Fuel Additive - What is the jury's take?

I have been using Star-tron from day one. I was at the Honda dealer (sore subject) and they said the Star-Tron was fine but they like the Sta-Bil Marine one better, or they even said use both if you want because the both do different things.

I feel like i have a black cloud surrounding me with fuel problems. My old Shamrock was plagued with a fiberglass tank and the ethanol damaging it and now it is back again with my Twin Honda's. I posted earlier a fuel issue i was having and finally had to go to the dealer to get it resolved. Not only was the High Pressure Filters bad but the fuel had phase separation.

I have been using Star-Tron and only buying Valve Tech Fuel from the same place - what else should i be doing?

there are a lot of variables here...are you still using the same tank?...how often do you run the engines?...what i am really after is how old the gas is?..are you running the boat often enough to continually rotate the gas?if you have let the gas set and have had separation then the whole system is contaminated...replacement of the primer bulb(s?) and the hoses will probably have to be done..if the tank is fouled up then thats another issue...i would put a canister type water separator in the fuel line and that will catch some of the white and yellow crud....then i would use the marine stabil....
i went the route you are going about 18 months ago...i ended up with all new hoses and had to quit using a built in aluminum tank and went to portables...i had the problem because of non use of a boat while doing an engine rebuild and new carpet etc..the rebuild went bad and i replaced the motor with a new one and contaminated the new motor..under normal circumstances i am using the boat enough not to really worry about contamination...i took it out of the water today after a week at camp and it will be used next week..i use two 6 gallon portable tanks so there is plenty of gas rotation...there are some disadvantages of using portable tanks but the one big advantage is you know the status of your gas...

papyson makes very good points.

It's not so much WHAT you use but HOW you are using it. I would think the MARINE STA-BIL would be more than adequate to protect and help keep the system clean. I disagree with using two competing products simultaneously because you could actually get into some "formulation conflicts" between the two.

Much like trying to mix two different brands of engine oil. The petroleum industry warns; "additives" in one brand can cancel out the additives in the other and vice-versa. So, that instead of getting the protection "advertised" by each, you could actually get neither and engine damage can result!

I use LUCAS racing products but that's just me. I have heard nothing but good about Marine Sta-Bil but also know that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that can keep gas FRESH better than either constantly using it up or rotating it out.

High capacity boat tanks that have stale gas left in them have probably ruined more summers than picnic ants.

All good advice from Papyson.

What size engine are we talking about here? I'm assuming are talking about a Shamrock with an outboard, which is pretty darn rare.

The Valvtec is a decarbonizer for keeping fuel clean and minimizing carbon buildup on valves and piston heads. I highly recommend you continue to use it if your are doing a lot of low speed boating (i.e. trolling.) StaBil and Startron are primarily fuel stabilizers (although Startron claims all sorts of other benefits) which are designed to keep the fuel from deteriorating over time and prevent phase seperation of ethanol-laced fuel. They do work differently, but using both is overkill. Neither one will mitigate the effect ethanol has on fiberglas fuel tanks. Your only option there is to use only non-ethanol fuel. But it may be too late if your tank has already begun to deteriorate. I just don't know.

If you can motor about all day on 12 to 18 gallons of fuel, then Papyson's recommendation is probably your best option. Otherwise, your only viable permanent fix is to replace your internal tank with an aluminum one. Depending on your boat, that can be relatively easy, or relatively difficult. Usually it means tearing out a significant part of your deck, removing the old tank, and replacing with a new one, then rebuilding the deck. If you are good with plywood and fiberglas, you can do it yourself. There are several other forums where I have seen folks post how they did that.

Fresh e10 is in itself a cleaner... if i am at camp and refill and know i am going to use the gas i do not add anything...i am running a 60hp efi merc bigfoot and if i keep the rpm down to 4k then the gas mileage is good and i will use less than 3 gallons round trip to my favorite spots...if i am scouting and really running though gas will become a problem...especially when its over 20 bucks for 6 gallons and i am alone and pick up the whole tab..the boat is 100 gauge aluminum and is a bass boat..its heavy...the boat was actually built around the damn tank so replacing it is out of the question...it was carpeted the same way..everything wrapped...had to tear the thing up on the recarpet..back to the stabil..right now i have about 2/3 in one tank and about a gallon in the other..if i go back to camp sunday as planned i will just top them off...if i change plans and stay home i will add stabil and fill the tanks..i dont know why but a 2cycle efi engine is more tolerant on old gas...i have a fishing buddy that uses his own boat when he comes down..he will go months of non use and leave his tanks half full and top them off when he uses the boat..never uses any additive....either he is on borrowed time as i tell him or that evinrude is a different animal..

Thanks guys for all of the replies.

My boat is a 2006 Robalo CC with twin 150 Honda's. It holds around 180 gallons of fuel (it is an aluminum tank). With the Honda's being fuel efficient i am not filling it up every weekend.
I do have 2 racors, and 2 filters on the motors that i change often. I changed most of the fuel lines last year as well.

My take seems to be that going the Marine Sta-bil route may be best seeing the large tank and it not being used daily. I generally do not get out during the week, only weekends.

Okay - thought we were talking about the Shamrock. Your procedure sounds about right. I have a 120 gallon tank on a C-Hawk powered by a single BF 225, so sometimes the fuel is in there awhile. Do about 300 hours per year. I use non-ethanol fuel which is rather plentiful in the Virginia marinas and treat it with Stabil Marine. Sometimes I will fuel up with Valvtec-treated non-ethanol just to keep the internals clean.

the tank i quit using was an aluminum tank and they get crudded up too...stabil or some good treatment is a ''must'' in all built in tanks today in my opinion...i prefer stabil...

I'm in total agreement. By the way, I found an easy way to clean out a built in fuel tank. It involves simply buying an aftermarket auto fuel pump and jacking up the boat on a trailer, and tilting it to one corner. It gets just about every thing out the first time, then flush it with about a gallon of fuel, and pump it out again.

heyyyy..that is a winning idea...

Thanks Papyson. Necessity is the mother of invention. The fuel pump was about $35.00 at NAPA, and a few bucks for plastic tubing that fitted the fuel pump nipples. I just fitted very long wiring to the fuel pump to make sure no sparks near the fuel. Nice thing about that setup is it can be used to pump and fuel out of any tank - garden tractors, etc.