Posted: September 11 2006 at 00:19 | IP Logged

Cliff Steele here,

I have a 28 yr old 24 aft cabin SARTAGOA..kept as new..never in the water longer than a great lakes cruise. you can see a pix of it on the internet by looking for HEARTLAND BOATING my wife and i have been writers for this great boating mag for 10 yrs.

about your question..ethanol  is bad for almost any motor..mainly it flushes the protective oil film from the cylinder walls of all type motors. those small 2 cycle motors (as larger 2 cycle out bds) really take a beating...as the oil is mixed in the fuel..most 2 cycles fail in as little as 30 hrs!!lawn trimmers,chain saws and such.

I have a 96 gal all alumin fuel tank in our Bayliner...I replaced it with a custom (double gauge than orig & special coated  $800) made replacement about 5 yrs ago as looking UNDERNEATH it were small pits and errosion forming..not good to have a leak for sure. Boat U.S. My insurer has had many failures in boats as this in salt water...ours has never been near salt.  Contact Bob Adriance and he can also give you the scoop on how this product  ethanol is costing boaters millions!! Also info on aging fuel tanks...Ethanol will also cut the life of these tanks by 1/2 !!!!stainless steel has also been found to leak at the welded seems...not good for boaters for sure!!

AS FOR Ethanol...use about 5 containers of the product HEET.(yellow or red plastic container).about a buck each... small amount of STABIL go about your regular duties of draining water from manifolds and ect. We have VOLVO PENTA I/Omod 280.(305 chevy block..orig225hp).used mostly on house boats..but works well on our 8900# bayliner. I have only hooked up a water hose to the i/o water pick up..rev to about 1,000 as you slowly pour a qt container of number 30.MOTOR OIL .or whatever,,down the carb throat..the motor will smoke and cough,stall and stop.you have just protected the entire interior of your motor for a cold northern winter. (dont forget all the drain block plugs and such)come spring a SMALL shot of either ...do not remove the flame arrestor) will bring that engin back for another summer of boating>

ethanol is advertised that it will save the world..it wont. I have studied months and visited 3 major plants in northern Ill...and Minn. We found that we were to get a huge poluting plant..(200 million $$) a week befor CHRISTMAS. (their PR tried to sneak it in over the holidays!!)It is to be built in the middle of 4,000 homes..many valued at over one million $ After  40 years I sold and moved..just 3 months ago to somerset Ky..we are 5 miles from the nations largest man made lake (LAKE CUMBERLAND)and have just can't believe we stayed  north as long as we did.

To make ethanol requires a lot of WATER>>over one million GALs a day!!24/7/365!  their are now to be 6 ethanol plants completed in about one year all in a 30 mile circle near where we once lived.. One will not be able to breath the air nor drink the water..waste water is returned to the aquifiers. corn needs fert and insectds..making drinking water over save limits from NITRITES...see Mississippi river..gulf of mexico ..one can walk on the water from this so called clean fuel !! by productsThe press and goverment arent telling the whole story. did you read where it has been eating all fiberglass fuel tanks!!see BOAT US reports..thousands of boats damaged by this stuff. the goverment in Kentucky..where we now live does not even allow 10% !!

Well your getting almost a full blown story...just read as much as you can from good sources...I also own  a E85 car..(01 mercury Sable).used to be called "gasahol" that idea crashed till now the US GOVERMENT with MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS are SUBSITIZED THE ETHANOL INDUSTRYindustry. THE TEEMSTERS TRUCK UNIONS support it also because the product is so crossive it cant be sent via pipelines!!so all those stainless trucks(consuming diesel fuel at 5 miles per a gal to deliver) by the 400+ each week will also get a piece of the action. the farmers in our county were told..we will buy your corn..you will get rich!!nope..the ethanol plants are railroading 700 hopper cars a week from canada..and neb!the farmers in Winnebago county now have elevators full of corn to sell at depressed prices!!

If you cant tell im bitter and outradged by whats happening to this country...and my old home town of Rockford Ill you can tell now! I also lost 12K on our home...as the banks no longer will loan funding as its now zoned HEAVY INDUSTRY!!

So far only 414 ethanol pumps in the US!!!one in down town los Angles!!..the 2 in rockford Ill were down most of the time because NO PUMP COMPANY THAT MAKES AN ETHANOL PUMP WILL STAND BEHIND THEM..YOU BUY IT..AND ITS YOURS..THE PRODUCT EATS UP EVERYTHING IN THEM IN MONTHS AND ARE COSTLY TO REPAIR...A NEW PUMP IS OVER $25,000!

it cost over $200 thousand to instal a complete TOTAL system new pump for ethanol...did you forget that fiberglass tank has to be removed and replaced with a special stainless steel one ??!!yep..good old taxpayers again.

when you buy ethanol fuel you will find its about 10 cents less than reg...but when you check your milage...you will get 30% LESS MILES per a gal !!Then the price of that gal works out to be about $4.56 a GAL !!

please take time to read about GOPHER STATE ETHANOL  .com..in Minn it will give you a good idea as to whats really going on in this industry and the sham that is being pulled on the American people. (I wont even go into the fires and that the companies are LLC...limited Liability...which means the things can't be brought into COURT for damages!!!if you live in IND..(a new super huge plant is on its way) minn.iowa,ill>wis and most of the corn belt will sufer from the cancer emissons and over 150 '''250.THOUSANDTONS(each plant!!!THOUSANDS OF TONS OF DISCHARGE A YEAR (facts from EPA) the plants can do this  because they can BUY A SPECIAL POLLUTION DISCHARGE PERMIT from the EPA>>($50,000 per a plant in Ill) then they can discharge ANYTHING!!

i DO HAVE TO SAY THAT YOUR QUESTION JUST CAUSED ME TO GO ZONKERS AS i GET OVER 100 E MAILS A WEEK reff the ethanol plants in ILL.& Mid west... I was one of the lucky ones and got out of DODGE...

Safe boating..and if your in one of the states I have listed...its time to move down here in Gods county,,,not the politicians and the rich investors! 

28 seasons of enjoying our sea worthy bayliner... Cliff 

 Cliff

Posted: September 15 2006 at 21:12 | IP Logged

Preacher,

        Have you heard anything about "Star-tron" by Starbrite? This is supposed to stabilize the fuel for up to a year, and do some other good things also. Check it out befor you go to the expense of getting pumped out in the fall, and getting the condensation removed from the empty tank in the spring.

Posted: September 15 2006 at 23:59 | IP Logged

Cliff,

I enjoyed your ethanol post above, and I just can't believe that we are getting another "improvement" foisted on us whether we want it or not. This is sad.

But, you mentioned 2-cycle engines, and the effect ethanol has on them. Since my outboard days are long gone, I haven't given 2-cycle engines any thought. But, I do have 2-cycle leaf-blowers and trimmers that I use, and never thought about ethanol in them at all. Thanks for bringing that up! That being said, what should I do to make sure they are not destroyed? Put more oil in the gas? Mix oil and gas only when I'm ready to use them? Empty tanks after each use? Etc...

I'm sure that any answer you give will also be applicable to outboards, jetskis, snomobiles, etc.

Thanks