S.O.S on ethonal gas.

[duckboat]

Really no up date for me but bought two bottles of sea foam and couldn't find any thing to get the gas out, tubes not long enough. Too cold for a boat ride today. Marina that is a pcm dealer told me about the sea foam product and said it has worked great for e10 gas. Yesterday when I was looking for it the sales man walked me to the shelf and grabbed the blue stable but another boater there said use sea foam as well. The boater explained the sta-bil just forms a wax layer over the gas in the tank to keep water from being absorbed from the air?! Never heard that before and don't know if thats right. Should be back in the 80's soon.

[chpthril]

Really no up date for me but bought two bottles of sea foam and couldn't find any thing to get the gas out, tubes not long enough. Too cold for a boat ride today. Marina that is a pcm dealer told me about the sea foam product and said it has worked great for e10 gas. Yesterday when I was looking for it the sales man walked me to the shelf and grabbed the blue stable but another boater there said use sea foam as well. The boater explained the sta-bil just forms a wax layer over the gas in the tank to keep water from being absorbed from the air?! Never heard that before and don't know if thats right. Should be back in the 80's soon.

Was the dude wearing a "Sea-Foam" knit shirt

Both are great products. Both prevent fuel "phasing" when stored long and also help to pass the normally absorbed condensation that is common with ethanol blended fuels.

[duckboat]

Was the dude wearing a "Sea-Foam" knit shirt

Both are great products. Both prevent fuel "phasing" when stored long and also help to pass the normally absorbed condensation that is common with ethanol blended fuels.

Ha Ha, he also said he was wearing their under wear. If it wasn't for the pcm dealer saying to use sea foam I would of got the marine sta-bil. That sea foam is about 50 cents a ounce and calls for about one ounce per gallon on the can . The reg sta-bil if I remeber is about 1 ounce per 2.5 gallons.

[Ewok]

Sea foam is a great fuel system cleaner and fuel stabilizer, stabil does less cleaning and just keeps the gas from phasing as Chp said above. I would use stabil to clean up your fuel system, and check your filter, but use stabil as a regular product for the e10 gas from now on, it's much cheaper than seafoam.

[IDBoating]

Ewok is correct - SeaFoam is marketed as an engine and fuel system cleaner, while Sta-Bil is primarily marketed as a fuel stabilizer. (SeaFoam also claims fuel stabilization, but not as its primary function.) I separately add Sta-Bil when I fill up for winter storage.

I use SeaFoam religiously, on our new 24Ve as well as on our past Mercury powered jetboat. The Mercury was a **2-stroke** 240HP V6 and, as a oil burner, required regular decarboning... until I started using SeaFoam in every gallon of fuel. Suddenly my plugs were clean all the time, I didn't have that degradation-over-time of performance, etc. I'm usually very skeptical of "miracle" gas additives but this one is the real deal.

I use this same SeaFoam-treated fuel in our two 2-stroke jetskis and have seen the same results there: Cleaner plugs, less carbon buildup, etc.

I use approximately 0.5 ounces of SeaFoam per gallon of fuel. I put it in the gas cans before I take them to the gas station so I get a really good mix as the cans fill up. My trick for measuring it is to keep it in an old Sta-Bil quart-sized bottle with the integrated dispenser on the side. That gives you a fast and convenient way to measure it out into each gas can.

NAPA carries SeaFoam in the gallon cans and it goes on sale once or twice a year for under $80 a gallon. At 0.5 ounce per gallon that covers over 250 gallons, which is at least 60+ engine hours. Since the engine has a scheduled maintenance interval of 50 hours, you could think of it as an extra ~$80 item required at the 50 hour point. Yes, it adds to the cost of boating, but I consider it cheap insurance on that $10,000 PCM engine.

Just my opinion and experience. Hope it helps!

[duckboat]

I took the boat out for a quick test ride and the sea foam made a huge improvement. Started through a mile no wake and boat acted the same and once I got out had an improvement on the 1st hole shot but not great. I cruised a mile or so and ran strong and held rpm's steady unlike the non treated fuel. Hole shot got better each time and power turns got a lot better as well. Feels like the hole shot is back but not better than the non-ethonal gas. I liked the fact rpm's were very responsive and if I wanted to hold 3500 the needle held dead on. 3600 or 3300 and any other rmp held until I touched the throttel with no burps of power loss. I think my truck is asking for this stuff now which is another long story but got home ok.

[Ewok]

Have you checked your fuel filter yet? That might help get you back to 100%. If your ethanol fuel loosened up gunk from your tank and the sea foam cleaned up your fuel system, then you should check your fuel fillter to see if it trapped any of that gunk too.

