Well CRAP! Fuel system MESS - I think I screwed up....

[wca_tim]

I've been running E10 in my boat, but found a place that has 93 octane ethanol free gase and have been running it in my corvette. I switched the boat over yesterday not thinking about the possible problems and I am pretty sure I REALLY crapped the fuel system up... needle valves leaking past, won't run too long much over idle without being starved for fuel... I tried the tank vent, etc, etc, etc... I'm assuming at this point that I precipitated a bunch of crap in the fuel system and nothing short of completely taking everything apart and cleaning it out will fix the problem... has anyone had a different experience? as in something that will dissolve the crap where I might get away with adding something to the tank, rebuilding the carb, changing the fuel filter and flushing the lines? Probably wishful thinking, but I would rather take friends and kids skiing this weekend than spend it cleaning the fuel system and tank on the boat... :-(

I guess I should count myself lucky, this is the first time i've had any problem with ethanol / gas mixtures...

 

[John_S]

Re: Well CRAP! Fuel system MESS - I think I screwed up....

You were running E10 and went to non-ethanal and it caused major issues? Thats a surprise to me. Going the other direction with added corrosiveness of the alchahol, I understand. Or was it just "bad" gas? What did you find in the filter/seperator?

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Well CRAP! Fuel system MESS - I think I screwed up....

I found little chunks of yellow stufff solid and some of what looks like snot... in the fuel filter and carb so far. looking in tank is next.

the 12 gallons of gas I took out (into a separate tank) before adding the new gas looks fine. The gas I ran from the same 93 octane pump I used to fill the boat looks fine too...

There was probably around 8-10 gallons of e10 in the boat, I added a little over 20 gallons of non-ethanol gas. the humidity here is high and it is likely that ,much of the e10 is pretty close to saturated with water. I'm thinking that the 3% ethonal I have in there now, may not be able to dissolve the amount of water that was in the remaining e10... and so it phase separated... otherwise, the gas I got in the car after filling the boat should have crap in it too (I pulled a little out of the car - clean as a whistle in a mason jar). oh well, live and learn...

 

[John_S]

Re: Well CRAP! Fuel system MESS - I think I screwed up....

Maybe a dose of water somehow got in to your tank recently, or possibly with the new gas. I have heard good things about Startron additive to help with E10 and phase seperation, but haven't used it myself yet. Sounds like it is too late, though.