Bob & Mag

Time to get the boat pulled and went looking for the bottle of "stabil" that I bought in the spring. You know I put it in one of those places where I'll never forget it!
Same thing in the spring for "transducer paint", you know the little bottle made by MDR. Well apparently these two items have a lot in common with socks in the dryer, or should I say missing from the dryer.

Well I found my stash of transducer paint......all four bottles of it , when you actually only use about 1/10 of a bottle for 3 coats.

Now I guess I'll be heading to the store to add to my collection of stabil
Will probably use a total of 2 oz. in our little tank and misplace the remaining six ounces. Maybe it'll turn up next season right next to the transducer paint stash!

__________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of food, electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Smoke free 4 Months!

PG

Bob
Been there done that.
What I have done to eliminate the CRS problem is this. I went to Wal Mart and bought two large plastic containers with lids, the ones used for storing clothes. I put all my boat stuff in these. One gets the paints, on-off, stabil ext, the other gets the trailer stuff, ball hitch, pins, straps ect.

PG

Bob & Mag

Good idea, and I think I'll tie a dock line from the boxes to a 4x8 sheet of plywood and lean that against the shed door. LOL

__________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of food, electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Smoke free 4 Months!

ChuckA

Walmart has stabil the big bottle for 9.98 .The store in Guilford

I end up cleaning the shed and garage in order to find something.Then I find something I was looking for a month ago and forget what I was looking for in the first place.

74Formula233

I buy the big bottle also.

I use it every time I fill up my 5-gallon gas jugs for all the lawn equipment.

That way, whether I'm fueling the generator, rototiller, snowmobiles, zero-turn, or making the different blends of 2-stroke I need......there's ALWAYS stabilizer in the fuel. n (Because of the ethanol, and the fact the gas sits in the equipment for different times).

I also don't buy regular 87 octane fuel for the lawn equipment, I go with the 89.

The ethanol causes the octane rating to degrade quicker, so with the new zero-turn (Kawasaki engine), the dealer said it was a good idea to buy up one grade, to allow for some degradation over time.

With todays shitty ethanol blends, I feel better doing both of those things.

Small price to pay, really, as opposed to having to replace engines LOL.

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Scup

I always thought that the higher the octane, the higher the ethanol content. I wish there was a chemist out there that knew for sure. In any event, I always dump the last of my fuel (with the 2 cycle oil mixed in) into my 1987 Chevy Nova after nearly topping it off. Not a great idea, but without injectors, it seems to handle the fuel and it is a safe way of disposing of it.

74Formula233

I believe the ethanol is the same % blend no matter the octane.

i.e. where E10 is advertised on the pump, you're getting 10% ethanol....E15, 15%, etc......

One thing I know for sure is that Ethanol has lower BTU's than gasoline. Which is why we all get worse mileage now that we're using ethanol blends. Simple energy equation. Need more fuel to make the same number of BTU's to power each engine.

Now, I would THINK that IF the concentration were to vary between octanes, it would be the opposite (less ethanol in higher octanes.....). But I could be way off and talking out my azz on this point. LOL That part I'm not sure......

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Bob & Mag

Ethanol here does not exceed 10% but might be a hair less in some cases. Octane shouldn't matter. Note: Most if not all motor manufacturers warranties cover use of fuel "not to exceed 10%"....what is going to happen when 15% is imposed? I do know of someone running 85 in Brazil without problems so who knows if warranty will change.

__________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of food, electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Smoke free 4 Months!

ChuckA

The octane rating is increased or decreased by the amout of lead that is added to the fuel. You can buy lead additives that 1 qt to 30 gals of 93 octane fuel will give you a 103 octane fuel. I was buying racing fuel for my tractor that was 112 octane made by sunoco at ocean performance in old saybrook . @ 7.50 a gal.

Scup

I remember when the philosophy was to top off your boating tanks (with stabilizer) prior to putting the thing to bed for the winter. Something to do with not leaving an air gap that will expand and contract thus sucking in damp air. The cold nights would then cause water droplets to form, which being heavier than gasoline, would settle to the bottom of your tank. Even worse, this was an accumulative process where the water would just keep on building up during the entire winter. Therefore the idea of keeping your tanks full seemed like the right thing to do, at least before the advent of these horrible ethanol mixes. The philosophy has now changed. Since ethanol is an alcohol, similar to dry gas, it will absorb water but only up to point. Eventually the ethanol will attract enough water that the fuel mix will have reached its limit and becomes saturated. There is no miracle here, the alcohol will hold some water in solution, so that your engines can burn it up without a problem, however, the water is still there. Once the mix becomes saturated (simply put, it cannot hold any more water) you once again start to have water accumulating at the bottom of your tank. The new philosophy is to get rid of these horrible mixes for the winter and go with a empty tank. The second reason for going with an empty tank is these horrible ethanol mixes that we a paying a king's ransom for is, as other's mentioned, a crappy fuel. Even with stabilizer, the fuel will start to break down after a couple of months. It is like a crap shoot the following year when you first try to light things off. You really do not know if you are going to be OK.
I work part-time at West Marine, and every Spring there are a bunch of boaters that come in and thought they did everything right but find themselves in a pack of trouble because of these ethanol mixes. The other problem I often hear about is something to do with being the first one in at the marina and the first boat to top off from their tanks. If your marina does not pump all year round, I would fill up the first couple of times using portable tanks.
The absolutely worse horror that can happen with these ethanol mixes (other than eating right through your built-in fiberglass tank) are those who are still using moderate sized two cycle engines that have to add oil to their fuel. Ethanol attracts water, and you have now added two cycle oil to the mix. Then you proceed out on your merry way bouncing along from wave top to wave top giving your whole tank one good shaking up. You, my friend are making an emulsion. A good example of an emulsion is butter. You make butter by mixing up a mixture of butter fat (cream which contains oil) and water. What happens in your tank is so similar that my customers describe the gunk as looking exactly like butter. Heaven help you if you do not have fuel/water separator between your tank and engine to at least keep this crap confined to your tank. I truly believe that the only ones that like these new fuels are "SEA TOW".