Stabil - Clean Engine

[bhammer]

Has anyone used Stabil to clean their engine? The reason I ask is becasue I have had a difficult time making WOT with the stock prop that was on. As a result, I went down from a 4 blade 18P o a 3 blade 17P and that helped but I was still only at the bottom of WOT.

Before I went through Dons can't make WOT tests, I did a couple things. I ran the boat almost all the way to empty. Then drained the remaining 3 gallons of gas and replenished. Checked the Fuel water serpartor and no issues. Filled back up with normal gas and still had the same issue, with a half tank. Picked up some more Stabil and used the entire bottle on the 20somthing gallons of gas. During this time, I noticed that it was slowley getting better. New full tank of gas and normal stabil does, and now I just may have to go up a pitch as I am at the 4800 RMP. I don;t normally run with a 100% full tank. I have a Merc 4.3MPI 220HP. I don't work for Stabil but just thought that was strange as I thought of it as a stabilizer and not a cleaner. I have always used the couple ounces of stabil during fueling...

Any ideas on this, or

 

[LORDY611]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

Never used it to clean anything, but I think it is doing what it is really designed to do: stabilize fuel. It makes it more evenly combustible, thus more efficient. It allows gas to burn more completely thereby wringing more of the burnable stuff out of what is there. There is another thread somewhere on iBoats about Seafoam, a similar product. I searched the web and found out about PRI, yet another version, which gives a nice technical explantion. Here is an excerpt from another post:

Google turned up this article about a product like Sta-bil called PRI. In a nutshell, untreated gas starts out suceptible to chemical changes right out of the pump and goes down hill from there. Clumps of carbon and other goodies begin forming. Those clumps dont burn completely and leave deposits. With an fuel stabilizer the clumping is postponed or even eliminated. PRI seems to think their product is much better than Sta-bil.
Here is the link. http://www.priproducts.com/howitworks.htm

 

[getinmerry]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

After reading on these forums about the wonders of Sea Foam for the last few years, I decided to try it last weekend.

First a little background:

I have a 1998 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer with the 5.0 motor. It has about 180,000 miles on it, It has always been well mainained and is a very good truck. Lately (over the last 6 months) it has felt sluggish and I've had to start using Plus Unleaded because it was pinging under load. I talked with a few mechanics and the all told me it was most likely carbon build-up and/ or clogging fuel injectors. I ran a few bottles of Gumout through it with no real change.

I decided to spend the $8.00 and try the Sea Foam before taking it to the dealer for a pressurized fuel system cleaning ($295.00). I dropped in 2/3 of the can into the tank when I filled up before the weekend trip to the lake. The trip to the lake (about 2 hours) was uneventful, but I noticed that when passing other cars, my truck had more pep. Through the rest of the weekend, the truck was starting easier and generally smoother running.

Before I left the lake to come home, I filled up with regular unleaded and added the remainder od the Sea Foam. During the ride home, I was waiting for the pinging to start while driving through the hills as it always did. There was nothing! It was quiet and smooth. Ran like a brand new truck!

As of the writing of this post, I have almost 300 miles since my last fill-up. The truck is running better than ever. I am going to fill up later today with regular unleaded and no Sea Foam. I'm intrigued to see what happens. I think it will be fine.

Try the Sea Foam. You might be suprised. I know I was. I always looked at these products as snake-oil, but it seems so far, that Sea Foam does what it claims and the other guys on this board are right.

Chuck

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

stabil stablizes fuel. Seafoam cleans the motor, and keeps a clean carb clean.

Seafoam= Prune juice for outboards

 

[Al-53]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

The newer Marine Sta-Bil quotes it cleans and stabilizes fuel...I have a 83 Johnson 35 HP on a 83 Sea Nymph Bass boat I just bought...and I believe the fuel line and bulb are close to the original ones..so replacing them as I see cracks in the bulb..

But would using the New Marine Stabil help keep the system clean...

My nieghbor had the fuel line on his 3 year old Lawn tractor (huskavana) disolve from the ethonol in the fuel (Husky is sending him new lines)and also a friends Harley 1995 had the O ring in the petcock turn to gum from it also...plus the carbs were loaded with gunk from the solvent action...

will the newer Sta Bil prevent this...

AL

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

Welcome aboard AL, saw it was your first post. There have been some positive posts about sta bil, but the best product right now seems to be sea foam. If you click on the search function and enter sea foam you will find some other posts on the use and results.
Some of the product is added to the gas, some of it is fogged into a running motor then left to soak for awhile. Motor started back up and ran again. Check out the posts...

 

[bhammer]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

Hi Al-53, welcome aboard... Yes, it does say clean on stabhil but like the other post, I would use sea foam to do a good cleaning and then run the sb with each fillup. I think, in my case, it was conencidence.

 

[Big Keepers]

Re: Stabil - Clean Engine

I have heard Star-tron is good stuff too. The lil blue bottle that does wonders.