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Do you Use Premiun Fuel in the Outboard


RickOnt

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The whole flap over E15 fuel gets better by the day. The latest news - Jeff Wasil, emissions certification engineer for Evinrude, just testified at a US congressional hearing and absolutely slammed the EPA’s proposal to increase the amount of ethanol in pump gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent.

 

Speaking to the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, he presented all sorts of technical reasons why ethanol is “completely incompatible” with boat engines.

 

If you’re really into this stuff (and you would enjoy picking through 54 pages of techno-babble), you can click here to download a transcript of his full presentation.

 

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that the push to increase the amount of ethanol in pump gas from 10 percent to 15 percent comes from ethanol producers who want to sell more ethanol. It has absolutely nothing to do with decreasing emissions or lowering the price of fuel. The soft parts in an engine (gaskets, seals, fuel lines, etc) are built to handle 10 percent ethanol in the fuel. Increasing that amount to 15 percent is a big enough deal that it will cause damage that will not be covered under warranty. A dozen car companies said as much earlier this week, and boat engine manufacturers have been saying it since day one. This is scary stuff, folks. Gotta keep on top of it.

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Something missed here is that stabilizer is intended to delay phase seperation brought on by ethanol if gas sits.The biggest threat from ethanol if you use your engine regularly is fuel system degredation (lines/gaskets)if they are not ethanol resistant which applies too any engine more than approx. 10yrs old give or take.The lines rot on the inside and your engine ingests the crap,not good.Change old lines and use stabil but realize the ethanol is still there eating your lines even if you use stabil so just change the lines too the new enthanol resistant type.On the octane thing I ran a high compression Merc with fixed timing and new dfi engines may be able to compensate for and prevent pre-detonation due to low octane but carbed and efi can't,end result with them would be a big BOOM if ya run octane too low for your compression.So your wasting your money running prem with a 87-89 rated engine.

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My old 72 evinrude 50hp gets super,As does my sled which is rated for 87 octane.Both run way better on super than on regular and fuel mileage is better just like my vehicles.Premium fuel with a higher octane rating is a more stable fuel and will give a better complete burn.As long as it's ethanol free I'm in.Most importantly especially with ethanol your mileage suffers as it takes more fuel to do less.Even the old regular gas without ethanol gave better mileage/performance.

Kerry

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You guys fret too much about this stuff. My boat is now 10 years old. It's a 2001 Lund Pro Sport with a 60 hp 4 stroke Merc. Sometimes I put stabilazer in for the winter. Sometimes I forget. And my off season is 8 months long. I never put it in during the open water season. It has always started with a second or two of cranking in the spring. And it runs like a dream each and every summer with last years gas. Yes, 8 month old gas. Sometimes treated, more often not. It's carburated if you're wondering. Same goes for my battery. I charge it in the spring and it's good for the summer. In fact I'd bet that it would start the boat without a charge in the spring and keep me going all summer. It's the original Merc battery that came with the boat. 10 years old. I have given the boat a good drink of Seafoam each spring for the past couple of years. I'm pretty sure that I've noticed a performance increase.

 

Anyways, that's how I look after my investment. It works for me. Maybe I should read more about this stuff? Or maybe I should just keep puttting gas in the boat, turn the key, and go fishing. I'd hate to have a fuel issue when my boat is 15 or 20 years old..

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To continue the thoguhts on Sta-bil, do you guys put it in with each tank or when is everyone adding Sta-bil? I tend to only use it when winterizing but am now just wondering if I should be putting it in on a more regular basis? I usually have the boat out at least once a week so I'm just wondering what everyone's thoughts are?

 

Thanks

 

I would use sta-bil marine ethanol treatment (the blue/blackish stuff) not the red for storing it .Adds pennies to the tank and I can't see it hurting anything even if it's not really doing much it's better than having a dead engine while on the water.

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Bombardier has to scream the loudest.Largest 2 stroke market in north America.

The other manufacturers will be stretching there limits to the max at 15%.

With having millions of engines built with warranty tags hanging from them,You would try

to slander everything too.

But the fact is.Ethanel helps to reduce the emissions from gas burning engines.

So who do you think is going to win.

Ethanel will be the death of the R.V. industry

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