[Bushwacker]

Terry,

You probably should run the highest octane fuel you can find until you've used up all the ethanol fuel!

I bought 90+ octane non-ethanol gas at every marina during my circumnavigation trip and I made a habit of opening the drain on the bottom of my Racor's sediment bowl every time I refueled to check for water. I found 4-6 oz of water EVERY TIME until after Flamingo, where they had big filters on the pumps! My vent fitting has a trap in it so I don't think I was getting any spray or water in thru the vent fitting, and it sure didn't sit long enough to condense that much water! Didn't find any more water after buying gas in Flamingo, Key Largo, Matheson Hammock and Ft. Lauderdale. Bottom line is that I think you can probably count on getting water in the tank when you buy fuel at most marinas on the west coast of Fl.! :shocked

I bought gas in Clewiston, St. James City, Gasparilla Marina (near your place), Sanibel, and Chockolosee Island and drained water out of filter at each subsequent refueling! That's not a big problem as long as you have a good water separating filter and are running non-ethanol fuel. However if you add ethanol fuel to a tank that may have some water in it, there is risk of phase separation, where the water combines with the ethanol in the fuel, which can reduce octane of the fuel by up to 3 points if there's enough water to suck up all the ethanol! If you put in 87 octane ethanol fuel, it could drop as low as 84 octane with phase separation, and that can kill a motor pretty quick! When I got home and started using ethanol fuel again, I put in 92 octane, so I could afford to lose 3 points of octane and still meet the 87 octane requirement of the motor! Denny