Ethanol Gas Question

[Archerguy1]

Here's a couple of pics and the story. Customer came in said pick up in tank must be bad because at 1/2 tank motor dies runs out of gas, he adds gas and it ran fine. After checking the pick up I was trying to change the in-line fuel filter and found the fuel line extremely soft where it was routed below the pickup which means that fuel sat in this area all the time. Filter was full of rubber, and electric pump would not build presure, pump also had chunks of rubber in it , total repair with a new fuel pump and everything else about $600.00 bucks. When ask he said he never added anything to the gas, even when he did his own winterization, and only bought gas at the same station (Boat was on a private lake without a fuel dock) and he said that about 3 years ago that station put stickers on the pumps for 10% ethenol. So everyone can take it for what it's worth , this fuel line was 9 years old and it was bad in a 4 foot section where fuel seemed to lay in it all the time. This hose was soft enough that I could squeeze a braided hard wall fuel line completely closed with finger and thumb, and these hoses are supposed to be very stiff and crush resistant. I myself I use Stable for ethenol in my boats, rather be safe than sorry.

[coldneck1]

Good info! Thanks for the post.

[Slabby15]

Thanks everybody for the info. I have been using the Marine Sta-bil since I seen it at Bass Pro. I have been buying my gas from the Chevron that says their gas is still ethanol free. I am leery now if there is ethanol free gas readly available except on the lake. I wonder if there is a test kit that is reasonably priced that you can buy to check gas for ethanol. I will probably Google for a test kit and then I will know if the gas stations are lying or not. It sure looks like it will cost us all money over the long run. Ethanol ate up the pick up on my last boat but it was just a external 6 gallon gas tank so it only cost me about 40 dollars or so and I was back in business. I have a new boat and I sure hate to mess up the gas system in it because it will be expensive to fix. I will continue to use marine Sta-bil and hope for the best. Thanks for the comments, Wes

[gtbfishing]

hey if i put the sta bil (marine) in my gas that claims to be ethonal free just in case it isn't ethonal free will that Mess anything up?

[Archerguy1]

No it won't hurt anything, any stabil is better than none and ethenol treatment stabil will not harm anything if there isn't ethenol in the gas but I doubt if it is totally ethenol free.