Fuel additive

[tug57]

As anyone ever added fuel additives to thier petrol outboard engine. I use to when I had a diesel inboard in another boat and it worked well, mainly a cetane booster.

 

[Farmer Piles]

Our main local outboard firm swears by Starbrite. It seems to be good stuff.

 

[Refueler]

Having blended fuels over many years .... and been in boats since I could walk ....

I have only ever added anything to gasoline when I needed a 'cleaning agent' .... but that is rare ..

My 20hp Mariner on back of the speedboat has been left on back of the boat ashore as always for winter ... the fuel can with gasoline 2T mix in ... and I'm sure that in a few weeks time when its launched - the engine will fire up as usual.

Today - interestingly enough - I dragged out my chainsaw - which was put in the garage before winter ... pulled the cord and away she fired ...

My 4stroke gasoline Lawn tractors - all 3 of them started as normal after winter storage .....

Like I say - no additives ... and all are running on E10 (95) fuel ....

 

[paulbrown22]

I think it partly depends on the engine.

I started our little runabout aluminium dinghy today for the first time in 6 months, using whatever stale 2 stroke fuel was left in the portable tank from last year (which has been sat in the boat getting rained on all winter). I'd quickly checked the engine over at home before re-fitting (that had been stored in the garage over winter to look after it), removed and cleaned the plugs, greased it up, etc., and then after fitting it to the boat and plugging in the tank it fired on the 3rd pull and ran beautifully.

But that's a 35 year old 2 stroke Johnson/Evinrude 6hp with a super simple carb with fairly large passages. If it was a modern carbureted 4 stroke with much smaller carb passages, they seem to clog up at the tiniest sniff of anything, so then I would be trying much harder to keep the fuel and carb as clean as possible over winter.

 

[Anibal]

I don’t put fuel additives but I use Shell V-Pro and add Sta-bil 360 marine to the jerrycans. Been doing that for 12 years and I have never had any issues.

 

[paradave]

I don’t put fuel additives but I use Shell V-Pro and add Sta-bil 360 marine to the jerrycans. Been doing that for 12 years and I have never had any issues.

How is that not putting fuel additives in?

 

[paradave]

I’ve always used additives in the winter be it diesel or petrol. I don’t like the idea of fuel sitting in the tank for months, going stale and potentially taking on moisture. I’m sure big plums would disagree, naturally, but as I don’t want to be like him that’s fine.

 

[vikingsmb]

Avoid E10 fuel. It will cause issues with your fuel lines, also clogging of carb jets etc, and it attracts water. and goes off quicker!
Fully Recommend E5 fuel, esp Esso Supreme or Texaco Super (there are no shell garages left in cardiff), Avoid Supermarket fuel

Additive wise, either startron or marine 16 is the best to use

 

[Refueler]

Avoid E10 fuel. It will cause issues with your fuel lines, also clogging of carb jets etc, and it attracts water. and goes off quicker!
Fully Recommend E5 fuel, esp Esso Supreme or Texaco Super (there are no shell garages left in cardiff), Avoid Supermarket fuel

Additive wise, either startron or marine 16 is the best to use

Are you aware that supply of Fuel to Supermarkets is one of the biggest contracts fought for by literally ALL brand names ?

Are you also aware that the large storage facilities such as on the Thames supply fuel to many different brand names ?

 

[NormanS]

Avoid E10 fuel. It will cause issues with your fuel lines, also clogging of carb jets etc, and it attracts water. and goes off quicker!
Fully Recommend E5 fuel, esp Esso Supreme or Texaco Super (there are no shell garages left in cardiff), Avoid Supermarket fuel

Additive wise, either startron or marine 16 is the best to use

Why avoid supermarket fuel?

 

[Refueler]

Why avoid supermarket fuel?

This should be interesting .....

 

[Davy_S]

I can only imagine that supermarket fuel having a greater turnover, is more likely to be fresher fuel than joe bloggs garage out in the sticks, who,s tank of fuel lasts him weeks because of a slow turnover,
i know which i would chose!

