False economy... Save the cost of 100 gallons of petrol at the risk of a rebuild... Yeah, that make sense... :facepalm:...
Here's a tale you might find interesting.
When I had my boat shop, the Merc service rep for our state (a very nice and knowledgeable guy by the name of Phil Donnely. I hope he's still around) was called to check out a new engine in Malaysia that had blown a piston, twice, in the 6 months since installation. The engine had been repaired under warranty, both times. When it did it for the third time Phil was asked to go up and try to find out why this engine kept blowing up. Phil stripped the engine and indeed found another detonated piston. He rebuilt the engine and then checked everything on the engine, timing, cooling, advance... Nothing was wrong... Until he started talking to people around the marina. Apparently there was a guy getting around with a barge full of fuel he was selling off cheap, so most of the boats were filling up on that... This barge had been doing the rounds with this cheap fuel for 2 years! and never once refilled the barge (if you've ever been up that part of the world you'd know that they use bunker barges for refueling, and they can carry over 2,000 tons of fuel!!!). So this guy's selling 2 year old fuel. Phil took a sample of the fuel from the boat he was working on and had it tested... Octane number, 50... Sorry sunshine, no warranty claim, and he had to pay for the previous repairs.....
Now, if you'd like to take the risk with 4 year old fuel (with ethanol!), don't say you weren't warned....
Chris..........
