bigbuck Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 Ethanol has many, many more bad qualities than good when it comes to boats and water. It will pull humidity out of the air, and into your gas tank. Many, many problems with boat engines are due to ethanol fuels, and water in the gas. It also leads to phase separation in 2 strokes gas/oil mix. Seafoam is a great stabilizer. What have you read to think otherwise?? Just curious. I've been using it for about 5 years now. I give my engine a good dose of it in the fall, then add about an ounce per gallon all season long as preventative maintenance. I swear by it. I've seen it fix all sorts of fuel related problems. It cleans everything from the gas tank, right thru to the exaust. S. A couple of the gurus from Iboats don't recommend it for a stabilizer. I defer to their knowledge, they've been boat techs for over 30 yrs and know their stuff. As for ethanol, it doesn't pull moisture out of the air. The biggest problem with water mixing in the fuel is a bad seal on the gas cap on boats. That's straight from boating tv a couple weeks ago. They did a segment on ethanol fuels and basically said just run it like normal and put in an additive at the end of the season. Its here to stay and more and more fuel docks are pumping it. Its not great, don't get me wrong, but its the new reality so learn to work with it.
NANUK Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 Seafoam or Stabil Marine, those are the only two I use in every tank of gas. It is equally(if not more)important to use stabilizer during summer because gas evaporates at a much faster rate with heat.
skeeter Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 I use both, Star tron & Seafoam ! And Seafoam is only $6.59 a can !!
hirk Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 (edited) Seafoams primary function is to keep injectors/carbs clean and prevent carbon build up on pistons/rings in a 2 stroke(this is the leading cause of major 2 stroke engine failure). It does have a fuel stabilizing aspect to it as well though but if you run the engine regularly you shouldnt have fuel degredation or problems related to ethanol with the fuel itself. I ran an over hub exhaust prop and watched exhaust from seafoam treated gas clean the carbon deposits off the prop.If just the exhaust gases can do that Im sure my rings are clean enough to eat off of so it goes in every tank. Edited April 17, 2012 by hirk
fisherman7 Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 I too sing the praises of Seafoam. Cleared up a 2hp Johnston that my buddy stored for 3 years without any prep and my surging snow blower. Excellent stuff!
danc Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 One of my best results with seafoam was with an old inherited snowblower as well. I couldn't keep it running unless I played with the choke constantly (which meant I wasn't blowing any snow ). A good shot of seafoam had it running like a sewing machine. As far as a fuel stabilzer, I've used it a couple of times the past few years. It worked I guess. But in the past 25 years I've also not used any stabilizer at all, probably 80% of the time, and have never suffered any issues with bad gas. Not once. And my off season is at least 8 months long. Personally I think that the fuel stabilizing issue is way overblown. Just don't tell the folks at Stabil that I said that.
Billy Bob Posted April 17, 2012 Report Posted April 17, 2012 Seafoam is so good I now use it to marinate my fish before I grill them......
Jer_H Posted April 17, 2012 Author Report Posted April 17, 2012 I never even thought of using it on my snowblower. Especially because it didn't even get started this year!
RickOnt Posted April 18, 2012 Report Posted April 18, 2012 Use Star Tron all season and the blue Stabill for Winterizing. Never neaded SeaFoam Rick
SirCranksalot Posted April 18, 2012 Report Posted April 18, 2012 I use premium gas in my lawnmower and small outboard if there's any chance the gas will be left in over the winter or in the tank for several months. I have read and heard too much about about the ethanol in reg. gas absorbing water etc that I don't trust it. For the small amount of gas I use the price diff is fairly small---a lot cheaper than fixing a gummed up carb.
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