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ethanol free gas


BSmaster

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Absolutely right Vince............

Your absolutely right, towing home with a 22ft cuddy with a Merc I/O and duel axel trailer, my expedition got 12.3 towing, and around home 12.5mph just driving around on the corn juice!!

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Wow, that where I get mine! Wtf! The fast trac in Wolcott has a separate 87 non ethenal line.

They have seperate lines at my local fastrac too so it shouldn't make a difference

 

Non-ethanol or not gasoline will go bad so you still need to use the treatment in it.

 

Gasoline with ethanol will actually keep better longer the alcohol helps the gas from turning into varnish. But the trade off is with carbs that don't have ethanol safe gaskets they will be dissolved by the alcohol.

Edited by Chas0218
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My engine is 1 year old and fuel injection. My mechanic said to never use any additives and store in the barn for the winter with the gas as empty as possible.

Wow that seems to go against I am doing now. I try to use up ( three trolling trips) gas and keep putting new in when it sits, making sure it's full. I use the fast trac non ethanol also. My motor is a four stroke newer 06. I can't see letting it sit empty with condensation on the interior of the tank.. Curious why your mechanic would recommend that? maybe he wants fresh fuel each time out?

Sent from my C771 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

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I think my mechanic is the same as Scott's and the reason I was told is the condensation issue with non ethanol is not nearly as much concern is how quickly gas breaks down now and running old gas.  I was going to top my tank off for storage but was told not to add any more at winterization and he said next year run it down as much as possible in the fall in put new fresh stuff in the spring.  He is a respected mechanic and I am just a fisherman, I will take his advice.

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I think my mechanic is the same as Scott's and the reason I was told is the condensation issue with non ethanol is not nearly as much concern is how quickly gas breaks down now and running old gas. I was going to top my tank off for storage but was told not to add any more at winterization and he said next year run it down as much as possible in the fall in put new fresh stuff in the spring. He is a respected mechanic and I am just a fisherman, I will take his advice.

Yes, exactly. He is up to date on the do's and don't with motors. I think he talks with mercruiser more than his kid. Lol. I trust him totally.
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From what I understand about seafoam is it burns really hot. Which is similar to ethanol. That doesn't sound like a good recipe for a two stroke if you run seafoam and ethanol fuel. However after writing this I will fact check myself.

I heard a story about ethanol fuel from a mechanic at a BMW dealer a few years ago. I guess BMW was having problems with new cars popping motors in this area. So the sent a team up to investigate. As the story goes they tested gas from many different stations and found that all had ethanol levels of 25-30 percent by volume. Ethanol and gasoline are slightly different densities and will separate as a result. Best to get your gas at a volume retailer instead of the smaller stations I guess.

After having bad ethanol has a few years back, that delaminates my fuel lines and almost cost me an outboard and a big toe bill. I will only run non ethanol from a dedicated pump. Not worth the risk. Especially on older equipment not designed for the ethanol fuel.

Alcohol burns cool, that is why you see your high performance engines (funny cars, super mods, ect) using it. If you are talking lean then yes if you run higher amounts of alcohol based gasoline you need more fuel in the air to fuel mixture.

Edited by Chas0218
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In my boat I run the 87 10% ethanol in my 1988 Johnson 150 with VRO. I haven't had any issues with gas being old or water in fuel. At every fill up I put the Marine StaBil in and never had an issue. This motor has well over 3000 hours on it and only thing I did was a carb rebuild about 3 years ago because the needle and seats were worn out. I didn't need to do a complete rebuild on the carbs but did because they were torn down already.

 

If you take the care to add the fuel stabilizers before storing for periods longer than 1 month then you shouldn't have any issues ever. I am speaking from experience I have never had an issue with any of my motors and fuel because I run a fuel stabilizers. I have rebuilt, repaired, and cleaned more carbs than I can shake a stick at and 99.9% of the time the issue is old gas. 

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Condensation happens, ethanol or not. Boats on trailers going in and out of 90 degree air to 60 70 degree water with tank in the bilge is the worst environment for any fuel, diesel, gas, corn blends no matter. The water settles. Alcohol bonds to it. It strip additional additives and compounds that are in gasoline to begin with, when it phases . I run the tank down low. Put a double dose of ethanol fuel stabilize in it for what is left when it's stored. Fill it with new gas at least 25 gallons in the spring . I ran the 2 stroke yamaha 225 OX once out of fuel to store it...never again. The rubber parts in all 3 low pressure fuel pumps had pin holes after first two trips next season. The vapor separation tank fine screen was coated in white residue from being air dry all winter. Had to clean it with seafoam. I leave all the fuel management stuff on the engine full of fuel. It's been treated by me anyway. Never a problem now in 6 years. It starts every season. The racor fuel water separator gets drained a couple times a year. The gas is 87 octane gulf. I would rather Leave the tank with 10 gallons double treated than 100 gallons to treat or spoil. The motor is never drained of fuel anymore. Sealed injection gets no air, stays pressurized so it can't.

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I fill my 60 gal. tank to full all the time (e.g. after each trip and when I winterize) but I run double amount of the Marine Stabil all year long and I only use 91 octane non-ethanol so I guess I go against the odds but I also had the same set of plugs in for 13 years without any problems and when they came out they were still good on my Merc 135 Optimax and it always starts almost immediately when you turn the key. I don't troll too much with it and blow it out a lot so that may help :lol:

Edited by Sk8man
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  • 2 weeks later...

This won't help you on the water but I thought I would throw it out there. 

 

I had to replace my blower for this whole debacle because it cost too much to fix.  I decided to try the green works 40V Li model (available at walmart)  I was very impressed with it.  The line offers a lot of different equipment, some of which I am thinking about getting purely for trimming trails.  It is worth looking into if you are in the market for new yard equipment.  The blower is more powerful than my gas one I replaced.

Edited by BSmaster
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  • 3 months later...

Sandy Creek Marina has pull up your boat service, you do pay a premium there.  Next Closest place to Hamlin is the Kwik Fill in Brockport on 82 Main.  I think they were around $3.00 a gallon last time I looked.  

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Gasoline with ethanol will actually keep better longer the alcohol helps the gas from turning into varnish. But the trade off is with carbs that don't have ethanol safe gaskets they will be dissolved by the alcohol.

 

Uh....this is not my understanding at all.  Look up "phase separation".  

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