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Just wondering, does everyone add it every time they fuel up regardless of how long the boat sits or do you feel it's only required for winter storage? It seems the quality of fuel as deteriorated over the past few years and it's really noticeable on 2 stroke motors.
Only for storage . As long as you are topping up frequently it won't matter.
Anytime it is going to sit for 60 days or so you will want to top it up with fresh gas before you go out or add stabilizer before you let it sit.
Gas these days goes bad in on open container after 15 days. Straight from Mercury, alcohol makes the gas more unstable so it goes SOUR much more quickly than 5 years ago. Alcohol also absorbs water so being in that environment means it will degrade faster. I tell my customers to only put as much gas in as you are going to use as it will loose it's octane very quickly. In a car with a knock sensor this is not an issue nor is it for some newer I/O's but to date I have not seen a knock sensor on an outboard. When the octane drops then the motor is more prone to detonation from poor quality fuel. If you are not going to use your boat for a coule of weekends I would recommend using fuel stabilizer and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, too much is not good. Mercury has a good section on their website concerning fuels.
mikemicropterus wrote: Gas these days goes bad in on open container after 15 days. Straight from Mercury, alcohol makes the gas more unstable so it goes SOUR much more quickly than 5 years ago. Alcohol also absorbs water so being in that environment means it will degrade faster. I tell my customers to only put as much gas in as you are going to use as it will loose it's octane very quickly. In a car with a knock sensor this is not an issue nor is it for some newer I/O's but to date I have not seen a knock sensor on an outboard. When the octane drops then the motor is more prone to detonation from poor quality fuel. If you are not going to use your boat for a coule of weekends I would recommend using fuel stabilizer and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, too much is not good. Mercury has a good section on their website concerning fuels.
Good post because gas isn't what it used to be . I stabilize all every time and save aggravation
Gas these days goes bad in on open container after 15 days. Straight from Mercury, alcohol makes the gas more unstable so it goes SOUR much more quickly than 5 years ago. Alcohol also absorbs water so being in that environment means it will degrade faster. I tell my customers to only put as much gas in as you are going to use as it will loose it's octane very quickly. In a car with a knock sensor this is not an issue nor is it for some newer I/O's but to date I have not seen a knock sensor on an outboard. When the octane drops then the motor is more prone to detonation from poor quality fuel. If you are not going to use your boat for a coule of weekends I would recommend using fuel stabilizer and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, too much is not good. Mercury has a good section on their website concerning fuels.