Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Ok...
Not really.. heh

Question is, last few years the consensus was to full the gas tank and put in some Sea Foam when winterizing.

Are we still suggesting this with the new cheeeeeezy corn gas we have now?

Heard some say totally empty, others, leave like a 1/4 full.... others still say fill it up...

What Say Thee?!

Walt, I would get the Stabil for Ethanol in there and fill it up. The station by me where I get gas has signs on the pumps stating they won't and don't sell "corn gas" We have a Murphy's that's usually $.20 cheaper but it's 10% corn so I won't buy it.

I fill up at the marina and put in sea foam. marina does NOT sell the corn crap and checks twice a summer for that and water in the gas...

I topped both of mine off flast year (despite about a decade of ethanol gas here, never had issues). This spring I did (see my post on that), so I'm gonna run it dry this year after using Startron for ethanol. My marina owner said he had a little over 100 boats (out of 400 or so) have fuel issues this spring due to a bad blend. He said running it dry is the consensus now...

72 here tomorrow, 73 Thurs, upper 60s Friday so I'm taking the boat out a least 2 of those days

I filled mine (non corn) added Seafoam and took a cruze today. Man what a great day on the lake. Our lake was 11' above last week and it seems a few boats suffered. We saw a pontoon washed up on the bank and soon will be completly out of the water. On down we found a nice canoe full of water floating down lake. We loaded it on toon and will check with lake patrol to find owner, if non can be found Betty has her a canoe.

I won't add fuel unless we get more nice days on the lake, then just add more Seafoam.

Actually...I've had several engineers at small engine manufacturing companies tell me they DO NOT recomend using any type of stabil. I'm actually trying to get this question to a guy I know at Merc.

Friend of ours who owns a rental will never use Stabil. He only uses Seafoam. He says they have found jelling in some fuel tanks using stabil. I prefer Seafoam yet have never had any issues with Stabil

i don't think it matters much, full empty or half, as long as it's stabilized.
i've never had condensation problems, but maybe somebody else will.
i use sta-bil all season and double it for winter storage. never a problem.
looked in my old gas tank when i replaced it--nothing. looked in the carb
when i had it apart--nothing. but if you don't use any stabilizer at all
and don't run everything dry, get ready to tear the carb apart to try to
clean out all the varnish (and good luck with that).

I use Seafoam in lawn tractor, weed eater, chainsaw, boat, everything and have had real good luck with it. I know that Stabil has a new marine stabil that is supposed to be formulated for the ethanol issue, but I can't find it locally, so I haven't used it.

I can't drain the tank on my I/O so I just run it as low as I can with double Seafoam in it. Then in Spring I fill up tank with 15-20 gal of fresh gas.

If I had an outboard I'd load up with Seafoam, Starbright, or Stabil, and fog the carb just as it was starting to run dry. I think the people that have problems tend to be in areas that have their boats (or cars for that matter) sit for 5 or 6 months or even longer. but I've also read where some marine engine people are saying they're seeing problems in as little as two months.

So I try to do what worked for 25 years with my lawn boy push mower, stabilize it and run it dry. Fill it with fresh gas in Spring and it'll start on 2-3 pull. If nothing is there, then there is nothing to gum up or separate.

I buy all my gas at the marina so I don't think I have the corn issue, at least that's what I'm told.

I use Stabil in everything from 4-wheelers, two wheel trimmers, riding mower, power washer, and the boat. I don't run it dry and I don't fill the tank until the spring. I usually leave 1/4 of tank or less over winter and fill with fresh gas in the spring. I replace my fuel filter every spring as well. Not sure if that is of any additional benefit but it's easy and cheap to do.

Wonder if it would hurt to mix stabil and seafoam???????????

I've used stabil for years in every motor i've owned, weedeater, edger, chain saw, pressure washer, generator, lawnmowers....never had any problem with it.

Can't find the blue stabil around here so i just put red stabil in my toon tank this weekend. I may look harder or order some.

Here is a link to a recent BOAT/US article - http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/boatus/200911/#/66

Well he said nothing and took two pages to do it