An article for your review.
http://www.boattest.com/Resources/view_news.aspx?NewsID=3465

I love the last comment...

After an entire article bashing the use of alcohol in gas they come along and suggest a fuel stabilizer thats almost all alcohol...

An article like that sure has a lot of credibility in my book....

Can we please see the science these mechanics are using????

I find articles like this to be interesting, they take "comments" from "mechanics" and pass them off as fact, even when the conflict.

I agree that you have to prepare your boat and motor for using it, you need to update rubber hoses, gaskets etc, but alcohol is the fuel stabilizer, it us the dominant item in most stabiliser products.

Alcohol on the other hand is not likely the root cause of the varnish that is used as the examples of what is causing problems, if anything Alcohol is helping to reduce that varish.

To see proof, look at any old metal fuel can that has had regular old 100% gas in it and allowed to evaporate out a few times. You will see the red colored varnish on the inside of the cans. The varnish is the residue from the fuel, and the red color is the dye used to ID the fuel as automotive fuel.

Now if you haven't replaced your fuel lines and gaskets, then the alcohol can break down that material and cause clogged carbs.

If the alcohol is causing the clogging it's because it is desolving the varnish which is coming from your good old gasoline...

I will admit I am biased, I am a corn farmer from Iowa, but at the same time I have also listened to this so called science from mechanics that have no real proof, but are trying to explain a situation away with coincidental facts.

Yes carb rebuilds are up, and yes its after the boat has sat, but before the alcohol was added to the fuel the varnish just built up in the bowl, and never really got into the rest of the carb. Now it's being desolved and the carb cannot digest it.

varnish is the leftovers of oil and additives from refining of oil into gas, all petroleum products evaporate some faster than others this leaves a "varnish". ethanol will start to break down in 7 days or so and will not reincorporate into the gas, it breaks down rubber gaskets, o rings, and seals in your engine. ethanol reduces the burn efficency in the cylinder resulting in lost "gph" or "mph" in your boat or vehicle. ethanol adds cost to gas due to having to add it after the refining process. alcohol can be used to remove water from fuel (isopropyl is what I use) but should not be used on a regular basis due to the damaging effects on seals and gaskets etc. stabil is the only brand of fuel stabilizer I have seen that has an ethanol formula but I have not used it nor do I intend to as I can buy 100% gas. last but not least ethanol adds cost to many of our food products due to the fact that it takes so much corn to make the quantitys required for gas additives. I have grown up in the "oil field" and my father owned an oil company till he retired, these facts have been proven and can be looked up. sorry about the long post but I for one am tired of the tree huggers costing me more money, keeping us dependent on foriegn oil, and not telling the truth about the oil and gas industry.

"sorry about the long post but I for one am tired of the tree huggers costing me more money, keeping us dependent on foriegn oil, and not telling the truth about the oil and gas industry."

+1 hopalong

Just take us back to pre-ethanol, pre-MTBE. That gas burned fine.

Buy your boat gas in Louisiana. Very few stations sell ethanol "contaminated" gas. I wont buy it...and if I find out it's in the gas and not marked on the pump, you can bet I'll raise more cane than the dealer can stand. I'll make it my mission in life to destroy his business....as long as the law says it has to be noted ON the pump.

"...After an entire article bashing the use of alcohol in gas they come along and suggest a fuel stabilizer thats almost all alcohol..."

That's not accurate.

http://www.fuel-testers.com/review_gas_treatment_products.html

Just curious, how is moving to Alcohol keeping us dependant on foriegn oil??? I'm a bit confised?

What is costing you more money is that noone is investing in building Alcohol plants, the cost to make alcohol will be reduced as more plants come online.

And it is not pushing the cost of food up, most of the food corn in this country comes from other countries anyway.

Alcohol does reduce mpg by 20%, but once it is widely available it will cost substantially more than 20% less per gallon. Right now it's simple supply and demand, demand is high by states requireing it's use in gas, and supply is low because there are too few factories making it. When things catch up it will come into balance.

Don't know if this will answer your ? but....
I think the ethanol deal was for votes and votes only. There are other ways that are already avail. to help take the load off the oil, such as natural gas for one. It is widely available, clean burning, is Americam made and will employee more people, and easy to convert exsisting motors over. This is not the All answer but is and in my opinion the best way to ease the load off oil. Ethanol is NOT a better product, uses feed corn which inturn drives up all other down stream stuff such as , meat, dairy etc. It only benifits two sectors, 1. the corn farmers which I don't blame them a bit, they( the farmers) need a break and this was good for them, 2. and the biggest was the politicion ENOUGH SAID

Natural gas generates far far less power than gasoline or alcohol, about the only thing it really is suited for is the electric hybrids. You won't see a Natural gas truck pulling much of a boat or anything else.

Talk to any of your local postman and ask them what they think of the Natural Gas vehicles that they have to drive.

Alcohol is not the answer to every problem, but right now it's the only thing on the market that can generate even remotely close to the same power as gas.

Most postal jeeps I've seen are not much on the powerhouse side anyhow.I am a driller for H&P working in Arlington so yes u am partial to natural gas and we have a hotshot truck that comes to rig that has a natural gas kit on it and he has hauled 25k loads out of here without a problem so I know it would pull my boat And any other bass boat I've seen and he gets 20+ mpg not bad for a one ton. Sorry for the gripe but we will always need gas and oil and I am tired of all this liberal bull trying to put me in the unemployment line haven't they figured out there's way to many there already!

I try not to get in to these debates because it can be futile. But when someone can argue Ethanol is an answer well then that is just pure non-sense. We all know the process to make E is in it self bad, then to push something that is deff. not any help to anyone down our throats and inturn makes us pay for extra additives to combat the so called GOOD for us fuel, and charge extra for a vehichle to burn it, and makes the old "BAD" fuel less efficant(sp). Well I just don't see it!!! There has been trucks burning N.G. for along time with no prob., so that bird won't fly. I'm not saying NG is THE answer but it is a readily available fuel that could be used to take a load off oil. and inturn benifit more in the process.
Oh... and of course I think my way is best . Have a blessed and glorious day!!!!

I have seen the cost of feed of for my cattle go up because of the increase in the demand for corn. Since the "libs" are saying that cattle are making too much methane, why dont the figure a way to gather and use this "DANGEROUS" flamable gas? Ya'll ever seen the third "Mad Max"? Tina Turner was running a whole city on methane (pig farts)

And I know if Tina Turner can do it, our elected "savior" should be able to as well.