Anyone having motor trouble running this gas? I had to drain tank, B-12 the carbs and find reg gas to keep my motor running. Any sugestions?

I put some gas from RaceTrack in my boat a couple of weeks ago. I think it was some sort of Ehtanol blend. It made my motor run like ****! I had to get out the spare tank with different gas and some marvel mystery oil to get the engine to stop running rough. I read on a thread at Iboats that the motor should be ok with the ethanol blend. I think the alcohol turned loose of some crud in my tank or fuel lines. I keep hearing about "RXP" on Wheels with Ed Wallace. RXP is suppose to help the car engine burn the ethanol better. I've wondered what it would do to an outboard?

John

my motor ran bad with the first 1/2 of a tank of 10%,after that i haven't had a problem with it,i do add sea foam with each fill up naw to help with water because of the ethanol

I use 2 six-gal plastic portable tanks with my 1979 vintage Evinrude...didn't change a thing...never even noticed the switch to E-10.

Howard if your carbs are fouled the only solution is to remove, disassemble, soak overnight in carb cleaner, blow out the passages with compressed air, reinstall, link & sync. What are your symptoms?

Many posts about ethanol on the forum.......SEARCH for ethanol. However here are the main issues:

1. All the major manufacturers say that 10% Ethanol is OK in recent year engines (late 1980s and newer). However anything over 10% is a big NO NO!

2. Boats with built in fiberglass tanks usually larger cruiser style boats, are at risk for the ethanol to dissolve the tank. Some major repairs on the coast with very expensive large boats.

3. You should drain the tank completely and make sure no water in the tank before adding your first tank of ethanol blended fuel.........sorry to late to worry about this if you already added to the older MTBE gas in the boat. Why? there have been reports of gelling of the fuel and clogged lines and fuel filters. The ethanol WILL clean out everything in the service station tank, the transport truck tank, and the boat tank and send it to the engine. Most manufacturers are recommending you install a large capacity water seperating filter on all boats with built in tanks.

Here is the main issue- ethanol sucks moisture from the air into the tank. Once the water reaches the SATURATION level, the ethanol and water fall to the bottom of the tank, with lower octane fuel in the top level. If you add oil to the gas(the old way not oil injected)the 2 cycle oil stays in the UPPER LEVEL of the tank with the pure gas!!! leaving the bottom layer of alcohol and water without any 2 cycle oil!!! PHASE SEPERATION. Once this has happened you must pump the tank out.

There is currently two schools of thought for winterizing Ethanol fuel. #1- Drain all the fuel at the end of the season,drain the carbs. Seal the vent to the tank. Start again new next year.

#2- Fill the tank FULL and stabilize. Cover the vent to the tank.

Just have to wait and see which way works better??? or BUY YOU GAS outside of the major cities where it does not contain ethanol.

jtexas, with portable tanks you should not have any problems because the fuel is continually replaced, like in an automobile. Built in boat tanks are another matter. My tank is 55 gallons. However left over fuel at the end of the season in a portable tank should be stabilized, or used up. Dont leave the vent open on a portable tank.

I have had no issues with E10 gas so far. I made sure that I ran my last tank of non-E10 gas down as low as possible before putting in the E10. With my first tank of E10, I added a little extra Ring Free and ran the storage amount (instead of maintenance amount) of Stabil. This tank of E10 has been in my tanks for nearly two months, and my outboard has started with ease and has run fine the whole time. It ran just a little rough at the start of the 1st trip with E10 gas, but smoothed up by the end of the day. I am guess that the alcohol cleaned some "gunk" off the tank walls and hoses.

BTW, I am running without an external fuel filter/water separator. Plan to have one installed at the end of the season.

I have about 1/4 tank left in each of my two tanks, and I plan to burn that up this weekend (boat has been sitting for about 3 weeks). Hopefully, there will be no issues.

I remember the ethanol gas in the 70's. The U.S. army researched and tested it. They determined that it burnt hotter and could damage internal parts of their engines( mainly valves). They determined that the added cost of repairs did not justify the added savings. In the 70's the U.S. army would not use it.

At the first of the year, the only places that had E-85 in Texas were three military bases. My how times change. It's here to stay, I just hope the change over doesn't put too many old engines belly up. Ten years down the road we will all be better off with lower fuel prices, I hope. One forum member posted that he saw E-85 in MO, for $2.10 /gal. Ethanol and Biodiesl are needed, just going to take a while to get used to them.

Dont forget that your gas mileage DROPS 20-25% when you use E85..........so that $2.10 ethanol actually cost $2.77!!! According to the government fuel economy site some cars dropped as much as 30% in fuel mileage with E85. !

That's true Boatman, but I was thinking that if they can sell it for that price when the demand is well beyond the supply like it is now. Then when we get the production up, the price may go low enough to make it a good auto fuel. I wonder if the four stroke outboards will be able to run it soon.

Vaughn, yes they can run a 10% ethanol mix..........but every report I have seen along with most of the manufacturer recommendations say that anything over 10% is a NO NO! At or over 20% real rubber and gasket deterioration starts big time, along with a lean fuel condition that can burn up outboard engines.

Yes I know about the current motors, the thing I was wondering about is if they are changing the new four strokes over so they can run the E85. Seems like the they will have to if we are to have outboards to use in the future.

Notice a little sluggishness out of my Yamaha 222 HPDI. Once it got to running was fine.