Fuel Addatives

[Volvo]

Watto , I have for Years without question used nothing but premium in all my boats n cars. With this etec have been told 91 octane and all outboards should use 91.
No use of boat for awhile , yes I would top up with premium also.
Will eventually fit a waterseperator filter after the tank give me wee peace of mind , but like I said boat doesnt sit long enough for fuel to go off.

[Noelm]

Would help if one read the question to start off with lol, yes if one knows there is water in their fuel or fuel tank i daresay they would'nt run their motor with it in there !!, question was " Do these additives help with keeping moisture /water at bay or getting rid of it if it finds its way into tank via weather condensation etc??..
Simple question without getting into rocket science ??..
Anyhow thank you all for the answers / opinions .

Reading the question is only part of the answer, people have quoted products that have nothing to do with keeping water at bay, if you must use products, you need to choose one for the purpose, a stabiliser does not prevent moisture, a carbon remover does not preserve fuel, it also doesn't fix faults, regardless of what the label says, I personally think most of them are sales gimmicks, but might offer some small degree of benefit, and to some, certainly offer peace of mind. Products are available to clean carbs or injectors, fix radiator leaks, fix power steering, remove water from fuel tanks, make fuel last longer and on and on, everyone wants an easy fix, people love to spray things, it's easy and it's kind of fun, but that's where it ends, nothing replaces maintenance and diligence.

[Noelm]

What Jack said.

However Re the tap comment : It is a fact that in the case of carby equipped car it is amazing how much tap water one can add down the throat of a running motor before the motor decides its had enough!
I tried this before fitting water injection to a V8 years ago. Really worked well and fuel economy and torque curve improved and the carbon was reduced and much softer when we rebuilt the motor years later with the water injection still in use.

Different adding water down the throat to trying to introduce it through the jets or injectors, trying to replace petrol with water just doesn't work, but adding a bit of water to the air does steam clean the internals, can't say it is the best option, but some do it, might leave those nice shiny steam cleaned parts wet, ready to rust?

[gazza2006au]

Volvo the problem is if your tank is a permanent tank in the boat u will likely have a breather hose the condensation will without and doubts enter your tank thru this hose as your tank expands and contacts on a daily bases and weather permitting your tank is sucking in humid air once the water collects in the tank it cannot evaporate and just builds up

using metho i have done so in a VN Commmodore in the 1990's i poured 1 litre of metho in to half a tank the car ran smoother for that half a tank but that got substantially louder and i never tried it again

[Andy56]

I have found the perfect additive to eliminate water. Its called PW. One aplication and it turns water into powder which is easily digested by any outboard without leaving a trace. Just add one liter to a full tank and your ready t go.




fine print.

this product is too good to be true but somebody will ask for it.
Powdered Water, now i would like to see that. Cant be any worse than a letterbox tailfin.

[Watto79]

id say you have no need for it what so ever and are just wasting money

it doesnt revive fuel as it has to go in when filling up from the bowser

millions of people dont use and dont have issues, a small percentage do and also dont have issues

Quite possibly steve..

I am curious about your comment and why it needs to go in at the bowser to revive fuel though?!

[Noelm]

Because it doesn't revive fuel at all, it has to be added to fresh fuel to have any benefit, kind of like freezing stale bread and expecting it to be fresh when defrosted, it's just not going to happen.

[blacklab]

This is an interesting topic.
Me, well when my boat was up and running, Had a two stroke on the back, during heavy use times, I just ran regular, during winter which I still fished once a week, but sometimes missed a few weeks with weather, I ran premium. The talk, is that fuel looses its octane quite quickly. That brings up the question with modern engines, does it really matter ???
Two interesting motors I have, react completely differently.
1) 1975 triumph bonneville. Stale fuel in that and I risk pre ignition, which on a hot day, kinda makes the engine implode.
2) Honda generator, about 8 years old. Used to use it every day, then stopped needing it. Forgot to drain the fuel, 5 years later, 3 pulls, and away it went, ran like a charm.
Water in fuel is a seperate issue. Condensation is a biggy if your boat is parked outside with temperature differences etc. I used to think that keeping the tank full was a good preventative against condensation, until I got shot down on a U.S site and some engineer came on and completely baffled me with science and said it was the worst thing you could do.
My theory, Simple, forget the additives, forget about what octane you use, apart from sticking to manufacturers spec's, Just use the boat regularly !
Good maintenance practices are NOT found in a bottle,
Manage the fuel you intend to keep in your tank,
Use it !

Col

[gazza2006au]

From what i understand fuel loses its octane level as it ages and degrades i have read 2 stroke can go off in as little as six weeks however i have read reports on here of regular unleaded still being used 12 months later with no additives to revive the octane i wouldn't have believed it untill my nephew had a brand new WR450F sitting in my dinning room for the past 12 months with a fuel tank of fuel, it smelt like crap like varnish but the bike started up and ran the exhaust header lit up red tho