Ethanol and outboards! Everyone should read this!

rellison8

Basshawk wrote:

rellison8 wrote:

Darrin wrote:

With all respect, I thought running NO ethanol in your boat motor was fairly common knowledge? Seriously, that was not meant to come off as being a smart a$$. Smile

Not common knowledge enough. Can't say as I have ever heard anything about it. scratch

Till now. Guess I have never asked anyone either.

As for my gas consumption. Well, I have kinda tried to keep track half azzed of it just week by week. I have run around 350 gallons of fuel thru my little 40hp Evinrude this open water season alone. (Granted I ran over 60gallon thru it during the Elite series tournament alone.) Take that over the 3 years I have owned the boat and I have prolly run 1000 gallons or so of ethanol thru that motor. Dat bad???? Shocked

However, if I had a big ole fancy bass boat with a gas sucking monster on it I would prolly have went thru a thousand this year alone. Sad

Although mine isn't a big fancy bass boat. Just a bass boat with a 150 Optimax. You would be surprised. That motor probably uses less gas than your 40 hp. Even the bigger motors 200,225's use a lot less gas. Of course I can only speak for Mercurys. But i'm sure the etecs and yammys high performance use less also.

Maybe, although I don't see how. When you consider that it would take every drop of a 60 gallon tank for them guys to run from 19 up to 17 and back. I have never done it but I feel confident in knowing the MPG I get out of my 40 that I could make it on a lot less than 60 gallons.

I know that new motors make far better use of your fuel than old ones but if you don't think I would burn more with a new bigger motor I tend to think your wrong. Even if I put a 60hp E-tec on the boat I have now I think I would use more than I do now. Cause I would run that much farther in a day. I'd run from Montrose to Carthage lake and back to Keokuk in a day of fishing if I had a boat that ran 70. Guaranteed! Instead of running 25 miles a day average like I do now it would prolly me more like 75 or 80 miles a day.

You can ask anyone, including my father on this. I have a good way of getting behind the wheel of any type boat and emptying the gas tank in it. No matter the size or motor. I find a way to run her till she's dry! Smile

I know I have made him wonder a time or 2 if we would make it back to the dock and even a time or two we didn't. Bang Head

So yeah, I get what your saying. Just not sure it applies to me. I'm with stupid!

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Randy Ellison

Basshawk

All I am saying is you would probably go futher in my boat (41 gal tank) using the Optimax as you would with your 40 on the same amount of gas. And yes you would probably go through more gas because you could run from one end of the pool to the other at a higher speed and less time so you would. Your pool takes a lot of running no doubt about that. But when the wind is up speed is not a concern.

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When the fish get tough the tough get fishing!

toolsetter · Forum newbie! Number of posts: 22 Registration date: 2008-04-11

Can't argue wuth that.

Dad

toolsetter · Forum newbie! Number of posts: 22 Registration date: 2008-04-11

Even if I can't spell

Basshawk

toolsetter wrote:

Even if I can't spell

If spelling was an issue we would all be sunk! Rolling on floor

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When the fish get tough the tough get fishing!

toolsetter · Forum newbie! Number of posts: 22 Registration date: 2008-04-11

Now back to the ethanol controversy ------- back in the 80's I ran a small engine repair shop out of our garage and I took some classes at the college. One thing they stressed was do not use ethanol in small engines. They claim it burns too hot and the air cooled engines can not dissipate the heat if run for very long. I also had several mowers and snowblowers come in with the fuel lines almost completely dissolved on the inside even though they looked fine on the outside. I was pretty sure they had solved the fuel line issues by now though.
The water mixing with ethanol is a new one for me
Obviously I never let Randy in on the perils of ethanol.

Chopper

rellison8 wrote:

Cause I would run that much farther in a day. I'd run from Montrose to Carthage lake and back to Keokuk in a day of fishing if I had a boat that ran 70. Guaranteed! Instead of running 25 miles a day average like I do now it would prolly me more like 75 or 80 miles a day.

