Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

[Yote]

I heard that the green heads have gotten an increase in enthenol to 15 percent. How bad will this effect my 200 Merc. I have been told that the use a stabil will offset the effects. Anybody have any more info?

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Well with 10% thats enough to kill the fuel lines, evaporate and leave gum, and ruin needle seats and gaskets in the carbs. 15% would be even worse. I had to have my whole fuel system rebuilt on my 200 yamaha ($600 for $30 of gas) so since then I've done some anti-Ethanol fortification. I drain my carbs after use, replaced all my fuel lines with alcohol resistant rubber from the auto store (for alcohol racing applications), which is way better than anything marine saying alcohol resistant that still breaks down. Installed 2 ten micron filters on all my motors (1 ten micron fuel water seperator and 1 ten micron inline), and rebuild my fuel pumps and carb every 2 years. Oh yea, and run seafoam or stabil. That keeps me out of the shop with crazy fuel problems and makes the ethanol seem not soo bad. It costs a little to prepare for ethanol applications but will save you alot of money in the long run. The funny thing.....my engine creates exhaust even with the AMAZING greenpeace treehugging vegitarian eating Hybrid driving high gas prices Ethanol. I wonder if thats a problem?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Will is overreacting to some extent. A lot depends on the year of your motor. Newer motors (90s+) were built for some ethenol in the fuel. Older motors were not. The difference was alcohol-resistance rubber parts in the carb and fuel lines. Rebuilding the carbs for old motors will install these alcohol resistant parts as well.

Phase seperation in gas/ethenol fuel is a unique problem. I recommend you make sure no significant water can build up in the fuel tank. A water seperator is a very good idea. Also, inspect the fuel lines for deterioation periodically.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

The funny thing.....my engine creates exhaust even with the AMAZING greenpeace treehugging vegitarian eating Hybrid driving high gas prices Ethanol. I wonder if thats a problem?

Had to laugh at your "so true" remark. Follow the money I always say, just like the H1N1 pandemic that they are now finally admitting was just a ploy.

And then there is the obvious absence of "green peace" news articles with most of the central/eastern US in a blizzard. We have had teen lows to below freezing highs here in Texas for the past 3 days. Guess they'll wait till July to resume their brainwashing.

Mark

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Great way to put it. I've noticed that recently some products have hit the shelf for marine applications that block almost all the effects from ethanol in long term use. The steps I have taken for my engines have proven to be trouble free and puts everything back on almost a regular maint. schedule, instead of having horrible fuel problems when you least expect it and following the problems throughout your fuel system. Tear the system down, spend the extra money for alcohol resistant parts, add a few filters and hit the water and don't worry about the fuel. One old rubber line left on the engine can come apart inside out from the fuel and ruin your day of boating. So be thorough when upgrading the system.

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Texasmark, drive your gas hogging truck into a swamp and you may kill a few fish, then the fuel and oil will be soaked up with a floating mat and BAM!, back to normal.....drive a Hybrid into a swamp, you have a steril pond for the next century...and you still have the gas and oil on the top of the water. True story....was at a boat ramp and there was a greenpeace guy there, had a 14' Alumicraft with a 1970's model 30hp Evinrude. Through the haze of blue smoke, He said to some people that he was going out on the Charleston harbor to talk to people about water pollution and the effects of pollution from oil. I asked him if he knew the difference between a two stroke and a four stroke (which he did'nt) and told him that before he goes out to bother people out for a day on the water, he may want to evaluate what hes operating himself, to avoid a getting his feeling hurt. These people really annoy me, and most of them actually have no clue what they are talking about. The ones that do, have no real scientific data to back up their claims, people just listen and follow them because it's something they are interested in. Interesting.

