Is regular gas harmful?

I'm a really nice guy. Please name me beneficiary on you life insurance policy right away. If you're talking about bringing down 5 gals. of gas no problem if you can be very careful pouring. If you're talking about putting 200 gals. in the back seat of your car and, in the unlikely event of your surviving the trip to the marina, pouring it can by can into your boat it will be a toss-up as to what happens first: 1) you blow yourself up 2) your neighbor drowns you for endangering his boat and life 3) the EPA takes your house to cover the fines for spill damage.
If your 38 is on a trailer (which is a bit hard to picture) go ahead and fuel at your local station with high test. Otherwise, don't go getting killed to save a few cents per gallon.
P.S. PLEASE run your blower for at least 4 minutes before turning that key.

In whose opinion?

Ed- Where is your sense of adventure?

The first volunteer fire department I joined, at the ripe old age of 16, has a good sized marina in its fire district. It kept a jet-drive fire boat at the marina primarily for the fun that ensues from people trying to save a couple of bucks, like the OP.

Call the local fire house that covers your marina and let them know not to get busy cooking any meals while you're working on this project!

There was this person I once met......

It stops just short of fire.

And BLEVE explosions are not much fun either lol

Except this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv15_Ylw4ag

Hi,

In all seriousness :

Wasn't there some issues with Hi Ethanol levels in Gasoline leading some Class Action suits against the Oil Co's because of the damage it did?

I am not sure if this was just for Marine Gas or Gas you get from a Gas Station for your car.

Someone who lives on your side of the pond might be able to shed some light on this.

Hi,

This empty tank wouldn't happen to be the one that supplies the engine you wrote had run rough and then stopped in your post about Engine Problems would it?

Most boat tanks require more than that to hit the pick up. I would suggest 25 to 30 gallons minimum. What size is the tank? You may consider running on a portable tank if its a short distance. That way, you know what you've got.

There is no downside since there is no such thing as "marine gas" despite the claims made by certain distributors who blend their patented mixture of mouse milk and snake oil and call it "marine gas" and sell it on the waterfront.

In some areas in some states you might be able to buy gasoline that is not blended with ethanol but it's still not "marine gas" it's just gasoline with no ethanol in it.

Let us know if using fresh gas helps your engine run ... 3 or 4 year old gas sitting in a boat in Florida really is a non-starter.

Marine gas is actually a very specific formula for extracting one more dollar out of every gallon.

Back to the question. If you had ethanol blended fuel sitting in your tanks for a long period of time, you have some other potential problems facing you. First, if the boat has fiberglass tanks, ethanol based fuels will attack them. Ethanol is a solvent. The corrosive nature of ethanol can also cause fuel lines to deteriorate.

Ethanol blended fuel (E-10) can hold up to four teaspoons of water in suspension per gallon. In hot, humid conditions, tanks sweat and it's even more pronounced when ethanol is present. Once a saturation point is exceeded, the solution separates and the gas floats on top while the ethanol and water mix on the bottom. Ethanol blended fuel can absorb enough water to reach a separation point in just over 3 months at 70% humidity. The resulting slurry can clog fuel systems, but the more important problem is that the remaining fuel will lose it's original octane value which can cause an engine to run poorly.

Hi,

Here is something on the whole Ethanol Damage thing.

http://boatingsailing.suite101.com/article.cfm/ethanol_fuel_problems_for_boaters

That was very disturbing although mostly already known. A very scary new item that I caught from the article is:

Marmot mentioned earlier 3 months which is what I considered prudent. Most boats don't get run every 2 weeks much less refueled.

Hi,

Thankfully you don't have fiberglass tanks so the Ethanol in Fuel thing won't be as much of a deal as it would have been if you had non metallic tanks.

Maybe, maybe not, the experiment could be expensive. I would try to only tanker what you plan to burn in a short period. After all, how far from a marina pump do you plan to operate?

If you want longer term stability, buy avgas.