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Location: Athens, Ohio | Anyone here subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?
There's an article in there this week about boat owners railing against ethanol fuels ruining their engines. Mostly coastal guys.
The article also states that not only will ethanol suck moisture from the air into vented tanks, causing loss of power, it will also leach contaminants from plastic gas tanks.
Good photo of an engine valve 'ruined by ethanol'.
I tried to access the article and re-print it here, but I'm not a subscriber with that priv.
If anyone can, please share it. thanks, m |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | There's another article in BWB this month on the topic. It suggested newer boats with plastic or aluminum tanks are less at risk than older boats with fiberglass tanks. Perhaps the coastal boats refered to in the article have fiberglass tanks? |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | all I know is use gas with less then 10% ethanol in it specificaly for your boat motors |
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Posts: 434
Location: searchin for 50 | where do you find said gas? every gas station I go to has 10% ethanol (wis) |
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Posts: 194
| In Madison there is one station I know of that sells gasoline without ethanol. Wayne's on Cottage Grove RD is the place (Accross from Dorn True Value and Sports). It's the only gas I'll buy for my boat. I can't speak for outside of Madison, though. I'll bet there is a similar gas station in most towns of any size. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | In Ohia, they passed a law a few years ago. Used to be the gas pumps had to have a label that said "contains up to 10 % ethanol"; now, with the new law, they don't have to tell and most station owners don't know if you ask. Glad the Lege is lookin out for us! m |
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Posts: 144
| I don't believe we have ethanol in jefferson county WI. |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | sorry, meant 10% or less, 10 being the max |
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Posts: 5
| Hey Pete, I live in Jefferson County, Wis, and yes we do have ethanol. I always look for a station that does not have ethanol in the mixture for my boat. Gas issues seem to be a big problem with some of the 4 stroke engines. In fact, in a few minutes I am leaving to take my rig to the marina to get the "cough" out of the engine....jim |
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Posts: 144
| How come none of the pumps say that the gas contains ethanol? |
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Posts: 5
| That new gas station across from the Holiday Inn in Fort Atkinson does say it on the pump. The gas station one block to the east does not have ethanol, this is the station I try to use every time I fill up....jim |
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Posts: 389
Location: Corning, Iowa | What octane do you use in your motors? We have regular at 87 ethanol at 89 and the premiam at 92. I always try for the 92, but have been told the 87 will do just as good. Thanks Doug |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | I was told by the dealer when I picked my new rig up that using gas with ethanol will void the warranty on the Merc.
Edited by muskynightmare 9/8/2006 4:49 PM
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Just missed a deal today..maybe..LOL.. E10 gas at $2.20 a gallon(not E85 either, this is E10 which will work fine in any car made after like 1972)..... ''
Acording to the Ethanol website Mercury Outboards CAN use E 10 ethanol gas and it will not void your warranty.. however you need to do something if you will be using it... but they suggest: "YES * Approved with some minor guidelines or suggested modifications"... actually, all outboards were listed:
Boats/Marine
Honda YES
Kawasaki YES
Mercury YES*
OMC (Johnson/Evinrude) YES*
Pleasurecraft YES*
Tigershark (Arctco) YES*
Tracker YES*
Yamaha YES*
I would call tech supposrt for your engine before the dealer on the ethanol thing..
Here is the link to the E10 website: http://www.e10unleaded.com/index2.htm |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | Korn (some call it maise, some call it awesome music, including myself) Is food, not fuel (except fuel for the soul). lol |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Nightmare, I saw part of a Meet the Press show with oil company execs, that's exactly what they were saying:
"If we invade the food and feed markets for corn to make fuel, what will become of food prices?" There's only so much corn and beans, too, and with all the ethanol plants being proposed and built, it looks like we'd better coordinate our national energy policy with our agricultural policy real soon. GFL on that! m |
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Posts: 910
Location: Hastings, mn, 55033 | ""If we invade the food and feed markets for corn to make fuel, what will become of food prices?" There's only so much corn and beans, too, and with all the ethanol plants being proposed and built, it looks like we'd better coordinate our national energy policy with our agricultural policy real soon. GFL on that! m"
really, we dont already produce great excesses of these products? we arent the leading exporter of agricultural products in the world?
funny that backwards and backwoods brazil can become independent of foreign oil by using sugar cane based ethanol but we cant make any strides here!
and yes, as of right now, ethanol isnt a great return compared to petroleum based fuels, but thesame could have been said 100 years ago about internal combustion engines vs steam powered engines!! sure didnt stop it then did it?
as technology advances, and oil company chemists formulate new bio chemicals to replace petroleum based fertilizers, insecticides etc, and when farmers can purchase tractors, combines, grain trucks etc etc etc that are powered by ethanol, the ratio of return on energy will get better and better.
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Posts: 336
Location: Wheeling, IL. | don't forget that a large number of farmers have thousands of acres in soil banks, or in other words, our government pays them to NOT plant anything. Seems we could use the unused acres to reduce the prices! |
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Posts: 5
| Well, just got my boat back. It cost $455.00 to go through the four carbs and clean them. Ouch. |
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Posts: 5
| Wow, what a difference, I took the boat out Sunday and it starts and runs perfectly. I guess I forgot just how good my 75 hp four stoke Merc could run!!