 

[OldMercsRule]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Will: you have said things sooooooo well, (Mark tooo), I don't even feeeeeeeeeel the need to add me own overpriced $.02. JR

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Thank you, it's nice to know that there are other people in the world besides me that thinks all the hype is rediculous. And we all scratch our heads and experiment on ethanol iron clad systems to keep our nice fast runnin, gas eatin, blue smoke blowin 2-strokes on the water chasing fish...what they were meant for.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Texasmark, drive your gas hogging truck into a swamp and you may kill a few fish, then the fuel and oil will be soaked up with a floating mat and BAM!, back to normal.....drive a Hybrid into a swamp, you have a steril pond for the next century...and you still have the gas and oil on the top of the water. True story....was at a boat ramp and there was a greenpeace guy there, had a 14' Alumicraft with a 1970's model 30hp Evinrude. Through the haze of blue smoke, He said to some people that he was going out on the Charleston harbor to talk to people about water pollution and the effects of pollution from oil. I asked him if he knew the difference between a two stroke and a four stroke (which he did'nt) and told him that before he goes out to bother people out for a day on the water, he may want to evaluate what hes operating himself, to avoid a getting his feeling hurt. These people really annoy me, and most of them actually have no clue what they are talking about. The ones that do, have no real scientific data to back up their claims, people just listen and follow them because it's something they are interested in. Interesting.

I call it the sheep syndrome. Take a goat and 100 sheep and a (18 wheeler) livestock trailer. The goat will enter the trailer and the sheep follow in single file. The goat makes however many loops that are necessary to get all the sheep in the trailer and he exits...alone....the gate closes....nuf said.

Fact.

Mark

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Talk about hitting the nail on the head. Could'nt have said it better. Very interesting fact by the way. Thats exactly what they do though, the sad thing is it ends up effecting everyone, and you get sucked into the ploy...and they get a bigger ego and more "facts" and "causes and effects" to nail down their ideas. I bet not a single person actually knows what burned ethanol will do to the earth in 20 years, or the air quality. It's just the fad right now. Hey ...look at cocaine that used to be coke, at the time it was the cure all...20 years later people had crazy health problems.....then the people that put the cocaine in the coke had not a single thing to say and tried to place the blame on everyone else. Sounds like the vicious cycle is repeating its self in a whole nother way.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Talk about hitting the nail on the head. Could'nt have said it better. Very interesting fact by the way. Thats exactly what they do though, the sad thing is it ends up effecting everyone, and you get sucked into the ploy...and they get a bigger ego and more "facts" and "causes and effects" to nail down their ideas. I bet not a single person actually knows what burned ethanol will do to the earth in 20 years, or the air quality. It's just the fad right now. Hey ...look at cocaine that used to be coke, at the time it was the cure all...20 years later people had crazy health problems.....then the people that put the cocaine in the coke had not a single thing to say and tried to place the blame on everyone else. Sounds like the vicious cycle is repeating its self in a whole nother way.

This is diverging from the topic, but the dialog is interesting to me and possibly other readers herein, besides even here in the South (as we both are....I have fished the Pearl River, Pine Tree, Ship, and Cat islands....) it's too cold to go fishing.....so this is for all Y'ALL suffering from cabin fever as I am. Grin

Well, I have had personal questions about the name of the beverage for as long as I can remember. Also interesting is the protection of the formula for the syrup over the years. I wonder if the FDA is savvy to it......bet my next meal ticket the answer is no way. Ha. Ha.

I mean, if it didn't contain coke, why did they name it coke, and it was a cola by definition: Water, sugar (high fructose corn syrup today), phosphoric acid, some caramel color (so that it looked like you were drinking something besides water) private brand flavorings and citric acid for preservation. I didn't add caffein to the mix, because back in the late 1800's when it was the hot-dog drink (beverage of choice maybe....over rotgut whisky) probably didn't use it because you didn't need it because of the coke....er ah, I didn't say that, just idle speculation. Grin.

This is fun.

Mark

 

[Yote]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Thanks guys. I have a 99 model 200 EFI. I think I will be safe running stabil in it. But I will talk to the shop I bought it through as well.

 

[will941s]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Sorry Yote for the stray from the topic.....stabil and maybe some good fuel lines and you will be ok. Boat tech will def. point you in the right direction. As for the Coke, since then the Cocaine has been taken out, but the drink, it stayed pretty much unchanged, can still desolve nails. Too cold to fish here in Charleston, South Carolina...but never to early to get the fuel system in check for spring, I bet it's the same in Texas. Good ole ethanol blues.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

There are two scams going on.

1. The ethanol is good for the environment scam, this is just people making money off lies.

2. The products protecting you from ethanol in the gas scam, just people making money off of different lies.

To make money I need to get in on one of these scams.

