Gasoline treatment

My dinghy sits in the elements 24/7/365.* When I had a boat that was not as "usable" as the dinghy, we would use the dinghy a lot which means the gas would cycle.* Now that I have a boat that is easier to use than the dinghy and offers creature comforts, the dinghy does not get as much use.* In the past, I did not treat the fuel and the only downside was that it would start to run rough after about 3 months with the same tank of gas.* I would get fresh gas and the problem was solved.* SO I thought, "Why not treat the gas with one of the fancy fuel treatment stabilzor thingies?"!!!* SO I did.

I have had nothing but trouble since.* I am guessing but I think the treatment seperated the water and along with it, the alcohol(ethanol).* Because of this, the O-rings on the fuel line connector got eaten up....that fuel line was less than 6 months old.* I put the old one back on and it works fine.* I look under the cowling and it appears that the filter bowl is warped.* There are no symptoms of this right now but I will have to keep an eye on it.* I a thinking the bowl hhas been filtering out the alky/water mixture and caused it to warp as it sat in the bowl.* We went out the other day and every so often, the engine would quit.* Reason........a buncha crap that had filled up the filter bowl to the point of killing the engine.* his resulted in a filter bowl dumping about every 30 minutes and the dissection of the contents was not pretty.

II am thinking in the past, this stuff just remained in solution and the thirsty and indiscriminate 2 stroke would burn it as long as it contained enough stuff to burn.* Now that it is all seperated, it chokes whenever it gets a big mouthful of the seperated bad stuff....

Just an observation.* I hope the rest of my engine is not being eaten alive by this crap.

I dunno..... I didn't used to use a gasoline stabilizer and on things like generators, lawnmowers, and outboards that didn't get used for many months I would have problems until I either got rid of the old gas and put in new or they worked through the bad stuff and into the new. I started using Stabil a couple of years ago and have had no problems since then. However I'm told by lawn mower shops and such that stabilized gasoline is only good for a year at which point it should be gotten rid of and new gas used. The only stabilizer we have used is Stabil so I cannot offer any good-bad-indifferent verdict on any other product.

-- Edited by Marin at 00:31, 2008-07-22

Vinny, I doubt your engine was "detonating" from compression ignition in a gasoline engine. If so, it can cause consdierable damage. Going to a higher octane would definitely help that problem but I hope that was not the case. NOW, the fact that there is not alcohol in avgas would be a big plus!!!!

Vinny wrote:

John,

It was not detonating.* It was just the crud in the fuel as you experienced, that was the problem.*** The Yamaha dealer was the one that said that the 100LL was too high of octane.* I think he is incorrect and the engine will run fine.* In fact it does.

Another interesting thing is that according to the dealer the only difference in a 6hp 4 stroke Yamaha and the 8hp is the restriction in the exhaust pipe.* The change over is $200, $37 for the 8hp exhaust pipe and $160 labor because the power head has to be r & r'd to*do it.

Click to expand...

Maybe!!!* I do know in the 2 stroke world the 9.9hp and the 15hp are exactly the same engine except for the fuel system/carb jetting.

100 bucks per horsepower....hmmmmm!!!* Sounds like it's worth it to me!!!!

Using "too high " octane only means you are "waisting" money on purchasing the engine can not utilize to the fullest.

In this case the hassle of constant engine woes from the Gov mandated trash fuel outweighs the cost of the uselss octane.

Av gas does suffer as much as any fuel from the addition of oil, so only mix what you will burn in a few days .

Av gas works well in chain saws , weed wackers , and all the other stuff its a pain to rebuild befotr each use.

Just be advised there is a HUGE difference between oils to use in water cooled (outboard oil) and air cooled (chain saw) 2 stroke oil.

FF