You wouldn't do that everyday if you were buying the fuel for it! Thats the main reason I put in at the closest ramp to where I'm fishing and I don't normally run all over heck trying to fish every little hole I know of, Gas ain't cheap and my motor likes it! pig

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"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching." --Satchel Paige

rellison8

toolsetter wrote:

Now back to the ethanol controversy ------- back in the 80's I ran a small engine repair shop out of our garage and I took some classes at the college. One thing they stressed was do not use ethanol in small engines. They claim it burns too hot and the air cooled engines can not dissipate the heat if run for very long. I also had several mowers and snowblowers come in with the fuel lines almost completely dissolved on the inside even though they looked fine on the outside. I was pretty sure they had solved the fuel line issues by now though.
The water mixing with ethanol is a new one for me
Obviously I never let Randy in on the perils of ethanol.

Quite likely that I just wasn't paying attention. Why would a kid bother paying any attention to anything there parents said???? Laughing

I did give up on running it in my atv a couple years ago. I only run real high octane fuel in it now. Not sure it makes any difference and that thing is liquid cooled but I still got away from it. Now I will do the same with the boat.

I ran thru 1 whole tank last night while out fishing so I only have 1 more tank to get thru and I'll be ethanol free. I am wondering about changing the hoses on my fuel tanks though. They aren't in the greatest shape as it is so it might be a good thing to do either way.

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Randy Ellison

manho

Something I noticed filling my tank yesterday. A couple of times guys have said "I now use the highest octane" I was filling up at a Shell station, and I noticed none of the pumps were marked as Ethanol. I thought that was cool, maybe I found a station that doesn't use it!

Then as I looked around I noticed a 8x10 sticker, up high, on the framework around the pump stating ALL of their fuels contain Ethanol ! ! !

So higher octane doesn't mean Ethanol free . . . . additionally I remember when I got my Tracker from Bass Pro in Springfield MO they told me, no Ethanol, nothing higher than 89 octane . . for what it's worth.

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"Tell the Truth, It's easier to remember" - Mark Twain

rellison8

manho wrote:

Something I noticed filling my tank yesterday. A couple of times guys have said "I now use the highest octane" I was filling up at a Shell station, and I noticed none of the pumps were marked as Ethanol. I thought that was cool, maybe I found a station that doesn't use it!

Then as I looked around I noticed a 8x10 sticker, up high, on the framework around the pump stating ALL of their fuels contain Ethanol ! ! !

So higher octane doesn't mean Ethanol free . . . . additionally I remember when I got my Tracker from Bass Pro in Springfield MO they told me, no Ethanol, nothing higher than 89 octane . . for what it's worth.

That is interesting. I have went to running the ole 87 octane in my boat now. The only other option is either ethanol or the Amoco Ultimate that is 93 octane and really expensive. I have no idea if it has ethanol in it or not.

This is all pretty confusing to me.

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Randy Ellison

Cowboy

me too! Which one has no ethanol, and why are the higher octane ones with ethanol, and why would the dealer say nothing higher than 89 octane?

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I like beer

Cowboy

rellison8

I have been googling all this for a while now. Just depends on what article you read. Some say it don't matter and ethanol up to 10% is fine. Then the next one says nothing over 89 and then the next one says use 93 octane if at all possible. The higher the better.

I seriously don't think anyone really knows.

If someone does know what you SHOULD run then they need to write a publication about it and make it well know cause there is a lot of articles out there that are feeding bad information and just confusing the issue.

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Randy Ellison

Basshawk

Cowboy wrote:

me too! Which one has no ethanol, and why are the higher octane ones with ethanol, and why would the dealer say nothing higher than 89 octane?

He must of meant 87, because ethanol or mid-grade is 89 to 89.5. Premium ,around here anyway, all has ethanol in it.. And higher octane does not necessarily mean your engine will run better. Most engines over the last 15 or so years are engineered to run on the lower octane.

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When the fish get tough the tough get fishing!

Chopper

[url=[07:18:05 16/09/09] @ Chopper : I was going to [07:18:21 16/09/09] @ Chopper : fish today, but I better get stuff ready for the outing]Here [/url] is an interesting read about fuels and octane.

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"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching." --Satchel Paige

Basshawk

Chopper wrote:

[url=[07 16/09/09] @ Chopper : I was going to [07:18:21 16/09/09] @ Chopper : fish today, but I better get stuff ready for the outing]Here [/url] is an interesting read about fuels and octane.

WTF is that suppose to mean? Question

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When the fish get tough the tough get fishing!