Engine Fuel Filter

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Ran 25 gallons through the boat the past few days and checked the engine fuel filter to find a black powder in it (a lot of it). Seems I must have gotten a load of fuel with alcohol in it somewhere at some time, since it's clearly eating out the bulb interior or hose interior. On a Merc the fuel filter has a float to check for water in a 6 inch see-through cylinder with the filter above that, and I had over an inch of black laced fuel in the bottom of the filter housing. Anyway, just a wake up call to check your engine filter no matter where your other filters are installed, since they won't catch a hose deteriorating downstream.
 
I keep hoping that if I ignore the alcohol in gas issue, it would go away. I limit my gas buying to stations I know that do not sell it, but it is getting harder to tell when it is being sold. Some stations are not posting it on their pumps now.

Another fine mess political correctness and the environmental lobbyist have gotten us into.
 
Is this alcohol in the fuel problem spread across all years and models of outboards? ... even the new ones? Anything we can do to make the engine lines compatible? John
 
Upon further examination it appears the bulb is the main culprit, the interior has the gooey soft texture of alchohol exposure and my hands are black after cutting it open. I'll replace the hoses too.

I do my best with fuel as well, but there's really no way to tell anymore. The local distributor of a reputable brand was caught with a tanker full of no-name fuel recently. Turns out every 8th load of fuel he sold was unbranded. Goes full circle to check the engine fuel filter regularly (if you've got the kind that can be checked).

Dr. John: I'm not sure what can be done other than monitor your hoses and filters and buy things labeled "alchohol resistant" etc. The resistant bit is a bit of misnomer since nothing really seems impervious to alchohol: some plastics harden, some rubber will swell, and some turn to goo, but they all seem to deteriorate at variable rates when exposed.

Oldgrowth had the right idea in my opinion -- get the environmentalists out of our fuels and stabilize supply and quality on one system.
 
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