2CoolFishing - Ethanol Gas in Boats Article

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Outdoors

June 5, 2008, 12:28AM
E-10 fuel posing problems for boaters

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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Russ Bowman was surprised when he shoved the throttle forward and his invariably dependable 115-horse outboard motor bogged down instead of revving up and shooting his center-console boat onto plane.

"I've had the motor for three years and never had a lick of trouble with it," Bowman said.

That string ended one morning a couple of months ago as Bowman found himself the victim of a problem boat owners and marine mechanics are increasingly encountering.

The problem is ethanol in gasoline.

And Bowman's experience mirrors what more and more boaters and mechanics are seeing as E-10 fuel — 10 percent ethanol, 90 percent gasoline — replaces "normal" gasoline across much of Texas and the rest of the nation.

The problem started on a fishing trip this past autumn when Bowman, a minister at a church in Beaumont, pumped E-10 fuel into his boat's 40-gallon tank. It was the first time he had put E-10 in the tank. It also was the boat's final trip for a few months.

As regularly happens across the country, hunting seasons, school and wintry weather conspired to keep Bowman and his boat off the water until spring.

The boat sat in storage from late autumn until early April, when Bowman and a friend tried to make a fishing trip on Sabine Lake.

The engine cranked immediately and idled fine as they let it warm up. But when Bowman tried to accelerate, the motor bogged, then idled horribly rough.

He killed the outboard and tried to start it again.

Nothing.

Bowman and his partner began troubleshooting. They pulled the engine cowling and checked the small fuel filter mounted on the engine.

"I could see it had a lot of debris in it," Bowman said. "And the gas just didn't smell right."

The pair tried to clean the filter and lines, but the motor never fired. They winched the boat on the trailer and headed home.

It's fine if it's fresh

Bowman hauled the cranky rig straight to his marine dealer, where he left it for their diagnosis.

"I got a call the next morning," Bowman said. "Ray (Savant) said, 'Well, there was a little bit of gas in your water.' "

Savant had seen the problem before. As service manager of Pete Jorgensen Marine in Beaumont, Savant was becoming far too familiar with the effects of "aged" E-10 on outboard motors.

"It's a problem that's becoming more and more common as you see E-10 fuel being sold at more places," Savant said.

E-10 fuel works just fine in modern outboards ... if it's fresh.

But let a tank of E-10 sit in a boat's gas tank for a few weeks or more, and bad things can happen.

Ethanol can wick moisture out of the air. A lot of moisture.

A phenomenon called "phase separation" can occur when ethanol/gasoline is exposed to a lot of water over a period of time. Ethanol and water will mix (dissolve) with each other, creating a kind of hybrid liquid. When that ethanol/water solution has reached a saturation point, extra water will form a separate layer in the fuel.

"As an experiment, I put an open jar of E-10 on a window sill," said Savant, who has worked as an outboard motor mechanic for more than a quarter century. "In seven days, it was 50 percent water."

Ethanol's attractiveness to water is not a big problem in automobiles, which have a closed fuel system.

But in boats, which, by law, must have vented fuel systems, air has access to the tank. In humid conditions such as those along the Texas coast, ethanol can wick a lot of water out of the air and into the fuel.

Repairs can be costly

Water in fuel is not good for an internal combustion engine. Water doesn't ignite. Neither does it mix well with oil.

In two-stroke outboards, a mixture of oil and fuel are injected into the combustion chamber. The fuel is igniting to produce power, and the oil is lubricating the system.

But two-stoke oil doesn't mix with a solution of water and ethanol. The result can be severe engine damage from lack of lubrication.

Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, is a powerful solvent. It can dissolve "normal" deposits in fuel tanks and fuel lines, suspending them in the fuel and sending them to clog fuel filters, pumps, carburetors or injectors, or, if they reach the engine, scour and damage pistons and other engine parts.

And ethanol/gasoline can pull a particularly nasty little trick when it is mixed with "regular" gasoline that contains additives other than ethanol.

If the mixture is allowed to sit unused for as little as a couple of weeks, a layer of "gunk" can begin precipitating and settling to the bottom of the fuel tank.

"It's like fine silt — almost a gel ," Savant said of the precipitate. "Sometimes, it's bright orange or reddish. Other times, it's almost maroon."

That "gel" can be sucked into the fuel line and either clog filters, carburetors and injectors, ruin fuel pumps or, if it makes it into the combustion chamber, damage pistons, cylinder walls and other crucial (and expensive) engine parts.

The good news for boat owners is that catastrophic engine failure caused by issues related to ethanol in fuel is rare, and a couple of preventative steps can go a long way in preventing the more common problems associated with the fuel.

"Install a 10-micron water/fuel separating filter between the tank and the engine," Savant said. "Every outboard should have one."

Don't mix E-10 with "regular" gasoline. Don't let E-10 sit unused in a boat fuel tank for months. If you have to leave a boat fuel tank unused for any length of time, fill it as full as possible to limit the amount of moisture-laden air in the tank.

The bad news is, even the less-than-catastrophic problems are expensive.

In Russ Bowman's case, his modern outboard engine was "smart" enough to know it was sucking bad stuff from the fuel tank and refused to start.

Bowman's problems were phase separation and that nasty precipitate.

About half the liquid in Bowman's fuel tank was water. And he had a layer of maroon "gunk" on the bottom of the tank.

The remedy was a complete removal, inspection and cleaning of the fuel system, including the injectors and fuel pump.

Also, the "bad" fuel had to be removed and disposed.

Because of state and federal environmental regulations, proper disposal of "bad" fuel is very expensive, Savant said. That adds to the cost of repairs.

Bowman came out of his ethanol experience with about a $500 repair bill.

It could have been much worse. Replacing ruined fuel injectors on a large outboard can run $250 per injector. Some fuel pumps run $700-$800.

It is not unusual for repairs to outboards for damage done by ethanol-related issues to run more than $1,000.

"I got off fairly easy," Bowman said. "It was still a very expensive lesson."

It's a lesson more and more boat owners are learning as E-10 fuel becomes more widespread.

shannon.tompkins@chron.com