Ethanol Info

[Rambling Wreck]

My brother-in-law works for an oil distributor. He sent me the attached information. What material is used to make our gas tanks? It is important to look at the gas pump before filling up. Federal law requires that a notice be posted if the station is using an ethanol blend.  I just happened to notice small signs on the pumps of a station I occasionally use indicating that the gas contained 10% ethanol so I went to another station. My neighbor didn't notice the signs. His son's 10 yr old Seadoo has begun coughing and sputtering and running lousy all of a sudden. Coincidence?

[Rambling Wreck]

Les - help! I expected the article to save as a file , not this huge image. Can you come to my rescue?

[masonlk]

Wreck, Moeller Marine Products in Spana, Tenn. is the manufacturer. They use cross linked polyethylene....whatever the heck that is. At least it's not firerglass. I've noticed the 10% ethanol signs at some stations but never really looked for a station without the signs. I think it's mandatory up here. Anyway, so far no problems.

[westtx]

Most of the articles call for changing fuel/water separators more often and carefully inspecting any rubber parts in the fuel system (hoses, pumps, etc.). They also say if you're switching to ethanol, run as much non-ethanol gas out of the tank as possible to keep from mixing ethanol and MTBE. This can cause the gas to gum up and clog fuel injectors.

Interestingly, some posts also recommend NOT keeping the tank full since alcohol soaks up so much water. Filling up immediately before use is recommended. No alcohol out here yet, so I'm going to school on the rest of you!

[sailtl]

I have a friend that works for a large refiner and below are his comments about ethanol and what is going on in the industry.

This article is right on.  In 1990, the Clean Air Act stipulated that oil companies must oxygenate gasoline to reduce air pollution.  The only two logical choices to oxygenate gasoline were methyl tertiary-butyl ether aka MTBE and ethanol.  At that time only MTBE made economic sense, given that ethanol was much more expensive (since gasoline was so cheap) and not readily available at blending facilities outside corn growing areas.


Oil companies were required to oxygenate and to stay in business chose to use MTBE.  Recently, courts found refiners that use MTBE liable for making a defective product.  Oil companies understand they should be liable if they didn't handle and store it well since it is highly carcinogenic.  The oil industry lobbied extensively that it was unfair to require us to use MTBE, and also to be held liable since products made with MTBE were determined to be defective by left wings in the court system.

Thank the tort and trial lawyers for pushing gasoline prices up through lawsuits totaling billions of dollars against the oil industry.  Thank the environmental movement for getting the Clean Air Act to mandate blends like this that are more expensive (since ethanol currently costs more than gasoline and contains less BTUs of energy than gasoline) and is harder on your engine.  I am even ignoring the fact that it takes more hydrocarbons to produce ethanol than energy results, making it an energy sink hole and forcing us to be even more dependent on foreign oil.  It is also important to note that ethanol is especially hard on small engines (chain saws, lawn mowers, blowers, etc.) which were out of scope of this article.
 

[lesman01]

I have not noticed te sign on any pumps i fill up at. I will surely look now.

Wreck, sorry for the delay on this one. The only way to fix it is to rescan it as a txt file. Not much I can do to it as an image.

[Lakeside]

Be careful in Wisconsin.  Now that Gov. Doyle has suspended the state's minimum mark up law on E10, it may start appearing in other parts of the state beyond Southeastern Wisconsin, where it is required by the EPA.   I heard that a station in the Madison area switched to E10 from pure gasoline and dropped the price from about 3.10 to about 2.87.

[ScarabEpic22]

Thanks for the read, my boat has been running like crap (well, not crap, but certainly worse than last year) and this could be the reason.

For winterizing our boats with poly tanks, is it better to store them dry or full?  My other boat has a 60gal aluminum tank that needs to be full, so I do the same for my Epic, but wonder if having gasohol in the tank for 8months is a good idea.

[westtx]

Everything I've read says that the shelf life on ethanol is 3 months.

[Lakeside]

The damage ethanol is causing to boats is becoming front page news.  A big article was on the front page of Saturday's Wall Street Journal. 

Another article, "Ethanol May Leave Boaters High and Dry,"  was on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a week ago:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=488180&format=print

In Wisconsin, its use has been spreading quickly into counties where the EPA does not require its use.  Now stations are posting stickers on the pumps which say, "this pump may contain up to 10% ethanol." 

In Superior, ethanol stickers on pumps now indicate that regular and mid-grade have ethanol, but premium is not labeled.  When I asked the clerk and he hemmed and hawed and said that he thought the premium had ethanol as well, but he didn't seem sure.  So I drove on to the next station.

At the I-94 exit in Lake Mills, two out of three stations are now pumping ethanol - and this is in an area where the EPA does not require ethanol.

What's a boater to do?  I guess the bottom line is to look for stations without ethanol stickers on their pumps and then ask the clerk.  If you trust the clerk, then go for it.

[Rambling Wreck]

Some companies have temporarily stopped using ethanol due to a price spike. Ironically, with the suggestion that ethanol is good as it can be produced with renwable resources here in the US, many compnaies buy it from South America since it is cheaper! Anyway, my thought is that a sticker that says the tank "may" contain ethanol gives them the option to use it nor not depending on their sourcing. My suggestion - assume they are using it. If the premium pump is not labeled as using ethanol, the station would be violating Federal law to pump it out of that tank. Finally, do NOT trust a clerk. They won't have a clue.

[lesman01]

here's another article compliments of Wreck:

http://www.epicmarine.com/docs/Ethanol.pdf

[masonlk]

From Moeller Marine Products.

[Lakeside]

[Lakeside]

I forgot another station in Superior....

Station 3.5:  A handwritten change to the ethanol sticker from "10% ethanol" to "00% ethanol" by magic marker.  Move on...

I'm just getting started. 

Feds, you've got to crack down in Superior to show the station operators a thing or two!