letter on ethanol

[Team Rock On]

I got this in an email....

April 18, 2006

Dear fellow boaters,

Ethanol gasoline is coming to Massachusetts and we have no choice.

Ethanol fuel is gasoline mixed with grain alcohol. The grain alcohol (ethanol) is replacing a more toxic octane enhancer. Octane is a measure of flammability of gasoline. The higher the octane, the faster the burn.

Why is this happening to us? Ethanol gasoline isn’t new. It has been used in 23 states since 1978. The Northeast has been regulated to use another fuel enhancer until this May. Now we will join the rest of the country.

Boats use less than _ of 1% of the fuel used in the US. The oil companies and EPA don’t think we use enough fuel to cause concerns of the effects of their decisions.

There are problems we will all have to endure switching to ethanol/gasoline:

The ethanol fuel starts to loose octane after 15 days in your boats fuel tank.

Do not fill your tank up unless you plan to use the fuel. If you are just running down the bay and back, keep your fuel tank less full so you will need to refuel more often in smaller amounts.

The ethanol cleans your fuel tank and sends the deposits towards your engine.

Last fall we converted most of your fuel water separators to a 10-micron filter to hedge this problem.

Ethanol promotes the gathering of water in your fuel tank.

Your fuel water separator filter should be changed every 50 hours. For most of you, that means at least once in the summer. We would suggest the last week of July or first week of August. If you change your own filters, bring a part # or the filter so we can make sure you get the right replacement.

You cannot mix large quantities of the gas you used last year with the new ethanol fuel. You will have to burn down the fuel you have before you add ethanol fuel. Therefore we will not be fueling your boat this spring as per your request on our spring launch letter. Check your fuel amount before you pick up the boat and drive away.

If you do get water in your fuel….do not use dry gas. Drygas will only add to your problem and will cause the fuel and water to separate.

Boats with older fiberglass fuel tanks (1980 and older) will have problems with the ethanol dissolving the fiberglass resin.

Fuel stabilizer that can be added to your fuel cannot be alcohol based.

Ethanol gasoline will stain fiberglass gel coat.

In the fall, you should run down the volume in your fuel tanks before storage.

We are installing all the necessary filters and are going through all the testing to make Bayside ready for the change over.

If you have any questions, please call JR or myself.

Thank you,


Jack Kent III

Don’t miss our open house/demo weekend, April 29th and 30th. If there is a boat you have been thinking about, and you want to take a ride, call Bruce, Jack or JR and tell us what you want.
__________________

[JohnR]

KS - thanks for posting this

[fishaholic18]

Wow, I can see some major problems in the future with this.
What about the old lady who fills her tank once every 4 months???

[SolOmoN]

yea oook... everybody hit the panic button.

sol...

[thefishingfreak]

ya theres a big long thread on noreast if you wanna read other peoples problems.
i just put a filter on my buds boat for him.
seems to me from what the marina gas guy {also my bud} tells me is make sure you have the small micron filter, keep a spare on board and run your boat down as low as possible before gassing up this spring.

as of last week valvetech still had the old stuff.
mystic marine and admiral's hill are allready converted

[Megabyte]

I'm told that Racor filters are 10 Micron.

If you look at the gas pumps, most now say they MAY contain 10% Ethanol.

If you have fiberglass tanks (ielder Bertrams and others), the Ethanol tends to soften them. This is a BIG problem for some.

[Raider Ronnie]

oh great,
I pumped 110 gallons into my boat before launching yesterday,
my tank holds 150, so I had 30 in the tank from last year !!!

[beamie]

******Boats with older fiberglass fuel tanks (1980 and older) will have problems with the ethanol dissolving the fiberglass resin.******

Well, that's just great. Sounds like a winter project next year.....

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by beamie

******Boats with older fiberglass fuel tanks (1980 and older) will have problems with the ethanol dissolving the fiberglass resin.******

Well, that's just great. Sounds like a winter project next year.....

Sounds like a good excuse to repower to a diesel Jon !!!

[beamie]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Sounds like a good excuse to repower to a diesel Jon !!!

They'll probably start putting more additives in diesel soon too that will affect storage and tank material. Depending on loading ports, Ships commonly add biocide to diesel (Diesel Fuel Marine or Marine Gas Oil or White Diesel) tanks to combat "bug" problems that live in the water interface. Very Expensive stuff and very nasty for the user involved.

Unfortunately, the little 4 Cyl 240HP Yanmar I was eyeing I was told is to be fazed out this year because of emission problems.

