Thread: Strange grit-like substance in carburetor

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E-10 is a problem. We started seeing problems a couple years ago on boats and the manufacturers of the outboard and inboard motors started sending out advisory after advisory, warning that we were going to see it get worse as time went on. At first it was just that fuel got gummy after a short time sitting. It used to be that 6 months or a year without stabilizer was no problem, but we were seeing carb plugging after only 2-3 months. Customers were irate and saying we were not rebuilding their carbs correctly, so we posted the letters from Mercruiser, Yamaha, OMC, etc on the wall so they could read it for themselves.

Then, after a while we started seeing more serious problems. We were finding strange looking stuff in carbs and fuel injection systems. Fuel related problems became the number one repair we were doing on a daily basis. One customer was towed in with a boat that he had installed a new poly tank in only two weeks earlier, and the inside of the tank looked like it was sandblasted. Particles of the plastic were found in the entire fuel system and carb bowl. That was not an isolated case, we were also seeing aluminum and (especially) fiberglass tanks where the insides were dissolving or being pitted.

I've had lots of conversations with the Tech guys at all of the major boat motor manufacturers, and none had good things to say about ethanol fuel, or had solutions to fix the problems in older engines. Their common reply was "Tell your customers to expect more frequent fuel system repairs than they have ever seen."

Supposedly, cars built after something like 1980 are ok with the new fuels, but since we rodders use lots of older parts maybe that is why we occasionally see what is being described here.

Don