Ethanol concerns

Hi,

I have a 2006 Yamaha F150TXR that I have always tried to run non ethanol gas in. It has become pretty much impossible to find non ethanol gas in our area (north west Louisiana) and I am concerned about the damage ethanol can do to my engine. That being the case can you answer the following questions for me:

1. Are there parts that I should be replacing as preventive

maintenance on this model motor? I understand some fuel lines are

OK but other not. How can you tell which ones need to be replaced.


2. If so, which ones?


3. Are these parts do-it-yourself replacements?


Information you may need:

I always added sta-bil (blue), ring free and star-tron in all of my fuel.

The boat is not used for 3 to 4 months of the year.

Last year I drained the tank, as a precaution, but it caused my

fuel gauge sender unit to get stuck in the downward position. Had to

have it replaced so I really don't want to do that again, if at all possible.


I really appreciate your advice on this subject.


Charlie

Re: Ethanol concerns

ccm14 said:

Hi,

I have a 2006 Yamaha F150TXR that I have always tried to run non ethanol gas in. It has become pretty much impossible to find non ethanol gas in our area (north west Louisiana) and I am concerned about the damage ethanol can do to my engine. That being the case can you answer the following questions for me:

1. Are there parts that I should be replacing as preventive

maintenance on this model motor? I understand some fuel lines are

OK but other not. How can you tell which ones need to be replaced.


2. If so, which ones?


3. Are these parts do-it-yourself replacements?


Information you may need:

I always added sta-bil (blue), ring free and star-tron in all of my fuel.

The boat is not used for 3 to 4 months of the year.

Last year I drained the tank, as a precaution, but it caused my

fuel gauge sender unit to get stuck in the downward position. Had to

have it replaced so I really don't want to do that again, if at all possible.


I really appreciate your advice on this subject.


Charlie

Click to expand...

Keep up with your sta-bil or startron treatments. They will take care of any ethanol worries.

Re: Ethanol concerns

Use the Stabilizers like Stabil or Seafoam and a fuel/water separator and I doubt you'll have any problems. Leave your fuel tank full with the stabilizer in the gas during winter lay-ups. My motor is a 1999 Yamaha 90HP and I've been running this "ethanol gas" all these years with no problems at all. Good Luck!

Re: Ethanol concerns

Read the stickies ^^.

Re: Ethanol concerns

Like JB said, look at the top of the page and read the info there.

Also, adding stuff to your fuel on every fill up does little more than make you feel good and put money in somebody else's pocket.

Use stabilizer if you think it will sit for an extended period of time, a few weeks or a month is not an extended period of time.

Use something like Ring Free occasionally and you will be fine.

There are no products that can really do anything to prevent the potential issues associated with ethanol.

Re: Ethanol concerns

A 2006 motor already has ethanol resistant fuel parts. You don't have to change anything just for that. Ethanol has been around for a lot of years now. Your car works just fine, doesn't it?

Re: Ethanol concerns

I have that motor, but a couple years older. I agree with the above comments, generally.

Be sure you have a fuel/water seperator--the "big blue" yamaha one.

Ethanol fuel itself is not harmful to new motors and parts directly. The harm comes when the fuel breaks down (including grabbing moisture) and, more so in older rigs, in dissolving stuff in the tank and along the line.

I don't think you need stabil blue AND star-tron; one or the other. I religiously use Startron and ringfree (I hear ringfree is same as seafoam). True, you don't need it if you run all the gas out in a month or so but for most of us, the fuel in the tank is a conglomeration of fill-ups of various ages, so I'd rather treat it going in and forget it.

You're in a high-humidity area with wide temperature fluctuations, so your tank will be breathing in a lot of moist air. That's where the problems occur. People in cold, dry and constant temp areas think E10 isn't a problem just because it isn't for them. Not so for us. Disreagrd any comments concerning snowmobiles!

Re: Ethanol concerns

One of my small fishing boat sits at the dock true the canadian summer so I add 15ml of Stabil in every fresh 6 us gal fill up ... and I feel good about it.

Re: Ethanol concerns

...

Re: Ethanol concerns

HT32BSX115 said:

So do I. (feel "good" about it)

But I just store the boat at the end of Summer with less than 25% fuel in it and fill it up in the Spring with fresh gasoline.

Just about all the manufacturers indicate that their engines are "OK" with UP TO 10% ethanol in regular gasoline.

It has been this way for several years.

Don't worry about the small amount of ethanol in the gas unless you have fiberglass fuel tanks.

If I had fiberglass fuel tanks, I would cut them out and replace them with either plastic or aluminum tanks.


Regards,


Rick

Click to expand...

I am lucky enough to have a heated garage to store my 3 outboards + gas tanks. I empty the tanks for safety reasons but leave approx one half pint of mixture and turn the tanks upside down a few times during the storage months in order to prevent rust in metal tank and gum in plastic one. The formula has been good to me for over 3 decades ... LOL Nevertheless at one time I owned a bigger boat that had a metal buit-in tank and this one was stored in a non-heated barn so I filled it with fresh gas/oil mixture + one full bottle of stabil prior to storage (at least 6 months) Never had any problem starting the boat season.

Cheers

Guy

Re: Ethanol concerns

ccm14 said:

I have a 2006 Yamaha F150TXR ..... and I am concerned about the damage ethanol can do to my engine.

Click to expand...

As has been mentioned in any of the thousands of existing ethanol threads , outboards have been made to run with E-10 since somewhere in the 80s. If you want to install a filter/separator, Racor makes real good ones (I like the clear bowl so I can see any crud that gets captured). Other than that I've seen a few knowledgeable people say to change fuel lines every 10 years or so.

Re: Ethanol concerns

My 2007 Nissan SUV calls for 5% Ethanol tolerance but most gas pumps say 10% ... and probably reaching 15% soon enough, so I fill up at Ultramar (Canada) using high test gasoline that contains none. Who sells non-ethanol gasoline in the USA ? (will be driving south 95 soon)