Ethanol

been hearing a lot of folks talking about carb trouble because of ethanol.I havent had a problem yet (knock on wood) and I dont know if its true or not? Anybody else hear of this?

Boat Engines - Dangers and Precautions Necessary with E10 Ethanol-Blend Gasoline.

I work in a marina docking and fueling fishing boats up to mega yachts and i can tell you that ethanol is nothing but trouble.If you have fiberglass tanks in your boat ethanol will eat right through them.Another big problem is ethanol attracts water and mixes with it then goes through phase seperation where the ethanol and water sink to the bottom of your tank and then gets sucked into your motor.Ethanol attracted over 5 inches of water in the fuel tanks at my marina in about a month and a halfs time. I talked to the owner of the tank cleaning company that came to the marina and he told me to use BELL PERFORMANCE'S MIX-I-GO and its for use with ethanol fuel and keeps it from seperating.We now add this to every fuel delivery we get at the marina and i use it in my boat and no problems yet.

Thanks for info related here. I believe my engine problems could be related to this ethanol business. Especially interesting was the suggestion that there could be higher amounts of alcohol in the blend because of the unethical practices of certain people in the delivery system. It has snuck in on me while I was unaware, and might explain why I haven't been able to get to the bottom of my engine performance problems even though I have taken my motor to every different Yamaha mechanic in the area over the last several years.

I see allot of problems in mud motors b/c of it. If you add a little bit of sea foam to the tank it will cure any trouble you might have had.

Don't you just love Congress?:rolleyes: Make everybody use this stuff that destroys engine parts for the sake of better gas mileage. Stupid brainless morons.... I mean what part of this equation don't they get? Ethanol=destroyed engine. Just send your repair and expense bill to Congress. We have a new plant that is going to open here and "create a lot of new jobs." Want to guess what that plant will manufacture?:rolleyes:

Sea foam is the best thing for this. I just make sure that the gas in my tanks doesn't sit for more than a couple weeks also. I've been told after about a month is when it really starts to seperate.

you get worse mileage with ethanol

You might want to recheck your gas mileage. I went from 18 mph to 13 mph on a 2000 Z71. Check and let us know what you find. I hope all i need is a tune up.

Last year I used the sea foam on successive tanks of gasoline. It didn't do anything for my problem. So I'm guessing that my problems have degenerated until they have caused some real problems, i.e. with the corrosion of internal parts in the carburators, and maybe the piston rings, and whatever else it can do. A fellow at the Crescent Lake ramp tried to help me with offering me some stabilizer Thursday morning. Told me ethanol had caused $1000 damage to his engine. I thanked him but had to tell him I had been using the stuff for the last year-- just hadn't done any good for me. It did get me to thinking about investigating the matter more, because the mechanics around here have not suggested the ethanol problem at least through this time last year when I had the engine serviced. So these posts here, and the link to the ethanol article, kind of describe the situation pretty well, as far as the symptoms I experience, and how being unaware of the effects of the ethanol over a period of time could very well be the demon in my engine. My engine is a 98 model 2 stroke 90 Yamaha. I'm the second owner and have had the rig 6 years. It runs very rough at idle through low speeds. One mech told me it sounded to him like the motor was dropping a cylinder but he didn't know anything else to do for it other than soak the carbs, which he did for three years. He closed his shop and I went somewhere else. The guy I have now also soaked the carbs and then took the rig out for an in-water carb adjustment. The motor worked well for one day. The following trip it was back to it's old habbits. Smokes like a burning tire first thing in the morning. But once its warmed up it runs okay at mid ranges. Last couple years it overheats at WOT, so I don't take it there anymore. I think thats probably related to heavy saltwater use and build-up in the insullating jackets. Presently I'm just hoping the stock market will go back up so I can buy a new one and start over. Lacking that I will run the tank mostly dry then take it back for service this spring. Get them to drain the tank best they can and then get filters every 25 hours like Yamaha suggests to do--- hadn't been doing that either.