Ethanol Gasoline Issue

[Christian Williams]

Is an Atomic 4 sensitive to this? Is the issue confined to outboards?

If gas stations have high ethanol, does that mean marinas sell a different gasoline product?

I couldn't quite figure out the Latitude 38 article:

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2018-06-08#Story2

 

[toddster]

There aren't very many fuel docks near me, but they pump non-ethanol premium. You have to phone a nearby gas station and one of their attendants hikes over to run the pump, when he gets time. (Weird Oregon laws...) Usually, I carry non-ethanol fuel in 5-gallon cans from the one gas station in the area that caters to racers and motorheads. That might be a problem if I used more fuel. Some marinas don't allow fueling in your slip... I haven't asked.

 

[tenders]

I don’t know, and hope to never find out, if there’s a BTU or chemistry issue with running fresh E15 in an A4. Ethanol isn’t good for tanks or hoses that weren’t designed for it (fiberglass tanks and fuel hoses that aren’t alcohol-rated), but I don’t know how much worse E15 would be than E10.

But it is absolutely the case that ethanol makes fuel go bad more quickly, and turn to orange goo in the carburetor. More goo = more bad.

I religiously use a generous dose of Sta-Bil in every bit of fuel that goes into my tank, regardless of the time of year. I personally haven’t had an issue with ethanol breakdowns, even in a 20-year-old fuel tank that developed rust pinholes. But the A4 message board at Moyer is full of situations where the fuel system was untended for a while and then developed problems.

I will admit that it is a mystery to me what is in Sta-Bil, whether it actually works, and why gasoline doesn’t already contain it. Every other gasoline additive, besides Marvel Mystery Oil (which does actually help sticky valves in old engines), is pure snake oil as far as I’m concerned.

 

[dt222]

Ethanol free fuel is very hard to find up here in New England. I used ethanol free aviation gas (Mo gas) that I could get at the small airport near me (Hampton, New Hampshire) and ran it in my A4, yard machines and stand-by generator. It's a bit pricy ($4.50/gal) but then I only use about 30 gallons a year.

Don

 

[Cory B]

Our old boat had an A4. We ran with an ethanol mix whenever "pure" gas wasn't readily available. Tenders comments above sum up our experiences perfectly.

 

[JSM]

Had an Atomic 4 in my last boat. Ran it on nothing but premium automotive gas with a slug of Marvel Mystery Oil for 30 years with no problems.
Old boat is now docked across from me and is still running fine.