Fuel Polishing

[Swee Pea]

I guess what I will be doing then is cleaning the tanks of sludge and water that has separated from the gasoline. When our on board fuel separators accumulate water, what you're saying is that this is excess water that could not be dissolved in the ethanol enhanced gasoline, and has moved to the bottom of the tank. Or it is water that was not dissolved, not moved to the tank, but is in suspension with the gasoline and enroute to my motor.

Does the Startron really do what it says it does ('Ethanol / E10 fuels increase the amounts of water and sludge in your fuel tank. Star Tron breaks down this excess water and sludge to sub-micron size allowing it to be safely burned away during normal engine operation.
Therefore Star Tron prevents phase separation and fuel gelling, eliminating ethanol fuel problems")?

Does any product take the moisture out or separate water out of ethanol enriched fuels?

Inquiring minds want to know? (Can tell I didn't do well in Chemestry 101)

John
Swee Pea

[Larry H]

[hardee]

So far, Larry gets the bonus points from my mechanic. (first to mention stabilizer). After 2 sessions of carb work by the Yami Doc's, we came up with a fuel treatment program. >>> FUEL STABILIZER in every tankful.

What they brought from the Yamaha school was simple, less expensive than carb rebuild every year, and less work, and maybe safer, than polishing gasoline.

Into every gas fill, mix the storage dose of blue Marine Stabil. Then also, add the Startron, (and I do this at the storage or initial treatment dose also) in stead of the weaker dose. So far, starts every time, first time, and runs smooth. No water in the separators.

Works for me, YMMV. Good luck and keep your head down when you take that allegator clip on and off.

Harvey,
SleepyC

[AstoriaDave]

Yowsa on the stabilizer, Blue version Stabil here, an ounce for every five gallons.

Three seasons of use and a couple hundred hours down the road (five hundred gallons of gas, maybe?), and I've never had a problem with Oregon's E-10 gasoline in my inboard. With my boat's aluminum tanks, and storage in Oregon's wet, cool coastal climate, it should be a poster child for water in the gas, but no problem no problem, no problem.

Not sure about this, but I think Stabil helps prevent separation by emulsifying the two phases and gets ahead of the problem. Frank might know better about that.

[Still on the original filter, too!]

[Levitation]

The ethanol can only hold a certain amount of water bound to itself... You cannot separate the alcohol bound water by crude mechanical means such as a water filter, but you will remove the free water, plus the rust, gunk, etc... So polishing is still worthwhile IF you have issues with the tank or the load of fuel being contaminated..

[Swee Pea]

If you look on page 6 of the Swee Pea Photo album, you will see the fuel polisher that I made based on the Dr. Bob design. Worked great. I pulled fuel from both tanks, pumped them dry, then polished about three times. I added Startron and Seafoam and refilled the tanks.

@#$%&** motor is still running rough. Brought it to the local Honda dealer; changed plugs and still rough. Needs to sync carbs and if that doesn't help, carb clean time. What a pain.

But I know the fuel is good

I intend to use a Mr. Funnel fuel/water separator funnel on each fill up. Say this to water in the fuel.

John
Swee Pea

[BrentB]

How old is the gas in the tank?

If it is bad, no additive will change it to fresh so another thought if it is old is to remove and replace it

[Will-C]

Hi,
Recently while running across a open eight mile stretch of water from Block Island to the coast of Rhode Island my motor started to cough and would not run above 2500 rpms. I checked the fuel bulb gave a couple squeezes to no avail. I changed my Yamaha 10 micron filter all better. I did not like what I saw when I dumped the contents of the old filter. Amber milky not clear looking fuel. I ran the rest of the way back without incident. Not looking forward changing these expensive filters possibly in the middle of a breechway lined with rocks etc. I opted to pull both tanks I pulled the fuel sender out so I could get a hose into the tank and siphoned all the gas out of both tanks. I thought about electric pumps, sparks etc I opted for the siphon arrangement. In doing so towards the bottom of starboard tank the clear siphon hose showed a milk white liquid running thru it. After I got out as much as I could I flipped the tanks upside down and got out everything I could. I then pulled my fuel pickups checked for anti siphon valve which there were none and removed the screens from the bottom of my fuel pickup and cut the ends of the pickups on a 45 degree angle. My local Yamaha dealer reports a lot of fuel contamination the year more than ever. After siphoning the boats fuel into my cache' of portable containers I then siphoned the contents into our cars. The container that had the milky stuff was used as weed killer. I had less than 25 hours on my fuel filter which was changed this spring in April. My vote if you got bad gas get rid of it. I use marine stabil and have turned my fuel vents to face more toward the rear and I am considering adding clamshells in front of the fuel vents.
Just an FYI. Some pic's in my album on the last page. Those super siphons in the 1/2 variety work like a champ. Make sure to turn your battery switches off to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
D.D.