Gas engine 10 Grand, new custom fuel tanks maybe $2000, or $20000 for a diesel.......probably stick to gas.

Maybe I'll by my own tig torch for the garage and get some aluminum plate.

[thefishingfreak]

28 pages on this subject

http://www.noreast.com/discussion/Vi...topic_ID=26297

[likwid]

Throw your damn outboards away.

Get a turbo diesel.

[MakoMike]

What Mike said, go read that thread on Noreast, boy, If I had a gas engine I would be scared!

[fishsmith]

Don't sweat it Ron, you got the good stuff -

The Northeast has been regulated to use another fuel enhancer until this May.

[zacs]

Here is a letter I got, this one goes into greater depth, and also covers the changes to diesel

[MakoMike]

A lot of the marinas sell diesel with the additives already in it. Valvtect fuel for one has been puttin in lubricity enhancing additives sine the goverment started dropping the allowable sulfur content.

[slapshot]

We have had the ethanol crap in our fuel in CT for a couple of years now. It flat out sucks in outboard applications. Alot of the Yamaha guys (myself included) have had problems. On the high pressure fuel injected boats, it is clogging a filter located on the fuel rail.

It breaks down the primer bulbs, o-rings and some fuel lines. I had to replace my primer bulb, and fuel lines. It clogs the crap out of carburetors. The ethanol basically causes any crud on the inside of your fuel tank to scrub clean and suspend itself in the fuel mix. This clogs everything. Also ethanol attracts water.

If you don't already have a Racor or similair with the bowl that you can see water and when to drain it out of your fuel system - get it. Also get the finest micron size filter you can find.

I wound up having to learn to rebuild my own cars. My boat sat at a Yamaha techs facility for six weeks! Then he tried to charge me for storage when I told him I'd fix it myself.

[ProfessorM]

Great more money out the window.

[Slipknot]

another reason why the best kind of boat to have is none, and to have friends with boats
that sucks

[thefishingfreak]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

another reason why the best kind of boat to have is none, and to have friends with boats

[Moses]

Originally Posted by slapshot

We have had the ethanol crap in our fuel in CT for a couple of years now. It flat out sucks in outboard applications. Alot of the Yamaha guys (myself included) have had problems. On the high pressure fuel injected boats, it is clogging a filter located on the fuel rail.

It breaks down the primer bulbs, o-rings and some fuel lines. I had to replace my primer bulb, and fuel lines. It clogs the crap out of carburetors. The ethanol basically causes any crud on the inside of your fuel tank to scrub clean and suspend itself in the fuel mix. This clogs everything. Also ethanol attracts water.

If you don't already have a Racor or similair with the bowl that you can see water and when to drain it out of your fuel system - get it. Also get the finest micron size filter you can find.

I wound up having to learn to rebuild my own cars. My boat sat at a Yamaha techs facility for six weeks! Then he tried to charge me for storage when I told him I'd fix it myself.

Slapshot - I'm new to the new boat/motor world last year. I'm running a Yamaha 4 stroke 150. I spoke to their rep regarding Ethanol and they stated that these engines would be fine with up to 10% which is my understanding for Mass.

When you state you had all sorts of issues, is this for all Yamaha engines? Any advice besides what was already posted? Txs.

[slapshot]

Part of the problem in CT, was that the ethanol delivered was greater than 10 percent. There were places that were tested as high as 30 percent. I am not aware of ethanol problems related to the Yammi 4 stroke, but thats only because I don't fish with anybody that has one.

There are several threads on these issues on thehulltruth as well.

I would think that a new boat with a new gas tank would suffer the least amount of problems. THe older tanks have a film on the inside that is scrubbed clean by the ethanol.

[ScottC]

Somthing for you 4 stroke guys to remember. Most models have engine block zincs, make sure you replace them. This saturday I went down to my old job to visit an associate, a outboard mechanic and he told be about how people were losing fairly new engines to electrolisys. He said it wasn't an isolated incident either, he said they ate themselves from the inside out. I have not seen this personaly as I have only worked on older 2 strokes, but he is a wizard with outboards and very respected.

[Mr. Sandman]

You guys should keep an eye out for that black market gas It has no addatives at all and no state and federal taxes. Please no PM's. I know nothing.

[macojoe]

I run a older 2 stroke Yamaha, This is all great news!!

I have been thinking of selling my boat with the gas prices, but then I have people that all want to go out and they say we pay, so I have put it on the back burner.
But now with all this stuff coming up I just might do it!!