I am now going to run a carb cleaner and gas stabilizer (Stabil) "year-round" instead of just in the Fall. Also, I will continue to look for ethanol free gasoline. The mechanic also told me I should drain my carbs each Fall before storage, that is something I have not been doing....jim |
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Posts: 49
Location: St. Croix River, Mille Lacs, | campfire and others, I have been working on engines and lowers a long time, I picked up my 9.9 Merc pro-kicker last year new and had great luck the first couple times out. THEN I experienced some extreme cold blooded-ness and crappy idle. I found and adjusted the idle mixture screw with some success. The problem is on the newer engines the pilot jet is so small that it collects impurities from the fuel and become restricted and plugged.These orifices are so small that they need a micro drill bit to clean out. R&R ing your carbeurators is VERY labor intensive, hense the cost of your repair. Here's how to save $$$ in the future. A mechanic friend of mine educated me on a product that is nothing short of AMAZING!! Now for the record I am not an advocate for the "mechanic in a bottle". However I used the Mercury combustion chamber cleaner, Sierra also makes this product. My motor smoothed out within 15-22 minutes. Also DO NOT use Sta-Bil in your engines, it contains MORE alcohol. Use Sea-Foam instead. This also helps keep things clean. |
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Posts: 126
| Maybe I'm missing out on something here. Why would you not want to use the stabill? I thought that it burned hotter thus not gumming and fouling up parts, am I on the wrong path of thinking? |
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| my first use of sea foam on a second hand 9.9 really banged out the sluggishness and general low performance. it took a while, and i think it caused some clogging. i had to run it for about 4 hours b4 i started to see a big difference. we're talking about a motor that i had repointed, tech-ed and i ran for a while
how safe would sea foam be on a 175 inboard jet mercury sportjet? any thoughts? |
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Posts: 129
Location: Milwaukee Wi | You can use heat in your gas or now you can use an octain boost but i agree with yeti use a cleaner in the fuel the new gas is does not burn out like the old. You need to clean out the carb and cylinders every once and a while. (Ethenal is used in fuel to run cleaner it is not as combustable as it leave a residue) You will need to replace your plugs more often. here are a few things. |
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Posts: 66
Location: Minnesota | I have ran ethanol free gas since I owned my 2005.
I know of a few locations in the twin cities if that's were you live. Let me know and I can post them. |
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| You SHOULD run seafoam in every other tank through your sportjet. It's the best thing out there for 2 cycle engines, EFI or carb. |
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Posts: 4266
| I have a 75 HP Mariner, and when I bought the rig 8 years ago......of course, right before 4 strokes. Now try to get rid of it to upgrade. You have to sell it for scrap......anyway, I picked it up in a deal from Mercury, and when I got the motor the guy in the shop told me to use "Dry Fuel" religiously. I thought that just because it was a Mercury product, that he was just hosing me. Well I did some research, and found out that what you need in your fuel is an agent that gets the water out because of all of the added condensation caused by ethanol. When I fish The Mississippi River, I can get gas without ethanol just by crossing the bridge into Iowa. I bout 4 - ten gallon cans that I use in my outboard, but if I have to fuel up anywhere else, I always throw some Dry Fuel in, and I haven't had to do anything but change the plugs in 8 years. Of course I've always been a Mariner fan, and have never had any problem with the 3 that I have owned. I'll continue adding Dry Fuel, and once or twice a year I'll add a bottle of carb and injector cleaner, just to help.
Beav |
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | When I got up to Presque Isle for the outing- first time out on Clear Lake, I noticed ESOX Maniac was running rough & didn't want to idle. Passed it off as just a fluke due to cold weather. But on Friday it was worse. Then when I launched on Pappose on Saturday morning she didn't even want to start or idle, couldn't get her above 3500RPM's. Fortunately, I was fishing with Howie on Sunday. Got home Monday, put the muff's on & started her up- ran very rough & idled rough. Thought back over the trip up to Presque Isle- realized I had filled the boat when I filled the truck on the trip up. I also thought I remembered an ethanol sticker on the pump. As I thought about it the truck wasn't running to good either.
Went to town got some Stabil and 5 gallons of fresh premium gasoline. Dumped some Stabil into ESOX Maniac and added the 5 gallons to mix the tank. Started her up- she ran kinda rough for about three minutes then started to pick up RPM's & smoothed out at high Idle. +5800 RPM's no problem- low Idle same-no problem. Problem sh&it gas! Dumped some Stabil into the truck & went for short spin- truck smoothed out also.
Al
Lesson(s) learned- watch the quality of gas you use (no ethanol) and Stabil works! |
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Posts: 129
Location: Milwaukee Wi | My dad wrote the manuels for merc mariner thats why you dont need to do anything but plugs but if you know anybody that needs a scematic of any merc product let me know like i said my dad wrote all the shop manuels on them????? |
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boat owners' ethanol blues