Alcohol in gasoline...

[NYBo]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

The owner's manual for my '88 outboard states that E10 is acceptable. I have 3-year-old gas (E10, stabilized) in my boat, and the motor starts right up. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[PoliSciGuy]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

I have a 1990 Bayliner Capri with the 4.3L Mercruiser. Will that engine handle the 10% ethanol fuel, or do I need to run any extra chemicals with the fuel? It's been fine so far, but I don't want anything to fall apart due to an omission of cheap additives.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

I have a 1990 Bayliner Capri with the 4.3L Mercruiser. Will that engine handle the 10% ethanol fuel, or do I need to run any extra chemicals with the fuel? It's been fine so far, but I don't want anything to fall apart due to an omission of cheap additives.

The short answer is don't worry about it.

Its been 20 years, many people would say that if the fuel lines failed or the carb became dirty now its because of E10. Could it be from E10 "maybe" (had to use that word again), but in reality 20 years is longer than the expected life of most of those parts, so they should have been replaced or rebuilt before now anyhow.

You have most likely been using E10 on and off for very long time and didn't know any different.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

Its amazing that for decades the solution to getting water out of you carb or tank was to use ethanol (gas dryer, Heat, etc) and now that its in the fuel its horrible, ethanol is also in many of the so highly touted elixirs that are used to cure the "ethanol problem". Of which none can really do anything to stop the real issue which is phase separation, well there is one product that can help prevent it...that's more ethanol.

Are there potential problems with the new fuels?..yes, are they as bad as what's been so frequently repeated?.no. There is and issue with mixing gas containing MTBE (does the same thing as ethanol) and E10. When these two are combined and then mixed with some water it can form a goo that may plug up a fuel system. Some states have banned MTBE and some haven?t, so its possible to fill up and have the two mixed in your tank.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

Its amazing that for decades the solution to getting water out of you carb or tank was to use ethanol (gas dryer, Heat, etc) and now that its in the fuel its horrible, ethanol is also in many of the so highly touted elixirs that are used to cure the "ethanol problem". Of which none can really do anything to stop the real issue which is phase separation, well there is one product that can help prevent it...that's more ethanol.

Are there potential problems with the new fuels?..yes, are they as bad as what's been so frequently repeated?.no. There is and issue with mixing gas containing MTBE (does the same thing as ethanol) and E10. When these two are combined and then mixed with some water it can form a goo that may plug up a fuel system. Some states have banned MTBE and some haven?t, so its possible to fill up and have the two mixed in your tank.

The big difference is that when I used to add dry gas to a tank it was 8oz to about 12 gallons of gas or about .5% or about 1/20 of what you get in E10. Assuming it is E10 and not the E30 tested in some stations.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Alcohol in gasoline...

I'm not a fan of E10, but after 2 decades of use I haven't had any problems that could be directly blamed on it. We have banned MTBE in this state though, they didn't in OR until just a few months ago and they had more issues. From what I can find FL still has MTBE also.