Re: E15….coming

[jerry-ahrens]

People that know me also know that I hate ethanol… that being said, I use ethanol free fuel in my Ranger bass boat, 2 Alumacrafts boats, a 24 ft Sea Ray with a Mercruiser, and a Reinell also with a Mercruiser. I also use it in a 318 John Deere with an 18 hp Onan. All of the above set outside year round, and all of covered during periods of non use. The sterndrive powered boats that I have also have water seperating fuel filters. I have never had any water in my fuel tanks, ever. I only use regular gas stabilizer in the winter time, only. No magic ethanol gas treatment whatsoever. Having said all of that, I don’t think I have ever ran into any boats that were using ethanol fuel that had water in the gas, except for being rained on. What I notice about ethanol, is that the gas is always stale and smells awful. Many of the engines I see won’t idle very well with this stale gas. The other thing I’ve noticed is the yellow looking varnish that seems to be present throughout the carb and fuel system. Actually, I think if you fill up with fresh ethanol, your engine will run just fine. The problem is when a fuel tank is left to set around, and the stuff goes bad. IMHO, I don’t think any kind of additive will prevent or fix this problem. I think removing the said fuel from the engine and fuel tank is the only way to prevent problems.
One example of this that I can share with you, is a city work boat that I repaired a few years ago. It is owned by a city near me, and is used in our annual shoreline clean up, and various other things. It has a 70 hp OMC outboard for power. The boat came in with gummed up carburetors, and needed the usual service. They were using ethanol fuel that was purchased in town. After the boat was picked up and the bill paid, I instructed the man in charge of this boat to be sure to NOT use ethanol in this rig, because the boat sets alot. I also tried to get them to bring the boat back to me in the fall, so I could take care of winterizing it for storage. Well, that did not happen! About a year later, here it comes back to the shop… they say it’s down on power. The guy driving it said ”it was down on power, so we added a can of (mechanic in a bottle) additive to the gas and continued to run it, hoping it would come out of it. Turns out they were running it on the ethanol fuel from last year! The motor had a plugged carburetor, and it burned up the top cylinder from running lean. I threw my hands up in the air when I thought about all the work I did to that motor the prior year, which included rebuilding all three carbs. Such a waste of a good motor. These are just my opinions, respectfully.