Ethanol in boat fuel ok?

[Duff]

Someone told me today that gasoline contains more ethanol than ever before and that it is not good for boat motors. :confused: Anyone else heard this or know anything about it?

[JD]

There can be problems, possibly serious, with ethanol and boats. The first is that if you have a fiberglass fuel tank. Ethanol can damage fiberglass. So you don't want to keep a load of gas sitting in the tank. Fill with what you need and burn it in the shortest period of time. If you have aluminum tank no cause for worry.

As for the engine first check with the manufacturer. Ethanol tends to hold water so you need a good water separator and maintain it. As with the tank, the storage time of the gas is the biggest concern. Just keep what you need for short time periods and burn it as soon as you can. You don't want it sitting in the tank for more than a couple of weeks if that.

I'm sure other can add to or expand on this.

[PK]

try going over to The Hull Truth board... here's a search I just did on Ethanol.. plenty of info there.. you have to sign up if you want to post
http://www.thehulltruth.com/search/query.asp?fid=0&action=search&searchforumid=all&keywords=ethanol&mode=1&subjects=1&author=&collapsethreads=1&days=6&datemode=3&custom-start=&custom-end=

The Hull Truth's main site is at http://www.thehulltruth.com the Boating Forum is the most popular Board with the most info

in case you aren't aware.. The Hull Truth Board was purchased last year by Internet Brands.. it was originally started by Wiley .. having followed the board for a long while it's just not the same as it was before the sale.. it's starting to go the way of some of the other fishing-boating boards like Fla Sportsman etc..
http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zeromain?id=1
guys argue just for the sake of disagreement... and not filtered out by the new webmeisters... but it still has a lot of good info on it.. you can search for a lot of stuff

[explorer]

ethanol is a big mistake

[Jack Hexter]

Duff . I add Sta-Bil to my fuel every time I fill up. Now it looks like I will be adding Marine Sta-Bil

http://www.goldeagle.com/sta-bil/faqs_stabil_marine.asp

[Duff]

Fortunately my tank is aluminum, but I'll pick up some Sta-Bil. I wonder if most marinas supply fuel that is ethanol-free? I'd pay a little more for peace of mind.

[Mont]

if you run sta bil in it, you won't have any problems. I use it in the RV and it really works well.