Using the old gas, or diluting?

[Tim Frank]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

We recently bought a boat that sat for a year. It had a little more than 3/4 tank of gas in it. He did put fuel stablizer in it, but we knew we had to get it out. We took it out a few weeks ago, but topped it off first. We also put seafoam in and ran it but only used up about half a tank. Last weekend we took it out and ran it without topping off. It is now a bit over quarter tank. Should we use up that last bit of gas, then fill up, or go ahead and fill up now?
-Carrie

Carrie,
Apparantly a few Neanderthals in here can't envision that it might be the distaff side of "ChrisnCarrie" asking the question....
Other than that, it's all the usual good advice!

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

Unfortunately i can't flush the motor b/c I don't have water on my pier. If I get around a hose I give it a flush although I can't see how it does any good just to do it occassionally. But the way I see it, flushing motors is a fairly new thing. This 2003 is the first motor I've had with a built in hose. I am certain that even the people who keep boats on lifts don't flush them with muffs; I'd hear it every evening in the summer. We (and our friends) have run motors for years without flushing.
I'm not saying it shouldn't be done or a waste of time; it's just not the end of the world if you don't. With my other boats, when I go to the eastern shore seaside, very high salt environment, I flush when I pull the boat up at the end of the week or weekend. And I'm sure flushed motors, like freshwater motors, last longer, but so would your tires if you only drove on dirt roads.

A friend invented a long holder for mug=ffs so youcould flush on a lift or even tilted at the dock, but it didn't catch on.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

Ahh well that's not a bad point, although I'd highly doubt that 2 or 3 months old gas has that much water in it.

Well come on down mid-August thru early October and I'll show how saturated 1 month old fuel can get when the fuel is above 80 degrees and the dew points have been above 70 degrees for the past 4-5 months.

The fuel gets hazy. You get a teaspoon or so of water in the filter after each use. Happens every year. Like clock work.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

It's my understanding that they also filter out the gunk, so don't you need to change the can anyway?

If you don't have any gunk in your fuel system there is nothing to filter out.

My motor will alarm on a fuel line restriction @ 8 Hg. I've never seen a filter go above 5 Hg. or so during the season.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

"If" is the biggest word in the English language--especially when it comes to boating!

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

You're not diluting the fuel per say. Your diluting the water content of the fuel. One gallon of ?wet? fuel plus one gallon of fresh, "dry" fuel, equals 2 gallons of half as wet fuel.

That would be true if the water were actually disolved in the gas. Unfortunately, it is mixed, but not disolved. That is why you can see small "glops" in a tank with water. Actually, I suspect that if it were disolved, your filters would not do any good at getting it out.

Think of it like oil and water vs. sugar and water. Oil and water do not disolve in each other. Sugar does disolve in water. Gasoline, like oil, is a petroleum product and does not disolve in water.

TerryMSU

 

[Cricket Too]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

Unfortunately i can't flush the motor b/c I don't have water on my pier. If I get around a hose I give it a flush although I can't see how it does any good just to do it occassionally. But the way I see it, flushing motors is a fairly new thing. This 2003 is the first motor I've had with a built in hose. I am certain that even the people who keep boats on lifts don't flush them with muffs; I'd hear it every evening in the summer. We (and our friends) have run motors for years without flushing.
I'm not saying it shouldn't be done or a waste of time; it's just not the end of the world if you don't. With my other boats, when I go to the eastern shore seaside, very high salt environment, I flush when I pull the boat up at the end of the week or weekend. And I'm sure flushed motors, like freshwater motors, last longer, but so would your tires if you only drove on dirt roads.

A friend invented a long holder for mug=ffs so youcould flush on a lift or even tilted at the dock, but it didn't catch on.

Well there's no need to flush the motor out of the water, so I'm not sure why you'd invent a long holder for a lift. All you have to do is put the muffs on, lower the motor back into the water and run it on the muffs, that will flush it good enough. No need to run it on the lift or tilted.

But I do agree that unless you are in a hevay salt environment, you probably don't need to worry about flushing all the time. I have been in nothing short of the saltiest environment forever, so flushing is a must. I've used the muffs in the water technique for plenty of year, but the backflushers are much better.

Anyway back to the gas issue. Best bet overall is to just treat with StarTron whenever you put gas in and you will be fine, no matter if you are full all the time or not, especially the way you use your boat. The people who have to worry the most are the people who don't even know they have anything to worry about, and let their boats sit. You use yours regularly, so you are already doing the right thing.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Using the old gas, or diluting?

That would be true if the water were actually disolved in the gas. Unfortunately, it is mixed, but not disolved. That is why you can see small "glops" in a tank with water. Actually, I suspect that if it were disolved, your filters would not do any good at getting it out.

Think of it like oil and water vs. sugar and water. Oil and water do not disolve in each other. Sugar does disolve in water. Gasoline, like oil, is a petroleum product and does not disolve in water.

TerryMSU

I'm not working with the gasoline/ ethanol mixture. I'm working with the ethanol / water solution. Ethanol and water are miscible. Meaning that they will mix forming a homogeneous solution.

An E-10 fuel willl will carry up to 0.05% water by volume, at 60 degrees F, before shedding the excess mositure. The trick is to keep the ethanol/water solution below the 0.05% by volume threshold to keep the water in solution in the fuel/alcohol mixture. Adding "fresh/dry" alcohol to the mix helps reduce the saturation levels of the ethanol in the tank.

You can burn water in solution, you can't burn it as free water setting in the bottom of your tank


http://www.epa.gov/oms/regs/fuels/rfg/waterphs.pdf