Re: New outboard , opinions wanted...
This debate about ethanol being bad for your engine is just plain unsubstantiated B as in B, S as in S. We've used ethanol blended fuel here in Minnesota since 1997 and it simply poses no problems with one exception. Very old motors or very old boats that have had neglected fuel systems will be cleaned up by the blended fuel. The deposits will be caught by the fuel filter plugging it up. Some gunk will make it into the carb and if the carbs are dirty, they two will be cleaned up but the debris may not make it fully out of the carb so a rebuild will be necessary. Once cleaned up, and any gaskets or that were originally not ethanol tolerant have been replaced with newer ones, the engine will live on. That includes my 4-stroke Suzuki. Treat the fuel and go boating.
By the way -- when doing the E-tec vs any four-stroke debate and numbers are thrown about, be sure you understand what those numbers mean. An example mentioned in this thread indicated "the Yammy showed better fuel economy numbers then the E-tec at 3500 RPM". Note that there was no speed attached to that 3500 RPM number. While I don't have the numbers for that comparison, is it possible the E-tec was pushing the boat faster than the Yammy at 3500 RPM? If so, for a fair comparison one could throttle back the E-tec to the same speed as the Yammy and therefore the MPG numbers would be different. Numbers are great -- but they don't always tell a true story. I can get 36 MPG with my Impala. See how nice that number is? That MPG comes at 45 MPH. Hardly useful on the freeway. Understand what you are reading.
