Conner sent me a note a couple days ago about a temporary problem he'd had with both his main and kicker engine. Here's the reply I sent him along with the relevant links to the E-TEC Forum, which is an excellent forum BTW, much like CSC, with support from a number of very knowledgeable BRP techs:
Here is some background info on some of the characters in the discussions in attached links to give you a feel for their credibility: LourPitcher is a retired NASA engineer and electronics expert in Texas that runs a 75 mph bass boat and comes from a family in the oil/gas business; Steelhead is a private pilot in Alaska and may be a petroleum engineer. Seahorse is a very savvy BRP tech rep. Evinrude/Joe is the owner of the website, dealer Barnacle Bill in NJ. Huey is a dealer/tech in Australia that's been selling all brands of outboards for 40+ years, and seems to be very knowledgeable. Olypopper is another very experienced dealer/technician in Alaska. jimh is an electrical engineer in Michigan that tends to over-analyze everything, but occasionally comes up with some good info.
1.
This thread was started by a guy with a 250 on a bass boat that blew a hole in a piston, evidently due to detonation, either from bad low octane phase separated fuel or lean combustion/restricted fuel flow. The relevant discussion begins with post #40 on P3. Very interesting info about a dealer finding small amounts of ethanol in gas that was supposed to be ethanol free! I have an ethanol tester and I guess I should start checking the Rec 90 gas I've been buying!
2.
This thread was started by a guy that somehow got a lot of water in his fuel, asking what to do about it.
3.Another thread with a very good discussion of ethanol related problems; see post #9 for a
discussion of problems/myths/truths of E-10 gas by petroleum engineers; see post #21 for comparison of water and ethanol molecules sizes in microns vs. Racor filter capability.
4.Good discussion on
mixing E-10 and Rec 90 gas.
I think Pelican is right - the amount of water that gets into a tank via the vent/moisture condensation is miniscule and I think that was proven by some tests/calculations run by jimh. Will have to see if I can find that post. Water in the fuel most likely comes from the dealers tank, or a leaky seal on the filler cap, a vent line without a loop in it to prevent sea water from entering in rough seas, leaks around the sending unit, or corrosion in the tank!
During the ~700 mile S. Fl. circumnavigation trip I made in 2010, I used 158.5 gallons and refueled 9 times with Rec 90 gas at marinas. Since I have the Racor with the plastic bowl and drain fitting, I drain a bit of fuel to check for water every day on such a trip before refueling. I found water after 4 of the 9 refuelings; the places is suspect had water in the gas were in Clewiston, St. James City, Gasparilla Marina, Sanibel, and Chokoloskee. Those places are close enough together, that I wonder if maybe they all got watered down Rec 90 fuel from the same distributor?! I've removed my tank a couple of times and it has zero corrosion on it (not foamed in!), the sending unit is well sealed with Permatex No. 2B gasket sealer, I had replaced the filler cap O-ring before the trip and the vent fitting had a special inverted U in it to prevent water entry, so I'm sure water was in the fuel when I bought it. I found NO water in the fuel after Flamingo or any subsequent fuel stop on the east coast of Fl.