Ethanol and the EPA............

[Au551e]

Was sent this from my engine guy, check it out!!


http://capwiz.com/nmma/home/

EPA is considering increasing the ethanol content in gasoline to 15 percent, which can damage your boat and engine. Use this website and tell EPA not to increase the ethanol blend level!

[jyasaki]

When E10 was on the horizon (not all that long ago), the NMMA was acting as if the sky was falling. When E10 was rolled out, there were a few problems with older fiberglass fuel tanks, attributed to an incompatible resin used in teh manufacture of said tanks (mostly older cabin cruisers, Bertrams, don't remember which others.)

The number of reported E10 problems (phase separation) went up, but the number of reported general water-in-fuel reports did not, which sort of clues me in that E10 became a scapegoat for general fuel contamination. I certainly haven't heard of too many people having problems, especially recently.

I'm not saying whether the E15 thing is good or bad (and the whole 1.15 gallons of dino fuel to produce a gallon of ethanol is certainly a different argument), but it seems to me that some kind of fear factor is at work here...

jky

[Au551e]

As i understand it, the ethanol fuels degrade more quickly leading to a drop in octane. In a car that's not a big issue as the fuel is used fairly quickly, but in boats the fuel generally sits longer.
If that is the case, we will have to go boating more often

[Rigaud]

I burn the fuel in my tanks on the weekend and the longest it sits would be 1 week during the season.

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by Au551e

As i understand it, the ethanol fuels degrade more quickly leading to a drop in octane. In a car that's not a big issue as the fuel is used fairly quickly, but in boats the fuel generally sits longer.
If that is the case, we will have to go boating more often

The biggest worry here has been phase separation (i.e. the alcohol separating from the gas, usually due to high moisture absorbtion.)

The alcohol is added to gasoline as an oxygenator and an octane booster (not octane per se, but an octane rating booster; it retards the explosiveness of the fuel/air mixture.)

Should phase separation occur, your motor sucks either watery alcohol (which a: doesn't burn well, and b: doesn't mix well with 2-stroke oils), or you get straight gas (which no longer has the octane booster, and tends to combust too easily causing detonation problems.)

That said, I haven't heard too many instances of engines being damaged by either. Haven't really been looking for it though.

jky