I won't comment on #1, but #2 needs some.

Many, if not most of the stuff you can buy to supposedly protect you from alcohol has more alcohol in it, and does nothing to help with the most serious "potential" problem of the blends which is phase separation, nor will it protect the rubber parts. I say potential problem because in at least 15+ years of using blended fuels I have never had a problem with it, nor have I had an issue with any motor that's had a carb rebuild in the last 20 years. The only motor I had an issue with was a 1969 6HP Evinrude that had the original cork gasket near the main jet still in it. The cork came apart and plugged the main jet, the darn gasket only lasted about 30 years. It needs a new fuel pump now after 40 years though, must be another ethanol created problem.


10% hasn?t been a big problem here and 15% isn?t law yet?..will it be worse than 10? yes?end of the world?no.

A few very simple precautions can almost guarantee you won?t have issues and few of them involve money, at least for the size and type of most boats discussed here.

 

[F_R]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

There are two scams going on.

1. The ethanol is good for the environment scam, this is just people making money off lies.

2. The products protecting you from ethanol in the gas scam, just people making money off of different lies.

To make money I need to get in on one of these scams.

I won't comment on #1, but #2 needs some.

Many, if not most of the stuff you can buy to supposedly protect you from alcohol has more alcohol in it, and does nothing to help with the most serious "potential" problem of the blends which is phase separation, nor will it protect the rubber parts. I say potential problem because in at least 15+ years of using blended fuels I have never had a problem with it, nor have I had an issue with any motor that's had a carb rebuild in the last 20 years. The only motor I had an issue with was a 1969 6HP Evinrude that had the original cork gasket near the main jet still in it. The cork came apart and plugged the main jet, the darn gasket only lasted about 30 years. It needs a new fuel pump now after 40 years though, must be another ethanol created problem.


10% hasn?t been a big problem here and 15% isn?t law yet?..will it be worse than 10? yes?end of the world?no.

A few very simple precautions can almost guarantee you won?t have issues and few of them involve money, at least for the size and type of most boats discussed here.

Personally, I don't give a hoot about the ethanol issue other than it gives poorer gas mileage. I have boat gas tanks sitting for months with plain ol' 10% pump gas in them and I'll take you out for a ride anytime to prove that there is no problem. 15% was never intended to be used in older cars (boats) designed for 10%.

#1 "scam"---it isn't supposed to help the environment, it is supposed to keep our money from going to people that hate us. Of course that obviously isn't working.

#2 "scam"---I agree

#3 "scam"---hybred/electric cars. But this is a boating forum.

How come we never hear about the hole in the ozone layer anymore? The world didn't end did it?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

[qoute]
#1 "scam"---it isn't supposed to help the environment, it is supposed to keep our money from going to people that hate us. Of course that obviously isn't working.



I had forgotten about that part of it, thanks for reminding me.

 

[ENSIGN]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Guys it's to late to worry about it the EPA is going to do whatever they want and they don't give a damn how your boat runs !!! (DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR OARS)

 

[Yote]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Its good to see im not the only one who thinks this whole thing is a scam.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

The absence of news media coverage of the ozone hole is liken to the absence of media coverage of global warming being the USA is under a winter storm we haven't had for 10 years thereabouts. Follow the money....follow the money, and the sheep. Hopefully we don't go BAAAAAAAAAA.

My 2c,

Mark

 

[pine island fred]

Re: Ethenol increase/ vs Outboards

Its no longer global warming it climate change. After all the smoke and mirrors, the ethenol has nothing to do with clean air. Its all about creating markets and driving up prices for the corn growers, ARCHER- DANIELS- MIDLAND. We will legislate that you buy this product.
After the gas shortage in 73, a few gas stations switched one of their tank to what was then called GASAHOL. People had a choice of leaded, unleaded and GASAHOL. All cost about the same. Once the alcohol tank ran dry, they were back to pumping leaded out of that pump. People could make their own decisions and made the wrong one as far as the corn industrys thinking. Now you have no choice.
Back to the motor. Have no idea on how it will affect the fuel system. As far as burning, would think that it would have no effect on the internals as long as the octane rating is there. FRED