Starting very shortly ethanol content will go to 15% of a gallon mixture of gasoline; that’s right, the federal government regulations are moving to increase the ethanol from 10% to 15% and there appears to be no good reason. The statistics have proved that the reasons the government started insisting that gas be part ethanol have completely broken down. We were told it would lower the price per gallon we are paying at the pump; that has not happened and the facts actually say that the cost of ethanol is actually higher than that of gasoline. Since the onset of the mixture of gasoline and ethanol there have been tons of problems popping up all over the country. Injector issues, motors running rough, gas breaking down and more that have plagued the out-board motor owner and these problems will now get worse.  

The government was under the impression that farmers could produce corn and other ethanol base agricultural plants and produce ethanol gas cheaper than we could buy fuel. It may have started out that way, but farmers have raised prices for their produce ever since causing the process of producing ethanol to go up. It has also found that the actual processing or making of ethanol fuel is also very expensive. Coupled with the farmers need to be paid a reasonable price for their ethanol producing plants like corn the cost of the products has gone up as many farmers found weather and natural disasters continue to hinder their production.  

The four major issues with what will now be termed E-15 base gasoline will now get worse as the engineering behind marine motors have yet to find a solution.  There have been four major problems caused by E-10 or now E-15 ethanol fuel: debris in the fuel, the collection of moisture, the breaking down of ethanol over short periods of time and fuel economy actually getting worse. Now with E-15 fuel all these problems will continue to plague the entire fuel issue not only with marine motors but also with automobiles.  

The expensive problem of changing filters in marine motors will now be more important than ever and the gumming up of injectors could once again get worse. Moisture will collect, motors will gum up and we will see more problems than ever.  

Captain Mike

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