Ethanol in petrol

[philzero44]

I've been going to my garage 2 years and about a month ago i saw a little sticker on the bowser saing 10% ethanol which i've never seen before,And 2 weeks ago my van blew a head gasket but i think its just old age.But it had me thinking what about my outboard motor fuel if it has 10% ethanol in the petrol what would long time use bring to the wear and tear on the outboard motor. Phil

[Ike]

Probably very litte affect. However, pull the hood and check the hoses. Alcohol does have an affect on hoses. Any other plastic parts might be affected. If it affects a gasket you won't know it until the gasket fails. Actually the distributors have been putting ethanol in gasoline for over 30 years, so if there were a problem you probably would have noticed it by now.

[charmc]

There is ample anecdotal evidence of problems related to ethanol blended gasoline/petrol. Most seem to be related to 3 areas: 1. Dissolving accumulated varnish deposits, causing an increase of particulates which can overload fuel filters or redeposit contaminents inside the engine. 2. Dissolving resin used in some fiberglass fuel tanks, with results similar to #1, plus the potential for fuel leaks. 3. Absorbing water vapor from the air, increasing water contamination of fuel. There have been a few reports of what Ike described, as some rubber compounds used in hoses may be softened by ethanol. There have been a number of articles describing problems and remedies. Unless you have fiberglass fuel tanks, the problems seem controlable with the listed percautions.

http://powerboat.about.com/od/maintenance/a/Engines_ethanol.htm
http://www.theoutboardwizard.com/boat_ethanol_danger_precaution.html