Ed wrote in news:cHEJg.21391$y7.9758
@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

One thing you did not mention was Gasohol's ability to EAT a fiberglass
tank. Great article in Boat US magazine about all the old small
Bertrams having to replace their gas tanks.


Someone needs to FORCE them to stop building gas tanks out of GLUE (Epoxy
is glue) and filling them with GLUE SOLVENT. Duhhh doesn't fully explain
how stupid this really is....

As always, just follow the money trail. If some boat builder is standing
there with a chopper gun already in his hand, the accountants just can't
stand for him not to use it on a tank form....no matter what the
consequences....

Tanks should ALL be made of METAL. IN a boat, that metal needs to be
STAINLESS STEEL. After all, they only want a hundred thousand dollars
for the damned thing that has no wheels/suspension/transmission (much of
one)/....They can afford a STAINLESS GAS TANK in all of them.

The old farts like me will remember those old Evinrude pressurized gas
tanks you had to pump up with the little finger air pump to get them to
put gas in the engine, then the engine had a little air pump...probably
the crankcase pulse, actually, I don't remember but that sounds logical,
that kept the tanks pressurized continuously while you were running it.
The tanks were STEEL, had a glass sight guage next to the two-hose
fitting and finger pump in the top. In those days, because this tank had
no vent to pump the fumes (and those light elements you're loosing)
overboard, the gas in them never went "bad". They didn't breathe if the
cap was tight at all. You didn't have to fill them to stop the breathing
because they really had no vent, even if unplugged from the motor because
they had a ball valve in the hose plug. I always thought that was a
great little gas tank arrangement for an outboard motor, especially and
outboard motor that was PORTABLE. The reason is that no matter what
happened to the tank, short of taking a pickax to it, gas never spilled
out of it. And, if you followed the DIRECTIONS written on the side of
that tank and unplugged the motor BEFORE shutting it off to drain the
carb bowl(s), there was no gas to spill in the engine you were putting in
the trunk, either... Those old blue Sportwins just made too much sense
and lasted WAY too long. I see them still buzzing around Charleston in
SALT WATER pushing an old jon boat....without missing a beat.

Grandpa's was the 7.5 Sportwin. AS a kid, with a 1hp Elto on my own
heavy old oak rowboat, I used to love it when he allowed me to ride off
ON PLANE in his aluminum deep-V...much faster than the Elto could push my
heavy, but very stable, rowboat. Can't imagine anyone thinking a 7.5 on
a V-hulled 12' boat is "fast" these days.....hee hee...(c;

By the way, the Elto would push the rowboat around at hull speed (16'
rowboat) all day on about a QUART of 15:1 premix...Quaker State SAE 30
and tractor gas. The engine was always so slimy with oil that leaked out
the exposed carb float pin you flooded it with so it would start you
never had to worry about "corrosion"....(c;

Grandpa had a 500 gallon hand pumped gas tank inside his big garage for
the boats and his new '57 Lincoln Landau 4-door hardtop (black) I used to
shine up to cruise the girls in high school. He was also a dairy farmer
who bought lots of fuel from the local fuel dealer, so when they filled
up the tanks at the farm up the road, they'd come down to the lake house
and fill up the hidden tank in the garage. I suppose when he went to
Florida for the winter, out of range of the tractor gas in the garage
that had no taxes on it, was the only time in his life he paid "gas tax"
to any bureaucrats....(c; In the downstairs outhouse in the lake house
there was another electric meter the big loads, electric range, fridge,
hot water tank, water pump, etc., were hooked to. The "official" meter
NY State Electric & Gouge read was behind the door in the living room
because in winter the snow off the lake was 20' deep at times. The meter
guy only read the living room meter...

I come from a long line of cheats and thieves, as you can tell...(c;
Small time crooks and swindlers....

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.