non-ethanol gas

[phatdaddy]

have a friend with an ethanol test kit. he went around a couple of years ago testing the amount of ethanol in various brands of gas. he found out most of your cheaper "off brands" had much less than the name brands, some almost zero. the sticker on the pumps says "may contain up to 10%" the ethanol is added when the gas is delivered to the station. the tanker gets 90% gas and then blends up to 10% ethanol and depends on the sloshing and movement to the station to blend.

here is a link for a test kit, but i just made one out of a caper bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Briggs-Stratto...ethanol+tester

[cfelton]

Yea, I haven't had any trouble with the boat being an I/O but my weed eater, leaf blower and chain saws really have a hard time swallowing the ethanol. I've been running 93 in my truck since new and had no trouble. All my 2 cycle motors really dont like it, even with stabilizer. I think the trick is use it quick and don't let it sit in the tank very long. The E15 is really gonna cause trouble!

[twhrider2]

I'm with Bradford... only daily drivers get ethanol, everything else including boats and tractors get non.

[bradford]

Down time and the price of new carbs (nobody rebuilds chinese carbs for small 2 stroke equipment anymore), plus the machine running like crap isn't worth saving 70 cents a gallon to me. I still add stabilzer, or for the small 2 stroke stuff I use the stihl silver bottle 2 stroke oil which has them already included.

[cterrebonne]

same here, daily or weekly used stuff gets e10, other stuff gets e0.

I know it might not make a difference, but I would like to see the air to fuel ratio of an outboard without an 02 sensor running ethanol and non-ethanol fuel. I imagine the ethanol fueled engine would run leaner.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by cterrebonne

same here, daily or weekly used stuff gets e10, other stuff gets e0.

I know it might not make a difference, but I would like to see the air to fuel ratio of an outboard without an 02 sensor running ethanol and non-ethanol fuel. I imagine the ethanol fueled engine would run leaner.

A 10% blend isn't supposed to lean out the engine to much as the lower viscosity of it allows it to compensate some there. And if you do the math you only need about 4-5% more E-10 than regular pure gas to achieve the same power output. And with ethanols cooling effect it isn't a problem either. 15% and up is where you start playing on thin ice and worry.

[cfelton]

Finally got around to draining my gas tanks yesterday. My 77 has saddle tanks with the fill up towards the front so I dropped the bow down before draining. I taped a clear 3/8 hose to a small dowel rod and positioned it in the bottom front corner of each tank to drain them. It pulled all but a teaspoon out. Got 12 gallons out all together, the last 2 gallons looked like milk! I had put Stabil and Gas Shok in last fall and it still absorbed moisture. Filled it back up with 93 octane non-ethanol gas, should be good to go as soon as I change the fuel filter. Did I say I hate Ethanol!! Ha Ha!!