Water in the gas tank solution?

[Dan]

Anybody gotten wind of this new product? I know I've spent some money on separators, and I have had to have a tank or two drained. This think is a "sock" filled with chemicals that absorb water. You dropped it in your gas tank at night and remove it the next day. It absorbs any water in your tank. Here's the link.

http://www.greatlakesscuttlebutt.com/index.php?cid=2847249&src=news&refno=350&category=Press+Room&prid=350&curlid=304

[Redbone]

I think Drygas is a better solution.  Anything more than that sounds like something that should be permanently fixed. Wait until you drop that sock in the tank and cant remove it.  Talk about problems.

[McCarter]

U hav to be careful when putting additives in ur gas tank.  Alot of them are pretty rough on the fuel hoses.  Especially on older models.  I was told not to use dry gas by a mechanic.  He said it eats through a fuel hose like a fat kid eats a piece of bday cake.  Im a fat kid so i know how fast that is.   stabil marine formula is a safe alternative.  I will check out the sock.  I also want to add 2 large seperators to my boat this season.  Small investment to protect my large investment

[Dan]

Have you ever found what Stabil is made out of? I've heard it really isn't much more than naptha which is much cheaper. I have done some net searching for what is really in these gas addititves to make sure they are not just a snake oil, excuse the pun, treatment that really sounds good, but doesn't do much. I know a mechanic who makes his own. He says to put a little water in a baby food jar add gas and your favorite additive and see what it does.

[fiker]

I've been using the Stabil Marine formula religiously since I purchased my boat last June. 

I've several friends who also say to use either Ring Free, or Sea Foam.   Claims made are that both reduce engine problems greatly. 

Question is:  can one use both Sea Foam, and Stabil?  Or, does the Sea Foam eliminate the need for Stabil?

[Dan]

I just did some more googling with this subject and found this, in reference to your post:

"I winterized both of my bikes yesterday (sniff  ) using info gained from discussions on this forum. The one thing I had not decided on was whether to use Seafoam or Yamaha brand stabilizer for the fuel tanks. I had ruled out Stabil based on hearing bad things about it from many sources. So I decided to call the Seafoam tech help for info. I found his reply interesting and since I had not read this anywhere else, I thought I would share it here.

He told me that Stabil works by being lighter than gasoline, causing it to float to the top and in essence sealing off the gasoline from air exchange which is what causes it to grow stale. Seafoam blends with the gas and stays anywhere the gas does such as carb jets. He mentioned that Stabil or other similar fuel stablizers don't keep carb jets from clogging because Stabil does not blend with fuel. He told me that using Seafoam provided four benefits including cleaning, stabilization, and lubrication. I forget the fourth."

[Dan]

Redbone, if you're filling up with ethanol blended gas you're already getting one gallon of the alchohol with every ten gallons of gas (10%). On Wikipedia's site in reference to dry gas it says, "There is no point in adding dry gas to fuel that already contains a significant percentage of ethanol, since ethanol is an alcohol."

[huston]

Whichever way we research it, ethanol is not good for our outboards and an additive for offsetting the amount of ethanol in our fuel is needed. My old Astro with the Merc fuel injected 150 required fuel lines to be replaced and all my lawn equipment has had fuel line and carb problems. The lines broke down and started clogging the filters from what I understand to be ethanol. I use sea foam in everthing  but i don't think it regulates the ethanol problem. From what I understand, Stabil/ ethanol additive does this. Sea foam was at Meijers yesterday for $ 6.99 a can too.

[Redbone]

I havent used drygas in the boat, I havent had it that long. Stabil is all I put in it before storage. Thanks for the tips though.