www.iFourWinns.com

Make your own non-ethanol fuel; it can be done, but at the rate our boats consume fuel, it can't be done easily. We all have the needed ingredient as a household chemical. Just be careful; the reagent used to remove the ethanol can be deadly.

If you put that government mandated piss water in your boat after it was always run with real gas, you are asking for as much trouble as ric encountered when he didn't listen to us (he will never admit it though). But, go ahead, save a buck now so you can pay some sleezy boat tech later on when he hits you with a $1,000 bill to fix all the crap that starts to go wrong.

_________________

Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

Here is my experience switching over to E10 in a 12 year old Horizon, VP 5.7L carbureted engine:

Previous owner ran non-ethanol marina gas.
I purchased the boat and started running ethanol.
I found that I needed to adjust the timing more advanced to get excellent WOT.
(however, that leaves me too far advanced if I run Marina gas)
A week or two after purchase I had a problem with water and "phase separation" in the tank. I have concluded that this was because there was water in the tank already from the previous owner, and because he did not have an O-ring on the Gas Cap, so rain was getting in.

So I had to have the tank pumped out. No problems in the 1.5 years since then. Rarely if ever use Stabil.

Note on Carb: I rebuilt the carb as preventative maintenance, however the Volvo Rebuild kit came with the Black accelerator pump diaphragm. The Black one is not suitable for Ethanol. I left the Green accelerator pump diaphragm in the carb, which is fine for any amount of Ethanol. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE GREEN ACCELERATOR PUMP IF YOU HAVE A CARBED ENGINE.

On my previous boat, I ran Ethanol for 10 years without any issues. Never used additive, and often went months without use.

Conclusion:
1. I plan to continue to run E10 exclusively, and that saves me at least 60cents/gal in my area.

2. If you are switching to E10, consider removing your fuel sender and checking for existing water in the bottom of the tank (or having it pumped out). Also drain the fuel separator before switching.

3. If you are Fuel Injected, consider when your electric fuel pump was manufactured and read up on the flaking paint issue to see if you are likely to have a problem with the electric fuel pump.

_________________

"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

Since we are talking about fuel. I run 87 octane at the moment. Would it be better for me to run 89 octane? Add sea foam additive? Right now after I fuel up I add valve tech stabilizer every time due to the marina fuel. When July comes around and the extreme heat hits I always run the blower when running the engines due to vapor lock. Would running higher octane burn more rapid thus running cooler and not needing the blower on? And or eliminate vapor lock?

_________________
1996 278 Vista Dlx Twin 5.0
1999 Sea Ray 215 ex cruiser (sold)
1989 Seaswirl (sold)

I run 87 E10 pump gas, with Stab-Bil every fill up. No probs so far. But, we don't get the heat here that you experience at Mead, so I never had a vapor lock prob. I also have a carb, soooo....

_________________

1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

I usually buy marina gas all season because my boat stays in the water from May to Oct. They sell only 93 octane but that's fine with me because of the fact that it gives you a safety margin if you get pinging that you can't hear. Marine inboards are prone to carbon build up because they run rich and cool. Carbon increases the octane requirement of the engine.

_________________
88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Well technically, higher octane burns slower, not faster. However, I don't think that would change your engine compartment temperature.

_________________

"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

I can tell you from experience that ethanol will make vapor lock worse. The alcohol in the fuel evaporates easier than gas and in hot temperatures if you are already prone to the problem, it will do it more often and at lower ambient temperatures.
I finally had to wire up a circuit that will run the fuel pump without the engine running to re-prime the fuel system when it locks. I'm carbureted, and don't know if it effects the injected engines as bad.

_________________
1999 180 Horizon LS 4.3 L GL Volvo SX
1994 Powerstroke
2002 Jeep Wrangler
not@work.gon
Happiness is an Empty Boat Trailer!!!

This is interesting guys,,,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceW9Nc1hVHU

_________________
07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

I always ran 94 octane in my last boat , the higher octane does have a slower burn and it will increase temps in the engine but nothing that you would notice. the thermostat keeps temps to a constant. engine compartment temps will go up after shutting down i always run blower several times during hook time to pull out heat never had a problem with vapor lock

_________________

1989 245 vista
5.7 cobra

I decided to run with 91 this week and seemed to run real good. The real test will be later in the year when the temps start to be above the 100 degree mark. I still run the blower on while driving that seems to help with the ventilation in the engine compartment. Thanks again.

_________________
1996 278 Vista Dlx Twin 5.0
1999 Sea Ray 215 ex cruiser (sold)
1989 Seaswirl (sold)

Im really glad to see this discussion has remained civil!

The only problem Ive ever had with gas in a boat, was the one time I took the advice of a boating friend to use seafoam. Right after using seafoam, my genny wouldnt start. I traced it down to a fuel delivery problem. Removed the carb bowl and it had a ton of crap in it!!! Cleaned out the carb, changed my fuel filters, and havent touched seafoam since...lol. I can attest that the stuff does work.

Ive run "street" gas in every boat Ive ever owned, exclusively. Ive never had any problems whatsoever. Never had carb problems or fuel injection problems. Maybe Im the exception or maybe my karma is going to run out one day and Ill have one huge problem - but either way, you cannot easily buy pure gasoline anywhere here in Michigan except marinas, and now they are all switching to E-10.

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Even our marina gas here is E10. So far I just keep changing the fuel filter once a year and checking for water. As far as vapor lock it is true that E10 gas will be more prone to it as it has additional oxygen. The other thing that makes it worse is high altitude, the lower air pressure allows hot gas to boil more easily just like water boils at a lower temp there. I used to have a 1970 Ford Torino with a 302 and an Autolite 2100 2bbl carb. It was prone to vapor lock even on straight gas. The way we solved it was to use an insultor under the carb and I put heat insulation tape on the metal fuel line. These engines has a water heated intake manifold that got really hot (much more so that on the Chevy engines) and I think that was the main issue causing it.

_________________
88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

I was just doing some reading on the subject of vapor lock, and found something not discussed here. Winter formulated fuel is more subject to vapor lock than Summer Fuel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_vapor_pressure
This could mean you are more subject to vapor lock for the first few outings in the spring if you filled up with Winter gas before winterization.

I also read that ethanol blend is LESS likely to have vapor lock due to it's lower vapor pressure.

_________________

"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

"Quotes found on the internet are not always accurate". Abraham Lincoln

_________________
2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos