Flex fuel boat in your future?

[Tilemule]

Most likely have more ethanol in your fuel next year.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-what-trumps-ethanol-plan-means-for-farmers-refiners-and-motorists-2018-10-09

[h_2_o]

I hope not i hate flex fuel. worse economy and every one i've driven with the e85 has less power and they still do not have the seals 100% correct yet. for boats that would mean IMHO a fuel leaking nightmare..... I stick with my ethanol free fuel i can get at a few places around here.

[Loewen]

E15 mandate only means it will be offered at the pump. There will still be E10 and zero E available. Although I sure wish the zero E was available at more stations in my neck of the woods for my boats.

[trunderw]

They have 0E at pumps on my lake, but the Indmar manual says not to use methanol, and that's what they're using in the 0E gas around here.

[BudmanV24]

We've had E15 available around here for a while now at QT's (in addition to E10). Last night when I fueled up the difference in cost was only 5 cents. Talk about a rip off. That's less than a 2.5% savings, and I'd bet you get more than a 2.5% decrease in fuel economy.

[WakeRider107]

Ethanol is a joke. Poor fuel economy, attracts moisture, and wastes valuable field space that could be used to grow food that we import.

[88 PS190]

We've had E15 available around here for a while now at QT's (in addition to E10). Last night when I fueled up the difference in cost was only 5 cents. Talk about a rip off. That's less than a 2.5% savings, and I'd bet you get more than a 2.5% decrease in fuel economy.

The statistic usually is quoted based of E85 in a "flex fuel engine" with the E85 having 76% of the fuel economy of the E0 and more like 80% of the economy of E10

But that's assuming engines that are designed to run them. In actuality the fuel consumption becomes quite a lot worse when you're talking about engines that either can't adjust to process it or simply lack the ability to meter out the increased amount of fuel (carbs)

[Roman]

and every one i've driven with the e85 has less power and they still do not have the seals 100% correct yet.

If the car had less power on e85, it wasn't a flex fuel vehicle or something was wrong with it. We even did drag races at work wondering how much it made a difference between 91 and e85. Its a noticable difference. I think like 1-2 car lengths if memory served me right going from a dig to like 60mph (300's with the 3.6 v6). The ecm practically maxes out spark authority when you run e85 in an NA vehicle. Thats good for a few ponies.

Seals are correct already. They have fuel systems for 100% alcohol vehicles.

OEMs will fight back on this hard, and they already have. Old vehicles risk damaging engine components or setting nuisance codes. A few years back this was something the government was asking oem's and it was not something we wanted. Its bad enough there are ethanol stations that you can pick your ethanol percentage content. What the hell for we always thought. And its not that we cant handle e15. We did fuel studies and had some pumps putting out as high as e15 when they were designated e10. So naturally you would have e15 pumps pumping out e20 based on statistics, and you cant have that **** in older cars. There isnt enough adaption authority to make it work reliably.

I think marine fuel will always be E0 so you should be fine there. The alcohol attracts water...or something science like that, so its not desired to have it in a marine environment.

I think if marine fuel adopts ethanol, you'll see newer boats coming with ethanol content sensors (GM uses them), as well as fuel filters with built in WIF (water in fuel) sensors like we have on diesels

[Roman]

But that's assuming engines that are designed to run them. In actuality the fuel consumption becomes quite a lot worse when you're talking about engines that either can't adjust to process it or simply lack the ability to meter out the increased amount of fuel (carbs)

You mention a very good point. fact of the matter is, no oem is designing an engine to run on e85 and take advantage of all the beneficial fuel properties to the max, since that same engine has to run on regular pump fuel. We take engines designed for regular pump fuel and make them able to run on e85. Big Difference