The Ethanol Issue Continues

Boat motor companies have made strong efforts in the past few years to solve the ethanol problem being produced by E10 gasoline, most of their effort has been to no avail as problems continue. The real issue is the weekend boater that might use his boat just a few times a year, this gas is devastating to the out board industry to the few times a year boater.


There have been four major problems caused by E-10 ethanol fuel the first being that the fuel tends to have debris in it and as the fuel ages it tends to gum rapidly in the fuel tank. Ethanol itself is a strong cleaner that will strip away this gumming of the fuel. The problem is it disperses it back into the filters and injectors or carburetors, robs the motor of performance and causes your motor to run and act differently than it did before the E-10 fuel was used.


Next ethanol tends to collect moisture and cause large amounts of water to build up in the tank. Ethanol normally holds .5% water in suspension and as the gasoline collects moisture in the tanks it exceeds this percentage and causes the engine to run rough, stall and cause internal combustion issues in the engine. The problem is that ethanol provides the fuel with its octane and when it builds water the water is heavier than the fuel so it drops to the bottom of your tank and hence you’re using a fuel that has a different octane rating than you anticipated.


Lastly Ethanol fuel loses its components over short periods of time, it breaks down decreases its octane and stagnates causing hard to start engines, or engines that make a pinging sound or a knock. Hence your engine is hard to start, reduces its power and causes engine damage.


Lastly ethanol actually decreases fuel economy, yes; ethanol gas produces less energy than fuel without ethanol, so you get an inefficient combustion response, changing the engine timing and reduces throttle response. So, you have 2 choices use an additive or use gas without ethanol, I prefer E-10 ethanol free gas!