i'm hearing alot of talk about ethanol gas problems. I'm not sure what the problems are ,what to look for ,or how to fix or minimize the problem?? How long has this has been a problem.???..My motor is a 2004 XR6 150 with a little more than 200 hours total. should I be worried about fuel issues?

Thanks

Ken

Ethanol attracts water(moisture in the tank) and causes rubber to rot prematurely.

Ken, I have the same motor you do. The "newer" motors like ours are designed to run with 10% Ethanol fuel. Be sure to use a product like Startron or Stabil to displace/prevent moisure build-up.

Ken, I have the same motor you do. The "newer" motors like ours are designed to run with 10% Ethanol fuel. Be sure to use a product like Startron or Stabil to displace/prevent moisure build-up.

Your gas tank is vented to the atmosphere. When it is hot in the day time the dry "fumes" are expelled but when it cools at night the tank sucks in the moisture laden cooler air. The alcohol in the fuel combines with the water vapor and sinks to the bottom of the tank. Unless you periodically grain the tank completely, you will eventually have so much water in your tank your motor will quit.

Alcohol in our fuel has cost this country billions of dollars. We are burning our food in our boats and cars and the taxpayers are paying for it... twice! Both in our taxes and again in the price of groceries.

I might be the only farmer to hate ethanol. We now get higher prices for our corn.........but pay twice as much for fuel, fertilizer, parts, etc. It's a shell game, and we just have to go along with it. I have a 2006 25hp Merc. 4 stroke that I had ethanol issues with this spring comming out of winter storage. I can not find ethanol free gas anywhere withing reason around here so I was running the 10% blend in the outboard, along with blue stabil. That blue stabil was no help, did nothing to prevent the issues I had. The ethanol degraded my rubber fuel lines, and gummed up my carb. bad enough that the boat ran very poor, untill I replaced EVERY FUEL line on the motor, cleaned the carb, and drained the gas tank and refilled it with fresh gas treated with sea foam and starbright enzyme fuel treatment. Even then it took 2 or 3 treatments/tank fulls to completely work the problems out. I now treat with startron every tank full to, hopefully, keep the problems from happining again, and seafoam/startron every couple tanks, to clean out anything that might have happened.

i'm hearing alot of talk about ethanol gas problems. I'm not sure what the problems are ,what to look for ,or how to fix or minimize the problem?? How long has this has been a problem.???..My motor is a 2004 XR6 150 with a little more than 200 hours total. should I be worried about fuel issues?

Thanks

Ken

I run an O2 Opti. It has over 500 hours. I use a water seperating fuel filter. I dump it after 6 months and replace it after 12 months. I am seeing no problems to date.