Carver Owners Forum

The other thing to add to all this is as I understand it, ethanol acts as a solvent and cleans the system, When the system is old there you can see the problem, especially with carbs.

Cooler wrote:QR_BBPOST Tom, how do you handle winter layup? Empty tanks with heavy treatments? Are you carbed or FI? There are a number of areas where it is difficult to get non ethanol gas. Probably about 100 miles of west shoreline on Lake Michigan that has ethanol only gas. A person needs to be aware if that concerns them. er

For my last fill of the year, I add Stabil 360 marine. I layup with tanks 1/4 or less. This year sucking fumes!

tomschauer wrote:QR_BBPOST

Cooler wrote:QR_BBPOST Tom, how do you handle winter layup? Empty tanks with heavy treatments? Are you carbed or FI? There are a number of areas where it is difficult to get non ethanol gas. Probably about 100 miles of west shoreline on Lake Michigan that has ethanol only gas. A person needs to be aware if that concerns them. er

For my last fill of the year, I add Stabil 360 marine. I layup with tanks 1/4 or less. This year sucking fumes!

I have fuel injected merc 7.4's

In the marine world, 1996 was a cross-over year for ethanol issues. Equipment prior to that was not prepared for ethanol at all, so you could expect issues unless you already replaced things like fuel lines. After 1996 you could still have problems, but not as severe. Also, as noted earlier Ethanol is a solvent. So if you did run non-ethanol for many years and then switched to a fuel with some Ethanol, then you might be "washing"" some crud from the fuel system and this could cause filters to get filled up

I have a number of friends who have had issues with injectors gumming up with Ethanol. If any fuel sits in an injector, it apparently leaves a varnish like coating on the inside, negatively impacts the flow and cone of spray. Maybe Viper will weigh in on that. Glad I still have pure gas at our marina. er

I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. While some folks have been lucky with their older vintage vessels, in general, I recommend staying away from ethanol fuels unless you upgrade your fuel system hardware, even then, I'd stay away from it. I've had more complications with smaller trailered boats that pull into gas stations for fill-ups than larger vessels. Larger vessels tend to get marina fuel which is typically ethanol free, at least in my area. Even newer fuel systems have issues with ethanol fuels. It's all great until you start running into issues, then it's just a big expensive headache that could affect your boating season. Too many other things to worry about that can go wrong to have to worry about problems with fuel because you chose to cheap out.