This weeks article comes to us via a recent publication in Boat US Magazine. Many of us have struggled through E10 fuel issues in recent years and this has been a hot topic on the Boats and Motors forum of CharlestonFishing.com for quite some time. I have read and participated in a lot of these discussions as I wanted take as many precautions as possible to avoid issues myself. I recently read this article that displaces three common myths on E10 fuels and found it very informative. As matter of fact I have read these same myths on our site multiple times and believed them to be fact. Hopefully you will find this information to be as helpful as I did and more educated as the agencies push for E15 in the future.
Three Ethanol Myths Clarified - By Bob Adriance
It’s time we get to the bottom of how E10 is affecting our engines
In the few years since ethanol began to be widely used in the United States, a lot has been written about its properties, the problems it’s created, and how to best cope with its possible effects. Some of the advice has been based on science, some on hearsay. While E10 is not an ideal fuel and E15 could cause serious problems for marine engines at least a few myths about ethanol have arisen with the potential to do more harm than good:
Myth #1: Ethanol-enhanced gasoline (E10) loses octane much faster than regular gasoline.
Many mechanics believe that octane loss during winter storage could be great enough to damage an engine when it’s run in the spring. These same mechanics will often recommend leaving the tank almost empty so that fresh gasoline can be added in the spring to raise depleted octane levels. While all gasoline loses octane as it ages, ethanol-enhanced gasoline loses octane at about the same rate as regular gasoline, according to Jim Simnick, a technical advisor at BP Global Fuels Technology, and Lew Gibbs, a senior engineering consultant and Chevron Fellow. The two men have over 75 years of combined experience working with gasoline and both agree that t