I have a female friend who owns a boat and reported that her
service department told her what I would consider to be an
exaggerated tale about new gasoline /ethanol blends which can
cause an engine not to start or die while in service. She has a
outboard. I said I was not aware of any issues, and had seen nothing
major reported in the press. I said I had an I/O with a Chevy V6 and
would not be expecting any more difficulties than would be the
case with my car. She then asked if it could be just an issue
with outboards.
I haven't asked my marina guy about this yet. I did a little Net
research and couldn't find much except something about a possible
reaction with fiberglass fuel tanks.
Can someone clear the air on this issue? She seemed quite
concerned. (I'm not.)
Many thanks for your help!
Frank

frank1492 wrote:
I have a female friend who owns a boat and reported that her
service department told her what I would consider to be an
exaggerated tale about new gasoline /ethanol blends which can
cause an engine not to start or die while in service. She has a
outboard. I said I was not aware of any issues, and had seen nothing
major reported in the press. I said I had an I/O with a Chevy V6 and
would not be expecting any more difficulties than would be the
case with my car. She then asked if it could be just an issue
with outboards.
I haven't asked my marina guy about this yet. I did a little Net
research and couldn't find much except something about a possible
reaction with fiberglass fuel tanks.
Can someone clear the air on this issue? She seemed quite
concerned. (I'm not.)
Many thanks for your help!
Frank


Thanks for mentioning that fiberglass fuel tank issue again. It's been
covered before but it can't be covered enough until everybody with a
FRP fuel tank knows *not* to put ethanol blended gasoline into it.

I'll bet there could be some issue with runability- particularly when
the gas has been stored in a fiberglass tank. As the ethanol dissolves
the resins in the laminate, it's quite likely that the chemicals stay
in suspension on the gas/ethanol mixture. It could maybe and might
change the combustible characterstics of the fuel itself?

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:23:24 -0000, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Thanks for mentioning that fiberglass fuel tank issue again. It's been
covered before but it can't be covered enough until everybody with a
FRP fuel tank knows *not* to put ethanol blended gasoline into it.

Here's some more on it:

http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/fueltest.asp


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Fiberglass also absorbs water and can loose strength due to that.
Regular gas also leaches out the unreacted resins, just much slower.
Even much slower is still not slow enough if you are going to give it
25 years to work on it. It is likely many of these tanks in question
are of dubious condition to start with. Fiberglass is not really the
best choice for a fuel tank.

Imho anyone with a fiberglass fuel tank 25 years old ought to be taking
a pretty critical look at it no matter what gas they are putting in it.

FWB wrote:
On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:23:24 -0000, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Thanks for mentioning that fiberglass fuel tank issue again. It's been
covered before but it can't be covered enough until everybody with a
FRP fuel tank knows *not* to put ethanol blended gasoline into it.

Here's some more on it:

http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/fueltest.asp


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Blogging from Pine View Farm--http://frankwbell.no-ip.info/weblog
Updates daily. Worthwhile updates occasionally.

fwb2355 is a spam trap. Email frankwbell at comcast.net

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There is another danger of mixing ethanol and gasoline:

Consuming ethanol while operating a gasoline-powered equipment is a
deadly combination


frank1492 wrote:
I have a female friend who owns a boat and reported that her
service department told her what I would consider to be an
exaggerated tale about new gasoline /ethanol blends which can
cause an engine not to start or die while in service. She has a
outboard. I said I was not aware of any issues, and had seen nothing
major reported in the press. I said I had an I/O with a Chevy V6 and
would not be expecting any more difficulties than would be the
case with my car. She then asked if it could be just an issue
with outboards.
I haven't asked my marina guy about this yet. I did a little Net
research and couldn't find much except something about a possible
reaction with fiberglass fuel tanks.
Can someone clear the air on this issue? She seemed quite
concerned. (I'm not.)
Many thanks for your help!
Frank