Alcohol an interesting tilt!

[MOP]

One of my local Merc dealers has had so much trouble with the new Alky Gas that he is asking his customers to run the tanks way down, he is dumping a few gallons of AV gas in which has lead and -0- Alky, conditioners both stabilizer and stuff for ther Alky. He had some interesting horror stories about jelly and brown goo, 1 in 7 or 8 have fuel probs. He says it is real BS and the Gov needs to back off the Alky on boats or they will destroy the pleasure market place! People will only fix a recurring problem just so many times before they bail out of a "No Fun" hobby!

[Barry Eller]

Will the "new" gas affect carburetors as much as fuel injection?

:confused:

[BUIZILLA]

It's going to affect anything aluminum or plated. It will eat colored anodizing as well.

[rustnrot]

Is this problem just from the 10% alcohol or is it from the E85 (85%) alcohol?

[Just Say N20]

10% is the culprate. And it has the potential to become a real nightmare. I work at Tiara Yachts, and there has been a tremendous amount of discussion about how to deal with the ethanol mess. Problem is, that ethanol seems to ruin just about all the traditional materials used in the construction of fuel systems. In their infinite wisdom :bonk: the government has implemented across the board requirements, with no consideration as to the implications (much like that spectacularly moronic luxury tax on high end yachts, that ruined several boat companies, and pushed many more right up to the edge of dissaster).

The point was correctly made on another similar thread that cars are not as severly impacted because they turn over tanks of fuel much more rapidly, so you don't have this potential mess just sitting unused and undisturbed for months at a time.

Boating is an expensive, luxury hobby, and MOP is right. People will only put up with so much expense and inconvinience before they say, "screw this" and get out of boating. How many times do you think the owner of a 30/40/50+ foot boat is going to incur the expense of having his pride and joy sawzalled apart so the fuel tank, which ethanol has eatin away, can be replaced? Especially, since the new tank will most likely suffer the same fate at the original unless a miracle addative in invented, or marine gas gets revised governmental regulations that allow it to be non-alcohol gas.

Like many people on the board, I'm guessing, my livelyhood (sp?) is tied to the marine industry, so this makes me more than just slightly nervous.

[Barry Eller]

Would shutting the fuel off at the tank, allowing the engine to run out of fuel, help at least the fuel system away from the tank when storing?

I do this with my generator and I store it with out fuel. When a Hurricane comes, I put fresh fuel in it and it always starts.

[Greg K]

This Product (http://www.dougrussell.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ethanol) is suppose to help.

[BigGrizzly]

So on and so forth we are adding more junk to the fuel system. BTW cares ARE affected similar to boats. I know I worked for an auto manufacturing company for 24 years so I have seen problems.

[Just Say N20]

BigGrizzly,

I wasn't suggesting that cars weren't affected, just that because boats generally hold larger amounts of fuel, and they can sit for months at a time, some additional problems show up, that generally don't appear in cars.

[MOP]

I have been religiously filling my tanks with stabilizer for many years, this year I will follow my Merc guys advice. I will run the tanks way down load then with Star Tron and stabilzer, tape off the vents to retard moisture ingestion. I will winterize with AV gas letting it run long enough to purge ap the alky mix out the fog it to winters death! In the spring I will load it up with Hi Test, run that through then go back to 89 and keep running the Star Tron or a similar product.

I will be the Guinea Pig!

Phil