| Author |
Message |
    
John
Member
Username: saved
Post Number: 54
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 04:31 am: | 
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I would like an un-biased answer to a question I have. Why are boaters having to take special caution with their motors using ethanol? No other motor has this problem. Our vehicles do fine as well as small engines such as mowers and tractors. Has the engine manufactures dropped the ball here or what? |
Mauro DiBenedetto
Member
Username: maurod
Post Number: 52
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 05:39 pm: |
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John,
How many of your other vehicles sit in and function in water only? Not only that , but boats also have a vented fuel system, which lets pressure out, but moisture in as well. Ethanol will asorb water, become heavy,seperate from gas(rermember oil and water dont mix)gas goes on top, water goes below, the fuel pump sucks up water, and your day is shot  |
John
Member
Username: saved
Post Number: 55
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 07:06 pm: |
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I have listened to those arguments before and frankly they do not hold water. No pun intended. First off my boat never sets in water unless it is in use. Second I have mowers, trucks and other engines that set in 90% plus humidity daily here in Texas and they set for months at a time without any problem at all and all start right up and run fine. By the way most of them are vented also. The fact that a boat is in the water has little to do with the motor having problems because of Ethanol. The gas tank is not in the water but kept dry. So with all this it seems to me that the boat motor manufacturers have seriously dropped the ball. |
Jonathan Roy
Member
Username: marsh_huntr
Post Number: 5
Registered: 11-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 11:58 pm: |
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Do this little test, pour some gas in a glass jar and let it sit on a shelf for a week, you will see water collect. Ethanol draws moisture...vehicles have a closed fuel system. That is why there are no problems with cars & trucks. A boat sitting in water has no effect on it. Put a fuel/water separator and you will have no problems. As far as mowers go I don't think they are as sensitive as an outboard engine asp. 4 strokes. Most guys I know that have mud motors (they use lawnmower engines) have no problems. But everyone I know including myself have solved the problems but putting a separator on. |
JUST-IN-TIME
Senior Member
Username: justintime
Post Number: 6938
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 01:31 am: |
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cars have open fuel cells
they would not be able to vent and the gas tank would blow up! |
John
Member
Username: saved
Post Number: 56
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 03:23 am: |
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Like I said the boat motor manufactures have dropped the ball on this one. If lawn mowers can be made to work fine so can boat motors. |
John
Member
Username: saved
Post Number: 57
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 04:35 am: |
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No cars do not have open fuel cells. Cars have evaporative emission control systems. As for putting water in a glass what is the point? First gas tanks are not open like a glass. Second the problem is not that moisture gets into the fuel. The problem is that the engine needs some sort of rebuild when it happens. The carb mostly. This is what needs to be fixed by the manufacture. None the less I was raised on the farm and we had tractors that sat out in the open all year round. At times water did get in the gas and we would run the tractor until it stalled. All we had to do was drain the tank and put new gas in and there was no damage to the engine or carb. However the boat engine industry has dropped the ball because they use components that are not suitable to water or moisture yet they expect the product to be used in a wet environment. For the price of their engines they need to design engines that can stand a little water and not need a rebuild. |
Robert Graham
Advanced Member
Username: grahamr
Post Number: 112
Registered: 04-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 10:13 am: |
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add a fuel/water seperator to your boat(Walmart $27) and use a fuel stabilizer like Stabil Marine(Walmart $20/quart)and you will eliminate most all of potential fuel problems. I use Stabil all the time in my lawn mowers, weedeaters, blowers, etc. The jets in outboards and these small motors are so small that it takes very little to plug them up. Ethanol fuel or not, you still need a fuel stabilizer in these small motors. A plugged jet in an outboard at 5000RPM can fry a piston |
