Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I have the mercury 60hp 4 stroke 2009-2010 and get my gas at Costco reg, thinking if prem would be better....what say you all

Not needed, but it won't hurt anything either.

Find your manual and look at it... My 2016 150 says it recommends 87 and recommends against using g higher octane... not sure why but it does.

I just looked at my manual too, thanks for asking the question.

Yamaha 150, fuel requirements state regular unleaded with a minimum octane of 86. It goes on to state if knocking or pinging occur to use a different brand or premium unleaded.

My lawn mower shop said the higher octane makes your engine run hotter.

I've always run premium in my boats/lawn mowers/weed wacker and such. Get's the ethanol out of the equation. If you can find 87 that doesn't have any ethanol in it, that would be awesome. But that is hard to find.

With my new Merc 150 4-stroke, I'm running premium.

Around here all grades "contain up to 10% ethanol". The actual amount is anyone's guess since it's not that closely regulated.

I had a 150cc scooter motor that would need the carb cleaned at least once per year when running regular. Problem stopped when I switched to Premium. Assumption is better additives, but you know what they say about assumptions...

The more octane a fuel has the more retarded the burn rate. Seems to me that would move fire into the exhaust--making the pipe hotter. Don't understand why the motor itself would run hotter.

[quote="brocja01"]I've always run premium in my boats/lawn mowers/weed wacker and such. Get's the ethanol out of the equation. If you can find 87 that doesn't have any ethanol in it, that would be awesome. But that is hard to find.

With my new Merc 150 4-stroke, I'm running premium.[/quote]

We've run nothing but 87 with ethanol in ours since it was delivered a year ago. The motor and boat are both rated for ethanol fuel so that's what we run. The longest our boat sits is a week and we turn the tank over at least once a month. In the winter we usually run stabil marine 360 in case it does sit for more than a week.

There is an app called "Pure Gas" that will list locations near you with ethanol-free gas and the octane.

[quote="rbtnt"]There is an app called "Pure Gas" that will list locations near you with ethanol-free gas and the octane.[/quote]

Their web site is pure-gas.org.. once on the web site just find your state, then click on your city... it will list any stations selling ethanol free gas in your area. We're lucky in that one of the stations in our city is just about 8 miles down the road... I just pull the boat in and fill er up... It is 93 octane... and I think it was running around 3.15 a gallon.

The problem with 90/10 gasolines is the shelf life. When the ethanol starts breaking down, it produces acids that can eat up any parts in your fuel system with rubber--like fuel pump membranes in 2 strokes, old style fuel lines and even some other parts like needle valves in carbs.

We can find 100% gasoline in both 87 octane and 93 octane, however they're both priced about the same. At that point, I'd go with the 93 octane. Either way, 100% is much preferable if your boat's sitting around and the gasoline is aging.

I've been using 89 octane ethanol free gas in my boats, motorcycle and small engines for several years.

It's well worth whatever you have to pay for it...

I'm fortunate that the Marina where I slip my toon has alcohol free gas.

Costs more, but I figure it's worth the cost difference.

I ran by one of two marinas on our lake, and they were at $5.19 per gallon for gasoline.

The local drive in markets are at $2.04 per gallon. That means I'm saving $15 per 5 gallon Jerry Can hauled down to my boathouse. I use a 14 gallon Gas Caddy most of the time--saving $42 for rolling it down the hill.

I honestly have no idea how our neighbors running their Cigarette type boats can afford gasoline at those prices. And they get out and run half the afternoon on weekends. A 454 Chevy engine uses something like 18 gallons per hour--each.

Just gassed up for the first time this season. Owner's manual for our Yamaha F200 calls for 89 octane. Usually, I run 87, and about every 3 tank fulls I put in 93. Today I paid $3.59 for Premium 93 octane ( NO ethanol) gas at a marina I always buy our fuel at. Their price for 87 octane was $3.19. Gas at the local gas stations is $1.95 for regular 87. The tank on this Berkshire is 52 gallons.

Once again, our Yamaha did great on fuel..... Since our last full up at the end of last season we put on 134 miles and have put on 15.9 hours. It took 33.3 gallons, so that means I got 4.024 miles per gallon, OR what is more important to me is that is sipped just 2.094 gallons of fuel per hour. Keep in mind, this includes, idle, cruising, docking, wide open throttle for short periods of time, etc. NOT AT ALL BAD ........... love this boat ! Our last boat, a Sea Ray 250 SLX ( 26 ft) with a 496 big block, 375 used to get about 10 to 12 gallons per hour, if I ran it super easy.