Engine Sputter is back

[trayson]

If your other vehicles are drinking the "bad gas" with no issues, doesn't that make you suspect that maybe it's not the gas after all. Perhaps something in the distributor, vacuum lines or carb itself?

I don't have a distributor. I have the pro comp system with coilpacks.

It's hard to say. Both of the vehicles I put that gas into were fuel injected. Maybe they weren't as suseptible to these kind of problems as my stupid carb. Also, it's worth noting that I put the fuel in the other vehicles AFTER treating it with HEET water remover... So maybe the treated fuel was able to be consumed by the other vehicles? Or maybe I didn't even get the "bad" fuel out of the boat as water and Heet are both heavier than gas anyway and the bad fuel never made it into the Jeep or Honda at all???

One theory is that emptying the fuel filter was all that would have really been needed yet, I went all the way and drained my gas.

Obviously there are a lot of unknowns here. I'm not sure if I'll ever know conclusively. :-/

[parrothd]

87 gas contains ethanol.. Ethanol separates into water and fuel. Your car has a knock sensor and computer to deal with the crap ethonal fuel.. Stop putting e10 fuel in your boat or else your going to have major problems.

[trayson]

87 gas contains ethanol.. Ethanol separates into water and fuel. Your car has a knock sensor and computer to deal with the crap ethonal fuel.. Stop putting e10 fuel in your boat or else your going to have major problems.

87, 89, and 91 all contain 10% ethenol.

My boat has a knock sensor as well. it's hard to see but this is the only pic I could find that shows it. It's in the upper left in the pic, screwed into the back of the block on the Port side...

You can barely make it out under the plug wires coming off my coilpacks.

Non-Ethanol fuel is really only readily available for me at one station in town and carries a big price premium. Every 15 gallons of non-ethanol premium would run me at least $8 to $10 more. I'd be better off sticking the $2 bottle of Heet in the tank.

Trust me, I'm not a fan of Ethanol. It's a huge load of B/S that lobbyists shoved down the throats of our politicians and got legislated into place. I wish it would go away.

[bergermaister]

http://www.amazon.com/STA-BIL-22240-...7441261&sr=8-2

I used this regularly last year. Not once this year. No noticeable difference. Always run 89 out of whatever pump is available (E10 99% of the time). The small engines shop gave me a long drawn out lecture on it when I had him go through my pressure washer last year.

[trayson]

http://www.amazon.com/STA-BIL-22240-...7441261&sr=8-2

I used this regularly last year. Not once this year. No noticeable difference. Always run 89 out of whatever pump is available (E10 99% of the time). The small engines shop gave me a long drawn out lecture on it when I had him go through my pressure washer last year.

So, here's a question:

If you don't let you gas tank empty out, then how do you go about the treatment?

For example, I will typically only use 10 to 15 gallons in an outing. Even on the 4th of July, I "only" used 22 gallons. Per the manual, my tank holds 37 gallons (although it only took 33.5 gallons after draining it the best I could with it parked at a slight slope).

That said, how often do you treat? Or how much gas do you use before you treat again? if I treat the tank, I would be unsure about treating another tank if I only used 20% of the gas in it...

[bergermaister]

Just give it your best guess. On the label it says over treatment (too much) isn't harmful. Just wasting $$.

[mnpracing]

http://www.amazon.com/STA-BIL-22240-...7441261&sr=8-2

I used this regularly last year. Not once this year. No noticeable difference. Always run 89 out of whatever pump is available (E10 99% of the time). The small engines shop gave me a long drawn out lecture on it when I had him go through my pressure washer last year.

I add some each time I add gas, 1oz per 10 gallons per the instructions. When I winterize I add the higher dosage. Just had to buy my second bottle of the season...just means I've burned through 350+ gallons of gas so far.

[trayson]

So the boat ran great, consuming 9 gallons of gas on Wed evening with NO issues. Topped off the gas tank afterwards.

Then today we drove 15 minutes to our spot. filled up the bags and started to get in our first surf. Made it partway through the first ride and the problems resurfaced. I figured out that the "bumping" sound was actually the exhaust. If I gave it more throttle after the exhaust started making the bump sound, it'd cough and sputter. So we stopped. We anchored and let the kids play on the beach. I took off my fuel filter and drained the gas that was in the bowl into a water bottle. Put the boat back together and had lunch. Then we drained the bags and the engine seemed to run fine. Took about 1/2 of a wakeboard run and then the engine started with the same problems. Came back in the boat and it wouldn't let me go more than 12 mph without problems.

So, on a whim, I dumped a bottle of HEET that I had in the boat into the gas tank. The boat was literally off for as long as it took me to unscrew the gas cap and dump the bottle in. I started the boat up and it drove FINE the rest of the way back to the launch (15 minutes at 20 to 30mph). And even performed fine for a 6 minute run pulling my friend and his son on the tube. We had to get off the water after that. Only went through 5 gallons of gas today.

It honestly doesn't make sense to me that the Heet could have worked virtually instantly. So I'm wondering if the gas tank isn't venting properly (because I extended the vent line to the front to protect it from water when surfing). Maybe the thing that helped me get back to the dock was simply cracking open the filler cap on the gas tank?????

At this point, I'm ready to replace the fuel line, change out my Pro Comp coils to an HEI distributor, and anything else that I can think of. I will note that I have NOT taken the fuel sender unit out of the gas tank so I don't know if I'd find anything there. Worth a look???

[Kma4444]

Sounds like vapor lock to me. Getting more and more common. Fuel used to be formulated to resist that as cars with fuel pumps that pulled fuel from the tank, around hot things, over hot asphalt, would boil the fuel and not be able to pump the vapors. Runs the float bowls low an fuel and you get the lean condition you describe. Today's cars, with pumps in the tank and high pressure fuel systems will not suffer that malady. It's frustrating that we are having to relearn how to cure vapor lock as it had become almost extinct. The new alcohol fortified fuels are even more prone to boiling under heat and vacuum.

You need a pump as close to the tank as you can get it. If it's vapor lock you will fix it. Just buy a cheap electric pump and wire it through the ignition switch. An extra plus is, it makes starting after sitting long enough to evaporate the fuel out of the carb really quick. When you turn on the ignition, it fills the float bowls. No having to crank and crank to get the mechanical pump primed and fuel up to the carb.

[stingreye]

Trayson , don't post on here much but check in to read up on what the moomba owners are up to. When I had water in my fuel and used sea foam to get power back and burn through it, I fouled my plugs. Took a couple trips to realize it but with fouled plugs it made it very sensitive to the fuel. After replacing the fouled plugs, I have had no issues. Different boat, different engine but similar symptoms, I would do a quick plug check.

Edit:autocorrect changed Trayson to transom, fixed it.
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