On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:43:06 -0400, Gene
wrote:

Ethanol, and the people that have forced it on us, suck.

It's interesting - I hear these stories about Sta-bil all the time,
yet I - please to note the word I (as in me, myself and) - haven't
fell victim to any of that and if there's anybody who keeps gasoline a
long time, it's me. I still have a 5 gallon can that's got to be 8
months old and just put it in my lawn tractor - looked fine, smelled
fine and the tractor is running just fine.

i hadn't run my Ranger since late September last year up to late July
this year - full tank and before that, it sat the entire summer down
at my son's house - ran maybe twice for a total of two/three hours and
not a lot of fuel used.

Never once had a problem - started right up, ran fine, plenty of
power, yada, yada, yada.

And I use Sta-bil. In my lawn tractor, all my two cycle lawn/garden
equipment, etc. No orange "goop", no issues with the gas, filters
look clean when removed and replaced - no issues at all.

Fiberglass deteroiation - I can't say directly. I have seen what was
proportedly the result of ethanol ruining a gas tank, but that was a
very old boat - I would have suspected problems at some point if I
were the owner even without the ethanol. Since then? Haven't heard
tell of a single issue.

And I get around as there are several dealers who use me deliver and
test boats because (1) I'm retired (2) as a general rule I know what
I'm doing and (3) I usually don't charge as it keeps me entertained -
when I do, it's almost always a barter situation. Which is how I get
my electronics on the cheap. :)

Now ethanol "cleaning" out gas tanks? That I can directly address as
I saw what came out of the Ranger tank when I had it drained, the
lines flushed and the inboat filters changed. That was amazing - must
have been a pound or so of just pure crud, dirt and crap.

And it was the same with the pontoon boat my son has - we drained the
tank and there was about an inch or so of crap at the bottom of the
tank. Got all that out, flushed the tank and it's clean as a whistle.

Having said all that, I don't doubt that you experienced what you
experienced. I'm not trying to gain say you nor am I trying to be
offensive, obnoxious, disagreeable, churlish, contentious,
disputatious and/or unfriendly. :)

To quote Col. Jack O'Neill: "I'd like to apologize in advance for
anything I may say or do that could be construed as offensive as I
slowly go nuts!"

I am saying that the problems being reported may not be entirely the
fault of "ethanol" all by it's lonesome. There may be other issues to
blame also.

Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.