As boat owners, many of us have experienced the problems of ethanol gas blends in marine applications. Now they want to increase the blend to 15%. Go to the site to learn more and see how you can help.
I purchased a new boat last year with a Merc 115 4-stroker. According to the Mercury Q&A section regarding fuel on the Mercury website:
"Will the use of fuels containing ethanol void my engine warranty?
"Fuels containing up to 10 percent ethanol are considered acceptable for use in Mercury engines. Fuels containing higher levels of ethanol are not considered acceptable for use, and the use of fuels containing ethanol higher than 10 percent can void the warranty."
Not good.
(I wonder if this thread should really be in the Engine FAQ topic).
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2008 Lund 1750 Fisherman
2008 Merc 115hp 4-stroke EFI
2008 Shorelandr' Trailer
And two wonderful golden retrievers
I tried to put it in Engine FAQ, but it came back
"you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation."
I can post in other iboats forums. Don't understand. Any help would be appreciated.
I do not like the fact they want to use E15, not only that, but they also want to hike it up to E20 in the near future. They need to take into consideration the boaters out there, and not make that change. I was reading in the paper today about the damages of ethanol, and it didn't look pretty. The only advantage I could possibly see is that it really doesn't take effect until after about four weeks of sitting.
Please use the previous link to express your displeasure with this action. E15 is of great concern and the way the current administration moves quickly, we may find boaters to be in a real problem.
There is not one outboard manufacturer that has designed their outboards to run on E15 or E20. This is a huge potential problem!
With that said, in MN, use of E10 has been mandatory since 1997. Although there have certainly been issues with units with already dirty fuel systems and fiberglass fuel cells, the consequences have been minimal. The recreational boating industry didn't come to it's knees in 1997 when E10 became mandatory here. I find that folks with the "Sky is Falling" attitude are usually regurgitating what they have read elsewhere and don't live in one of the farming states where E10 is mandatory. E10 problems have been exaggerated- but again, NO OUT BOARD MANUFACTURER ENDORSES THE USE OF ANYTHING BEYOND E10!
Oddly enough, Minnesota has made an exception for offroad vehicles. There is a provision for ethanol free 91-92 octane fuel for "offroad" use to accomodate the boating and snowmobile crowd. But when I ask most folks here, they seem to just be using 87 octane E10. Very few of the gas stations statewide carry ethanol free 92 octane fuel for "offroad" use. I am fortunate to live in a recreation area where it is readily accessable.
With the 100's of thousands of outboards that are here in the land of 15000 lakes, going to E15 from E10 has some huge potential consequences.
In our area, northeast Indiana, the marinas do NOT offer ethanol free 87. Just watch them fill their tanks and you will see it comes from the same supplier that fuels the auto gas stations.
here in MN the easiest way to find non-oxegenated gas is to go to the MN Street Rod Assoc web page. they have a list of stations all over the state that carry ethonal free gas. i'm sure the street rod associations in other states would have a similar listing. i found a station 3 miles from my house that i never knew carried non oxygenated gas until i looked on the street rod page.
my honda owners manual also says a maximum of 10% ethenol.