Sea Foam vs Sta-Bil vs Marine Sta-Bil - What is the best for boats??
I was told by a local small engine facility owner that Sea-Foam ruined the guts of his boat motor by stripping all of the lining out of his fuel lines and causing his gaskets to become brittle and come apart. He said that he only recommend Marine Sta-Bil for all boat motors.....I have access and only use non-ethanol gas in my boat as well as all of my cars and yard equipment so my questions are:
1> Has anyone ever heard that Sea-Foam is BAD for a marine motor?
2> Should you use regular Sta-Bil with ethanol gas and marine Sta-Bil only if your gas contains ethanol?
3> Has anyone ever used Sea-Foam in their vehicles oil? The can says it does all kinds of good things to the inner's of the vehicle motor?
Thanks for the comments and feedback......Mark
Link to Ethanol Test that can be done at home.
Not to steal this thread but the best thing any of us can do is buy "real" gas and then put whatever additive that works for us. Living in an area isolated from "real" lakes I am down to only one station whose pumps are not labeled "This may contain Ethanol". Arkansas requires labeling if it is possible that Ethanol has been added.
Personally I use Sea-foam and have had proven results as both a carbon remover as well as a carb cleaner/stabilizer. I have personally experienced an outboard that had sat for a year but would not idle when fresh fuel was used. Six gallons of fresh gas later and a half a can of Sea-foam it ran perfect. I would have almost bet the carbs would have had to been removed and cleaned without the Sea-foam.
Now to add something new to the discussion. How do any of us know that the gas we are buying for our motors is ethanol free gas? The following link shows a simple test tube test than can for the most part indicate whether or not you have ethanol gas and if you want to be precise with your measurements it indicates it will tell you the percent ethanol you are getting. No expensive test kits or drops to buy, just a small test tube and a small sample of gas and tap water. I found it interesting and thought I would share the link.
YouTube - Test gasoline for ethanol
Should the link not work, I found it by searching Utube for Test Gas for Ethanol.