are going to have to care about something other than American Idol, fooseball and Nascar. I am up for some good old fashioned rioting like back in the 60s and 70s. Light some s--- on fire and turn over cars and knock some heads.

N

 

[DennisS]

I just got the carburetor on one of my inboards rebuilt for the second time for $180, it was actually rusty at the base. I had it hauled out and didn't run it for about two months. The rebuilder told me that if I didn't want to keep visiting him, I needed water separator filters with the drains. That was about $200 for the two of them. When I dumped my old (non separator) filters out, there was about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of the container. The old filters were installed about 6 months ago and were rusting inside. Ethanol gas is crap. I found a place for non ethanol fuel about 10 miles away and will be buying all my gas from them in the future, after I pump out this ethanol crap.

 

[captain]

Nem, get a couple of 55 gallon drums and a pump and get 100LL from the local airport.

Luckily there are several service stations with ethanol free gas near by. The big question is for how long. So far they seem to be doing OK despite the higher price.
One station gives you the the choice of ethanol or ethanol free, the owner drives a Mercedes and says he isn't going to put ethanol in it.

 

[bluejaykaren]

I work at a Marina. All we sell is non-ethenol gas. We rent boats and repair boats.
The shop gets ethenol horror stories daily. I sell lots of fuel to people for their lawnmowers, weed eaters and any other small engine that isn't run frequently. Here gas stations are not allowed to sell non-ethenol like other places. The marinas had to fight to be allowed to sell it here in Florida. It is now a "specialty" fuel with a specialty price. It should be illegal to make people run something in their engines that damage it. I see it EVERYDAY

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Ethanol also eats up Fiber Glass gas tanks.

Chuck

 

[CuNanoTube]

If you want to test your gas for water presence you can do it fairly easily. get some Epsom salts (MgSO4-7H2O) and dry them. This can be done in an oven, with a torch, even in a microwave. You just must ensure the residue is completely "dry" . The shape and colour will change when it is dry. Then take a sample of fuel and put it in a glass container (clear walled). Put the dryed (anhydrous) salts in and they will absorb the water if there is any in the fuel. A sign this is taking place is some of it sticking to the wall of the container.
I have to use a technique like this in the lab doing certain organic chem reactions as many are sensitive to even the moisture in the air.
Hope that helps.

(just a note, if you don't get the salts completely dry the water in them will cause sticking, stir very well for 5 or so minutes, add more if all gets stuck. if you can measure volume of gas and mass of dried salt it is possible to calculate the water content)

 

[Tom Winters]

I was using Sta-Bil Ethanol Treatment and Yamaha Ring Free in my 1996 Yamaha 250's, along with Mercury's 2-stroke oil. I did have to replace my old fuel lines since the ethanol was melting them, but my engines love the additive combination they're getting. Mercury adds something to their proprietary oil that sure works even though you couldn't give me their engines.
Non-ethanol and aviation gas have a real premium on them down here, plus it'd be a hassle deal with.
I see now that Sta-Bil has a marine version of their Ethanol Treatment with even more joy juice in it. Gotta try that. Plus Yamaha now has Ring Free Plus. I wish there were some additives to make me run more smoothly.

That procedure for seeing if your fuel has water in it seemed like a lot of trouble, so I'll just stipulate that my fuel has water in it and try to remember to drain my fuel/water separators a little more often.

 

[Lobzilla]

captain already mentioned 100LL aviation gas that is available at you local airport. This stuff will not (ever) gum up and does not attract water. It is generally too expensive and too hard to haul to the boat to run all day long but I use a small portable tank and run the engines at the end of the day for a couple of minutes to flush the crappy marine fuel out. I use 100LL also in ALL my small engines like chainsaw, weedwacker, snow blower, logsplitter and when these need to run they will run.