Kevin Van Dam Forums

has anyone had a problem with the ethanol in the gas on the boat engine?? was going across the lake over the weekend and my boat just died, for no reason! Finally after 20 minutes i got it cranked and thought to my self maybe i just had some air in the line and went on about my business, however on my way back to the boat ramp it did the same thing again. Now im getting worried 30 miles from the boat ramp and not a boat in sight. Finally got it cranked (again) and made it to my truck. Worried about it all weekend and took it to the shop today to see what the problem was, he told me that its the enthanol in the gas and really nothing anyone can do about it, he did tell me we can put some kind of fluid something or another in it but i cant remember the name to save my life. When i find out i will let the word out, or if any of you guys know what it is please let me know.

How old was the gas in your tank? If you remember what it was he suggsted to add then let us know. I know they suggest adding stay-bil for long term storage and to help reduce gumming and condensation problems.

brand new tank of gas...never store my boat cause i fish all year long

Man thats crazy, I have been running my Merc 225 on pump gas for a while without any problems. Hopefully you just got some “bad” gas.

yeah..sta-bil is highly recommended for ethanol in boat motors....maybe the guy was talking about sea foam?

I’ve run ethenal in my boat without trouble.  I ALWAYS put stabil in my gas though.  I’m going to switch to the marine stabil with my next fill.

With old outboards, the gas NEEDS to be ethanol free. The ethanol will break down in the engine causing major problems. I think after 2000 they started making outboards capable of enthanol.

Newer motors have fuel injectors and sensors in the exhaust gas. Therefore they can handle ethanol (C2H5OH) because prior to the development of electronic fuel injection (EFI) and computerized engine management, the lower energy content of ethanol required that the engine’s carburetor be rejetted to permit a larger volume of fuel to mix with the intake air. Older engines have carburetors. Electronic Fuel Injection is able to actively compensate for varying fuel energy densities by monitoring the oxygen content of exhaust gases. However, a standard EFI gasoline engine can typically only tolerate up to 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Higher ethanol ratios require either larger-volume fuel injectors or an increase in fuel rail pressure to deliver the greater liquid volume needed to equal the energy content of pure gasoline.

So....if you have a carburated engine you may have more problems with an ethanol mixed fuel, than you would with fuel injectors. If the mixture of ethanol to gas goes up....say over 10%, then even newer fuel injected engines will have issues because of the overall lower combustion properties.

Personally....I am waiting for H2 (Hydrogen) compatible outboards......zzzzzzzoooooooooooooom !