Gas fillup, dilemma over

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bcassedy
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by bcassedy »

Thank you all for your comments. By no means should this be the end of the conversation. Please, if you have something to add, let it rip!

When it became apparent that there was an issue with my Rochester Quadrajet carb, I asked a marine mechanic friend to rebuild it. After getting a kit, I gave it to him for the rebuild. He called me to tell me the carb was deteriorated beyond the ability to rebuild. As I needed to use the old one as a "core" exchange I got the old one back. It was disassembled in prep for the rebuild. The innards were a corroded mess!!! The mechanic attributed it to the use of ethanol gas. Hence my post here.

Carl, I had read your post and it was good!!! Your comments are valued and I hope you'll reconsider your original edit.
And I am a member of the facebook group. I guess, having been a member of this forum for a ling time, I felt there were a lot more gearheads here.

As of now it seems the consesus leans toward the use of ethanol gas, as long as it's treated well and moisture content within the tank(s) is eliminated/mitigated. Use of ethanol free is encouraged, but "the proof is in the pudding" in that testing of that gas to ensure its content needs to be done.

Bill
Bill & Sharon Cassedy
"Sunset Seeker"
'88 32' Sedan Bridge to be sold (updtd 1-1-22)
"Sunset Seeker Too" (SS2)
'88 41' Marquis hardtop. (as of 1/1/22)
Located in Aurora, In.
Always fresh water.
carl
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

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BigM
Last edited by carl on Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Busia
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by Busia »

My 2 cents: The only good gas anymore is aircraft gas. If you want to pay the money. About $5 a gallon, but it is 100/ 130 octane if you need it. These engines don't need it unless you put in higher compression pistons. But it is good gas.
I do recommend taping over your fuel tank vent to seal it up for the winter. That will keep new air from coming in and limit some of the condensation you get. I put a new fuel tank in mine and have a plug in the top of the tank. So in the spring I remove the plug and put a 1/4" copper tube down to the bottom of the tank and pump out any water. Still had problems this year because I bought gas and they had water in their tanks. But I tried.
BUSIA
located in Ketchikan, Alaska. Gods country
32 foot Marinette (no fly bridge)
twin 350 Crusader (Chev 350) engines
1:1 Borg Warner velvet drive transmissions
Closed cooling (antifreeze in the engine)
Proud to be retired IBEW and an A+P
Fastjeff
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by Fastjeff »

One of the old Carter AFB carbs I had on my old boat was not rebuildable--it was pin holed enough (thanks to ethanol) that it would run rich at idle regardless of having the idle screws turned all the way in. I rebuilt it a few times with no improvement before tossing it out and going to Edelbrocks.

Jeff
"We live at the bottom of an ocean of air, not at the top." General Marvage Slatington
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bcassedy
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by bcassedy »

Carl...

Allstate Marine - 375.00 for 1 carb.
:?

Bill
Bill & Sharon Cassedy
"Sunset Seeker"
'88 32' Sedan Bridge to be sold (updtd 1-1-22)
"Sunset Seeker Too" (SS2)
'88 41' Marquis hardtop. (as of 1/1/22)
Located in Aurora, In.
Always fresh water.
carl
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

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BigM
Last edited by carl on Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
carl
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

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BigM
Last edited by carl on Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bcassedy
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

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Followup... (3 weeks removed...)
Had 3 plastic barrels (which had sunflower oil as original contents) that I thoroughly cleaned out to remove any residue. Modified trailer to hold them "rock solid". Picked up 150 gal ethanol free gas from marina having lowest cost/gal. Lot of siphoning into 5 gal cans and then into boat tanks with Stabil added in appropriate amount. And this time I verified gas caps in place afterwords! :oops: Have about 25 gal still left which has been treated and will be used first thing next season.

(Expensive) lesson learned!

Bill
Bill & Sharon Cassedy
"Sunset Seeker"
'88 32' Sedan Bridge to be sold (updtd 1-1-22)
"Sunset Seeker Too" (SS2)
'88 41' Marquis hardtop. (as of 1/1/22)
Located in Aurora, In.
Always fresh water.
bluefin
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by bluefin »

I put 1 oz per 5 gallons of 2 stroke oil in the gas it likes the ethanol ,and i get better starting engines ,stabalize your fuel if you arent going to burn it
honestcharlie56
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Re: Gas fillup, dilemma over

Post by honestcharlie56 »

I can't believe your marina lets you fill with 5 gal cans. I had to get super special, top secret, president approved, blessed by the pope and ok'd by the governor of Louisiana.....permission to EMPTY my tanks using 5 gal. cans (y'all might remember my thread when I brought my 32' back from her attempted life as a submarine). Even then, the one of the two marina's owners (they are brothers) came out and was less than pleased. To your ORIGINAL point, we have a place that supposedly sells no ethanol gas and at the rate we use fuel I haven't even been putting stabil in. I just made a day trip to Hubba this past tuesday and started her with no problem after sitting for approx 2 months. As you and others know, ethanol blended fuel has a bad habit of suffering from phase separation and will absorb water out of the air as the tanks breathe, which now that I think about it.....the vents are just above the water line.....so picking up water vapor is an easy thing to do. If you run that boat ALOT it might be ok, but good quality gasoline would be what I would look for.
1990 Marinette 32 Sedan Flybridge "Hubba" Lake Charles, LA
Twin Chrysler 318's
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