Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

OK, only 1 more day to go. It's been a loooooong 5 weeks.
Tomorrow we head out to the dealership and go out for our "lake test". If all goes well, we will finalize the purchase and have it delivered to our lake slip in the afternoon. If there are any issues, I guess they will need additional time to work through them (keeping my fingers crossed). Still can't believe that after 55 yrs. I am finally becoming a "boat owner". There will be pictures coming.

One question though: We were out at our slip last evening and met some of our neighbors. Nice people, but Mark was talking about gasoline for the boat motor. The gas around here (and probably most places) have a 10-15% ethanol content. Mark indicated that you had to use an ethanol additive to keep it from messing up your motor. I have not heard of this, any comments?

If you burn the fuel pretty quickly in a newer motor it is not a problem. The problem is that alchohol evaporates faster than gasoline. Therefore E15 and E10 gasolines lose their octanne alot faster.

I would suggest an additive, Stabile and Star Bright both have an ethanol additive to help with the problem. Most new motors can tolerate it, but would rather not have too. It can attack rubber and plastic's in the fuel system as well as evaporate quicker. Good Luck with new boat and your test ride. If your dealer did his job you should have it in your slip, ready to go today.

I don't think that I will have a problem burning up fuel pretty quickly, for at least the first few months.

I do know about E10 and E15 loosing its octane over a short time period, but he indicated that the ethanol can actually damage the engine.

Be very, very careful.... You don't state who the manufacture of your motor is but most if not all of them have an exclusion in the contract that will essentially "void the warranty" if anything over ten percent ethanol fuel is utilized at all. Brand new boat I wouldn't take any chances with my warranty myself, others opinions may vary...

Another issue with ethanol is that it absorbs water. If left in the gas tank for long periods, expect to have water in the gas. Your boat should come with a water separator in the fuel line. It is a large cannister which should be viewable on the rear of the boat near the motor mount. If it does not have one, have the dealer install one. The filter within the cannister must be replaced as part of routine maintenance.

Also, as already suggested, use Stabil or another fuel conditioner all of the time.

Enjoy your new boat!

Hey, congratulations on your new boat! I use Stabil all the time in my Yamaha F90 for all the reasons mentioned above. My fuel tank is only 26 gallons but that seems to last me for 3 or 4 trips to the lake per month based on just cruising around and a lot of tubing - point being that the fuel is just sitting there most of the time doing whatever bad things ethanol does. I suggest you use it.

One thing I wish I would have done is took a week before paying them if everything is not perfect don't pay an except will take care of you! My 2 cents never trust anyone on any aspect of a sale. My next boat I feel very sorry for the salesman. Not that I don't for my last but issues took 1 year to resolve never again!

There are quite a few additives for ethanol-based fuel. So far this summer, I've been using a product suggested by my boat sales guy. It's made by/for Mercury, but can be used in any motor ( I Have a Yamaha). It's called Quikckare Fuel Treatment and is part of a group of 3 products. See this discussion on another forum: http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/007434.html
Use 1 ounce per 10 gallons of fuel if it has ethanol in it. One 12 ounce bottle will treat up to 120 gallons of fuel and costs about $11. Here at Lake of the Ozarks all the fuel at marinas is ethanol free, but I also buy fuel on land and it's cheaper to add the Quickare than to buy the 91 octane gas that's ethanol free.
I have used SeaFoam for quite a while, both as a fuel additive and as a stabilizer for long term storage, but it requires one ounce per gallon and the stuff is almost $10 a bottle, even at Wally World, so I'll save it to add to the fuel tanks at the end of the season (let's see, 55 gallons, plus 45 gallons, plus 16 gallons, woeee, that's gonna be over $100 bucks just for SeaFoam, but worth the cost).
Some of the others who posted answers talked about water being an issue in ethanol based fuel, but there is another issue: phase seperation and that can cause your engine to just destroy itself. Google the term and you'll be able to read it for yourself.
Don't mean to scare you, but you need to be aware of this stuff!!
Have fun with the new boat.

Check online @ http://pure-gas.org/. They have a list of stations with ethanol free gas. Don't know if any are on that lake.

bass... I've used seafoam in my car. Is seafoam both an ethanol treatment AND stabilizer? If so, do you know if it's any better than sta-bil or Star Tron? You're right, seafoam is expensive, but if it's both a stabilizer and ethanol treatment, heck a tank of gas in my boat lasts us 3 to 4 weeks, so 10 bucks every three weeks or so isn't gonna kill me... also would be nice to know that I had a superior product in the tank when I store the boat for the winter.

I personally like Startron blue for storage...I even go as far as put Startron in every tank, all summer. That and a good water separating fuel filter will prevent ethanol related problems. Use Seafoam for periodic cleaning (down the carb to remove combustion chamber deposits). I use it in all my vehicles, even lawn equipment.

badmoonrising wrote:I personally like Startron blue for storage...I even go as far as put Startron in every tank, all summer. That and a good water separating fuel filter will prevent ethanol related problems. Use Seafoam for periodic cleaning (down the carb to remove combustion chamber deposits). I use it in all my vehicles, even lawn equipment.

I agree, I am a Star-tron fan. I haven't used it in a boat yet, but I have used it in motorcycle, atv, pwc, car applications. Most dealerships in my area have moved to this as their fuel treatment for winterizing.

http://mystarbrite.com/startron/