[duckboat]

No have not checked the filter since the addiditive make a big improvement and it ran better as the hour test run went on. When I get it witerized at the marina I will ask them about it. Almost didn't want to leave but work was my mind. Lake CDA was warm as bath water. What is the lake or river you've been on Ewok? I was surprised I was able to get a taste of all the big water in our area with this short summer. Learned a lot this year because a person needs to camp over night and get two days in to get their fill in this area with out towing the boat all over.

[Ewok]

Lake CDA was warm as bath water. What is the lake or river you've been on Ewok? I was surprised I was able to get a taste of all the big water in our area with this short summer. Learned a lot this year because a person needs to camp over night and get two days in to get their fill in this area with out towing the boat all over.

Shirley you can't be serious. I've been freezing my butt off up here this summer. The warmest water I've seen this summer is 75. I've been on CDA a few times, Hayden, Twin Lakes, Sacheen (the coldest) and Liberty Lake (closest to my house). I've visited a few more lakes to preview the launch but haven't had the boat on them yet. Do you live in the area or just visit for the scenery?

[IDBoating]

Shirley you can't be serious. I've been freezing my butt off up here this summer. The warmest water I've seen this summer is 75.

I'll second that. This has been the latest in a series of colder and windier summers. When we spent the first summer in our lake place in 2006, July 4th was 106F. We never hit 100F all of last year and haven't/won't this year either. In fact, I believe we're on course to set a record this year for lowest high temp.

Also, it's far windier than usual. NOAA said last year was the third windiest year on record and I daresay this year has been worse (in terms of more days, and more days with stronger winds).

Having said that, the last couple of weeks have been glorious. Right now as I type this, the water outside my window is dead-flat, not one leaf is stirring, and we'll be over 90F today. We were out surfing early yesterday morning and the water was like a mirror; our surf wave was like glass (didn't help me nail a 360 yet, darn it). But the rest of the "summer" has been uncharacteristicly cool and windy.

You've heard of "wealth redistribution"? I think this is HEAT redistribution. Seems the rest of the continent has been crying about things being too hot. Well, stop stealing our summer heat and we'll all be happier. {grin}

[duckboat]

Shirley you can't be serious. I've been freezing my butt off up here this summer. The warmest water I've seen this summer is 75. I've been on CDA a few times, Hayden, Twin Lakes, Sacheen (the coldest) and Liberty Lake (closest to my house). I've visited a few more lakes to preview the launch but haven't had the boat on them yet. Do you live in the area or just visit for the scenery?

I live in Spokane. This is the 1st boat I had with a water temp guage. Seems about 70 I can stay in the water and not freeze. Seems in this area about mid 70's is max on the big lakes. I was surprised I was getting 70 + on Roosevelt with all that Canadian run off in early July. Wish I could do more surfing but with school and football everyone is starting to hibernate.

[IDBoating]

I live in Spokane. This is the 1st boat I had with a water temp guage. Seems about 70 I can stay in the water and not freeze. Seems in this area about mid 70's is max on the big lakes.

We have a thermometer in the water 24/7 and have monitored it since we got lakefront property six years ago. You're right about the mid-70's, though in a normal year with normal summer warmth (not this year!) our lake will be 80-82F for a while in August.

We are on a smaller lake and the topology and the "upper" lake acting as a solar water heater makes our water warmer than most. Rule of thumb around here has long been that you need a wetsuit in Lake Cd'A even in August. Pend O'Rielle is even colder, since it approaches 1000 feet deep in places. I don't know about Hayden, but would expect Newman and Hauser and perhaps Liberty to be warmer since they are smaller and shallower bodies of water.

[duckboat]

We have a thermometer in the water 24/7 and have monitored it since we got lakefront property six years ago. You're right about the mid-70's, though in a normal year with normal summer warmth (not this year!) our lake will be 80-82F for a while in August.

We are on a smaller lake and the topology and the "upper" lake acting as a solar water heater makes our water warmer than most. Rule of thumb around here has long been that you need a wetsuit in Lake Cd'A even in August. Pend O'Rielle is even colder, since it approaches 1000 feet deep in places. I don't know about Hayden, but would expect Newman and Hauser and perhaps Liberty to be warmer since they are smaller and shallower bodies of water.

I was on the big Pend when my boat was really acting up. The water was in the low 70's and anchored up near shore and used the the swim platform as a floating bar table that day. The water was glass and was sad we couldn't play. Once the big lakes flip the season is over. When in the water getting ready I can feel the prop sucking up the cold water from only a few feet below.

[IDBoating]

When in the water getting ready I can feel the prop sucking up the cold water from only a few feet below.

I don't know what depth "they" take measurements, but I can easily believe the top layer can get warmer on really hot days. Interesting that the prop - which itself isn't that deep - can circulate noticeably colder water up to you. Brrrrrrrrr.

[mls6722]

Surely it's been posted before, but here is a site with non-ethanol gas.

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp