Gas Question

[Dustin]

The owners manual for my 88 jeep cherokee mentions ethanol gas. So this stuff is not new. So why is it no one asks "Why didn't boat motor makers consider that when they were designing the engine?" Just wondering!

 

[bluewingjb]

Ethanol has been around in our fuels since 1988. It was in 1988 that Denver mandated it be used to oxygenate fuel for winter use, sounds like home heating oil, to reduce emissions. See you have to go back to leaded gas to find the roots of Ethanol. When the government took the lead out of fuel it needed to be replaced with something that could help oxygenate the fuel, remember when unleaded first came out and in a lot of cases people were complaining of their engines knocking?? Well they ended fixing that with MTBE - Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether made from Natural Gas petroleum or Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether - ETBE which is made from Ethanol petroleum. Since then the government has push ethanol to replace MTBE, you know its going to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and all.. Yeah Right!!! The have now banned MTBE and are mandating that each state sell a certain amount of ETBE so to meet the amount that must be sold more states are adding it to all fuels sold in the state. Only our government could mandate something that costs more to make than it actually saves. You know the Evinrude ETEC was designed specifically to run with a 10% blend of Ethanol!!! So all you ETEC people are good to go, the rest of us have to look for 100% fuel. If you want more info on this try this link, I found it very helpful
http://www.fuel-testers.com/ethanol_fuel_history.html

 

[Dustin]

Good info, but still does not explain why manufacturers didn't think ahead. I know thinking like that was not popular in the 80s. But, why not in the past 10 years. Bluewingjb were you ever on the BIG-E?

 

[bluewingjb]

Not on the Big E as I was a bubblehead, spent time under the water, USS Guitarro, USS Gurnard, USS Boston and USS Pittsburgh.

 

[Bubbakat]

Dustin - 6/28/2011 9:47 AM

Good info, but still does not explain why manufacturers didn't think ahead. I know thinking like that was not popular in the 80s. But, why not in the past 10 years. Bluewingjb were you ever on the BIG-E?

At the time it was introduced the public was suppose to have a choice in its use or not to use it. Then they shoved it down our throats. As with diesel fuel up until 92 the diesel had sulfur in it and ash. Then they removed the ingredients in one fell sweep so the big users of diesel engines were plagued with fuel pump replacements. Same with ethanol. It hit harder then it was suppose to so the 2 stroke engines hadn't geared up to that part fast enough. Now its a if we can get by with it then we will attitude from all the boat motor companies.
but this of course is my own opnion.

 

[hk-91]

I can suggest to anyone who has a carburated boat motor that you use non-ethanol fuel, I just spent some serious coin to have my carbs rebuilt (3), and it was a 4 stroke, 10 years of ethanol ate all the soft parts out of them, I cant imagine what its doing to the 2 strokes. The good news is my mechanic said the fuel injected engines are nearly bullet proof.

 

[wrechin2]

Actually, I have some OMC factory manuals that cover early 90's engines and it states it is ok to use up to 10% ethanol. Some were thinking ahead.