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Ethanol

I bought my boat from a marina in eastern PA and the two salesmen guys there cursed the ethanol fuel stating that ethanol fuel is the only fuel they can get there and if the boat users don't use one of the two fuel additives they suggest, people have major issues with their engines. They had no reason to lie to me because they knew I lived in Michigan.

For a gas pump to contain ethanol doesn't it have to have a sticker on the front of the gas pump indicting it contains it?
 
keithkz said:
I bought my boat from a marina in eastern PA and the two salesmen guys there cursed the ethanol fuel stating that ethanol fuel is the only fuel they can get there and if the boat users don't use one of the two fuel additives they suggest, people have major issues with their engines. They had no reason to lie to me because they knew I lived in Michigan.

For a gas pump to contain ethanol doesn't it have to have a sticker on the front of the gas pump indicting it contains it?
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It does not in Michigan ,only if it is E-85 . I can't speak for the other states
 
It does here. They all say "may contain ethanol" and something about up to 10%.
 
SEMPERFI8387 said:
Our state (Pa) does. Here's a listing.

http://www.fuel-test...hanol_laws.html
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I incorrectly assumed Indiana did require labeling and I've even visited that site several times previously. There is a Shell station right next to my dealer where he filled mine up before delivery and also claimed it was E free when I asked. Unfortunately, there's just no way to tell for sure other than to test it yourself here. At least my marina is, since I know where it's sourced from.
 
Hello everyone. I just joined the forum a couple of weeks ago and have a 2550 RCL on order - hopefully to be delivered within the next couple of weeks. Very nice forum.

I make gasoline for a living. If you can get gasoline without ethanol, you should use it for your boat. This is hands down the best solution. If you have to use E10, I would advise to use the stabilizing additive. Just to be clear, I don't have anything to do with selling any additive.

I would also say the video above is accurate - especially in a humid environment. As gasoline evaporates it actually cools down a bit causing the water in the air to condense as shown in the video. Neat gasoline can also cause this problem, but to a lesser degree. The problem: ethanol is very water soluble. So the water actually extracts the ethanol out of the fuel as the condensed water drops into the gasoline. So the volume of "water" falling to the bottom of the gas tank actually is water and ethanol - so the volume is larger than just the water alone, and that stuff won't burn. In addition, the ethanol in gasoline is blended at 10% (thus E10)and the blend hits the 87 R+M/2 spec. So.. any ethanol removed from the gasoline also reduces the octane rating of the remaining gasoline.

For those that aren't aware, Octane Rating is an engine anti-knock indicator. Too low an octane, the engine knocks and pings. Running a higher octane gasoline in your engine than it requires provides no additional benefit. The general rule is the higher the engine compression ratio, the higher the octane gasoline you need.

Hope this was helpful.

Greg
 
Welcome to the forum Greg and thanks for the info.
 
+1 on thanks for the info Greg. There is no ethanol free on the lake but there is a gas station on the way up that sells premium with no ethanol. I was picking up gas for my seadoo and hauling it because it is a 2007 turbo and takes premium but I was filling my Benny's 115 Yamaha on the lake because it did not require premium and I felt confident in the 2012 technology with the water separator [plus I don't enjoy lugging 5-gallon cans down to the dock. Maybe I should start hauling gas for the Benny as well
 
Question: Does the water/fuel separator on the Benny take out the water caused by this problem?
 
Look at it this way, phase separation could cause the fuel pick up to be under the 'sludge level', then the fuel pump would not be supplying gas, even if the water fuel separator was able to pull the water out of the sludge. The other problem Greg mentioned was the leeching of the octane out of the gas 'above' the sludge. Our motors need some anti-knock protection.

Makes me think the way of the future is to have a smaller tank under the main tank to collect ethanol sludge. One would just have to purge it every so often and use gas additives to enrich the gas above with sufficient octane. Of course I'm probably overlooking something.
 
Padre said:
I guess Sta Bil is the best answer, just always use it.
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I have a Merc ,so I am going to use what they suggest .

http://www.mercurymarine.com/parts-and-accessories/product-overview/fuel-care-system/

The amount they suggest .They sell it @ Walmart under $9.00 a bottle , which treats 120 gallons .

I will keep my receipts ,and the empty bottles if I have to .

I also purchased the Mercury 7 year platinum warranty for under $500 . However I am sure I will be upgrading before then .

It is transferable also .
 
I consider myself very lucky as no ethanol 89 octane gas is available at a local gas station. I haul it in 5G cans, and fill the boat via a Super Siphon. Sounds like a pain, but I am used to it, and it is actually cheaper than the ethanol enriched premium sold at a local marina.
 
To clarify some of the comments with regards to using ethanol gas, I understand the need to use stabilizer but do you also need to use "ring free additive" or is that dependent on what octane level you use?

I have a yamaha F150, I have only been using the marine fuel on the lake but I'm getting tired of paying over 5.50 per gallon. I just recently bought some marine grade stabilizer in case I make the switch.
 
My mercury manual says avoid ethanol if at all possible. I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.
 
Captain Livingston said:
I was told to use Sea Foam? Have a 225 Mercury Optimax 2 stroke
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Seafoam will clean the carbon from pistons and valves (which you don't have), but it's not a fuel stabilizer. Unless they changed it.
 
The links I posted were for a"Mercury 4 Stroke ".

Myself I don't even understand, Why there is corn in our Gas .

Politics ,I guess?
 
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