Draining Gas In Winter

[Lowlysubaruguy]

For what its worth I have a documented study. First Im in the NW we have 15% or more ethanol in our fuel. For a number of years I tried different things. Boat is usually parked the middle of October and woken up in April. We see it all hot cold warm cold wet snow huge temp swings high humidity. My old boat holds 40 gallons. ( new boat 168 gallons) If I left any fuel in my boat over the winter it ran poorly until that fuel has been completly used. I tried stabilizers the recommended amounts and even more I tried full tanks and near empty tanks. My old boats pretty efficient burning 40 gallons of aged ethanol can take a while. The final verdict is I remove the fuel line after the electric pump put a long enough hose on it to fill my cars and power the pump. I run it dry. I put 5 gallons of premium in it in the spring run most of that out and then fill it and it runs great . Change the filter mid way into the next tank. My new boat I will do the same. Its sitting at 3/4 tank because of the fires that hit us and made any boating impossible. But I may get out on the river and go see the remains of the fires in the next couple weeks before its to late. Otherwise ill have full tanks in all of my cars pretty soon.

 

[Maclin]

I put stabilizer in at each fill, have never had any runability problems or performance issues. This way it is all the way through the fuel system all the time. I started doing that during one point in boating where the boat was stored a long ways from where I lived and I never knew what the last run would be for the season. I could make a special drain-the-engine trip and not have to fuss with the fuel.

I forgot to mention that I always burn ethanol-free in the boat(s). Have to go out of the way some to get it now but it is a superstition of mine, and feel lucky I have had it readily available while boating in this century.