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Interesting to note that we here in suburban New York (Long Island) went through the ethanol problems about 5 years ago so we have had some experience with it. And let me say first that I'm ticked off because we get NO benefit from it...at least in the Midwest it benefits farmers but here it's nothing but another example of the gov't forcing things down people's throats and not listening to experts, but rather big business. Yes unlike some parts of the midwest that benefit from ethanol, we are FORCED to use it...
OK now that's out of the way, here are the facts:
1) Save your money on additives, if you have water in the gas, there is no point adding more alcohol based additives to run it through the engine. The problem is, ethanol does 2 bad things. One it cleans the tank if dirty (not bad in itself) but does it all at once and clogs filters (bad). Then it attracts moisture in the air. Your boat fuel tank is vented to the atmosphere like your cars were in the old days. The ethanol will actually pull moisure out of the air. The gas/ethanol mixture can hold a set amount of water till it phase separates. Then the water will drop to the bottom of the tank, with the ethanol, and leave you with low octane gas on top. NONE, I repeat, NONE of the additives will prevent or reverse phase separation, period. All stabil is good for is keeping the fuel from oxidizing so it burns well the next season.
2. So if you have water in your gas, the only things that work are getting it out, and keeping it out. You can switch to the Racor filter with the metal bowl for inboards and drain the fuel to check for water, and keep doing this till you don't see it any more. If you have a lot you should get the tank pumped.
3. Keep in mind that Big Agri-Business wants to have E-15 and E-20 next because they are not making enough on E-10. When that happens (and it will, because no one in the gov't listens to experts who know more than they do), every boat owner, every small engine operator will be out of luck with warrantee repairs because using anything more than E-10 violates any boat engine or small engine warrantee...yes that's true read the fine print...
Make sure you use a good water separating filter, rated for 10 microns, Racor preferred, and make sure you gas cap gasket does not let water in, that's the most you can do. Forget depending on Stabil or Seafoam, they will work for what they were designed, but not for water in the gas because of ethanol.....
And this is just for I/Os, ethanol does nasty things to those nice expensive Yamaha 4 stroke outboards that most new boats here have (clogs up the VST filters) and old boats with fiberglass gas tanks have a whole nother problem (the ethanol dissolves the 'glass resins and makes a sticky mess that ruins the engine and can cause the tank to leak. Big business manipulation of gov't is clearly a BAD thing, and not getting any better....
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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
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