 

[Egret]

When my tank of last years petrol evaporated it left a thick soft wax in the bottom, so I assume that is what blocks jets in the carburettors. Problem also you can't now just take off the carburettor bowl and take out the jet in some small outboards without it going into a workshop and taking the petrol tank off - and looking at video there are lots of fiddly bits to be undone - so not a task for doing in lumpy water off the river mouth - gone are the days that you had a little box of spare jets and it was a couple of minutes to change -

Refueller will be able to tell us soon hopefully if any modern petrol will wax in this way, or indeed whether the Honda or Mercury stabiliser makes the waxing worse.

Edit - Thank you Refueler for the response #14 below - as you say, I don't use the motor often enough - must get out more. Drain tank and fresh petrol every 3 months now.

 

[Refueler]

I've near given up trying to describe or ilustrate ... but ...

ALL gasolines will wax when evaporated off .. its called Gums ... and its tested for in every blend ... there are limits specified in all blends. The amount may vary with the grade - but the test time to Gum is fairly constant across them.

Evolution of engines is often not tied to fuel developments - that is the biggest issue. When Diesel reduced to Ultra Low Sulphur ... it took time for manufacturers to adjust ... remember Mercedes advising against ULSD for ages, various others were slow to adjust to Unleaded gasoline ... but they were wasting their time ... ULSD / Unleaded was here and that was the standard.
I honestly feel that engine manufacturers forget that the engines are not run every day ... but this is one of the reasons I always advise to run the carb as dry as possible when stopping the motor.... not to use the stop button unless its a short stop.

Stabilisers - I never use them .. never tested them ... I cannot comment on their form or results.

 

[vikingsmb]

Supermarket fuel is poor quality. no additives and its cheap for a reason.

 

[Refueler]

Supermarket fuel is poor quality. no additives and its cheap for a reason.

I have only one answer to that : Hogwash.

Where do you get that info from ??? The reason its cheaper is that its a bulk supply contract !!

 

[moresparks]

Would you use this aged (2 years) petrol?

It smells the same, evaporates with no residue and burns the same on a teaspoon test. It has had been stabilised with Startron fuel stabilser since new and mainly E5. The older petrol is the slightly darker colour and compared with fresh E10.

 

[Refueler]

Would you use this aged (2 years) petrol?

It smells the same, evaporates with no residue and burns the same on a teaspoon test. It has had been stabilised with Startron fuel stabilser since new and mainly E5. The older petrol is the slightly darker colour and compared with fresh E10.

If I ever have question about fuel - then I just mix with fresh ...

Yesterday I fitted new bar to my Chainsaw .. the fuel had sat in it since summer last year ... the can of fuel next to it was mixed spring last year ... all local E10 with nothing added other than the 2T oil ..

Chainsaw started as it always does ... CHOKE - 2 pulls to get it to fire .. CHOKE in .. 2 two pulls and revving like a good'un.

I have said this so many times .... storage of Gasoline is best when three things are noted :

1. Sealed dark container
2. Cool location
3. Out of sunlight / bright light.

Those three items help to preserve the fuel .... a few shades darkening is a factor that in reality would not normally affect its use.

 

[Momac]

Why avoid supermarket fuel?

No reason.

Supermarket fuel is usually competitively priced. And it is all the same specification of fuel regardless of where you buy.

However I find E5 results in easier start and better running in my lawnmower but makes no differencecat all in my car.

 

[Refueler]

No reason.

Supermarket fuel is usually competitively priced. And it is all the same specification of fuel regardless of where you buy.

However I find E5 results in easier start and better running in my lawnmower but makes no differencecat all in my car.

mmmm basically correct - BUT depending on the gasoline spec - there are additives for certain grades that S/market does not use. But in reality - those additives are not needed for modern day engines.

I spent years blending Diesels / Gasolines for EU / African / Carribean markets (Carribean often ended up blended into USA market) .... people adding off the shelf retail gloop always made me smile !!

And please don't get me started on Aspen !! Lets just say Marketing !!