Sta-Bil regular vs Sta-Bil Marine Ethanol

[wingsfan22]

We gave up on trying to winterize our 2006 Utopia 4-Tek ourselves and took it in. The guy who winterized it put 8 oz of regular Sta-bil in the tank. We normally use the Marine formula. My question is: the 8 oz treated 10 of the 35 gallons we put into the boat. Should we stick with the regular for this tank of fuel since there is some already in there or should we treat the other 25 gallons with Marine Stabil? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Seadoobuddy]

The blue is better at maintaining Ethanol gas...it's also almost twice the cost. So the choice is yours.
I would add enough to cover the additional 25 gallons.

 

[LouDoo]

I use the marine stabil, but it's only been out for a couple of years. Before that I used the regular red stabil with no problems. That being said ethanol has also only been in use a few years also.

Lou

 

[red2blue]

I put a can of Sea-Foam into a full tank...run it for a coupla min till I'm sure the injectors get it.

no worries

 

[Seadoobuddy]

On Friday some guy at O'Rielly's (formerly Murray's) was trying to get me to buy Seafoam instead of the blue Sta-bil. He swears by it. I told him some buddies swear at it.

Some people on SDF love it but others hate it.

So what's the real truth about it? I've never used it.

 

[wingsfan22]

Gonna use the blue

:thumbsup:Thanks for all the info. We are going to use the blue and hope that mixing the two isn't a problem.

 

[LouDoo]

Seafoam is fine for 4-stroke engines, I use it in my Mercury 4-stroke and sometimes in my Jeep. Not good for 2-strokes because it is a detergent and dilutes the injector oil making it less effective. So it's O.K. for the Utopia and the O5 RXT.

This is another subject that has been beat to death.

Lou

 

[Seadoobuddy]

Thanks Lou.

 

[Biffitis]

I tried using this product from Starbrite. http://mystarbrite.com/startron/

The ratio is great, and it's supposed to do more than just stabilize. Guess I'll find out in the spring...

 

[470]

Seafoam is fine for 4-stroke engines, I use it in my Mercury 4-stroke and sometimes in my Jeep. Not good for 2-strokes because it is a detergent and dilutes the injector oil making it less effective. So it's O.K. for the Utopia and the O5 RXT.

This is another subject that has been beat to death.

Lou

Please explain how it dilutes the injector oil and stabil marine doesn't. Stabil marine has 4 times the cleaner that reg. stabil does according to their literature. If you research it that cleaner would be Naphtha which sea foam also has.

 

[Seadoobuddy]

Quote from seafoam website......Form your own opinion.

For gas engines:

Uses in All Fuels

Sea Foam® Motor Treatment #’s SF-16 (16 ounce), SF-128 (gallon container) and SF-55 (a 55 gallon drum) is used as a fuel additive in Gasoline, Ethanol Blends, Gas/oil mixes & ALL Diesel fuels. This includes all brands and grades of available fuels.
When added to these fuels, Sea Foam® Motor Treatment was specifically designed to safely do five (5) important tasks for you. They are:

Lubricates upper cylinders, fuel pumps, turbochargers, drawn-through superchargers, and related fuel system and exhaust system components. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is a 100% blended petroleum product. That means Sea Foam® is OIL, so adding Sea Foam® to ANY fuel adds lubricity to fuel system components and upper cylinder areas of your engine.
Dries fuel system moisture. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment contains an oil component that acts as a co-solvent to effectively neutralize moisture when Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is added to any of the above-listed fuels. This helps to eliminate moisture-related problems like diesel fuel gelling and rough idling.
Cleans gum & varnish fuel residues from fuel system components. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment contains an oil-based high-detergent cleaner that liquefies old fuel residue and allows the contaminants to be filtered out in the manner designed by the engine manufacturer.
Cleans carbon deposits from combustion chamber. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment’s exclusive formula is blended specifically to clean carbon out of the engine as the engine is run. This is accomplished by our cleaning oil formula described in #3 above, which dissolves the old sticky fuel residue that holds the carbon particles that accumulate over time. Once the varnish residue is liquefied, the carbon particles are free to be safely blown out of the engine through the exhaust system.
Stabilizes fuel. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment adds volatility to fuel and slows down the rate at which that fuel loses its ability to properly burn. When added to fuel and the fuel is in properly sealed containers or fuel systems, Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is a fuel stabilizer for up to 2 years. Always run the engine for a long enough period of time to assure the Sea Foam® Motor treatment has been drawn through the entire system fuel system for complete protection.


Info About Color Change

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation mandated coloring restrictions for diesel fuels. These coloring restrictions would have required Sea Foam® Sales Company to separately package a diesel version of Sea Foam® Motor Treatment without the familiar “Sea Foam® Green” oil dye.

In a time when so many manufacturing cost increases are being passed on to the consumer, the Sea Foam® Sales Company Management Team believed it was best to NOT further increase pricing by packaging a separate Diesel Product, when the only difference would have been the color. Therefore, as of November, 2006 ALL production of Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is no longer being colored.

Other than the removal of the oil dye, Sea Foam® Motor Treatment remains unchanged since its original formulation in 1940.

Thank You for being a loyal Sea Foam® Products customer!

Recommended Mix Amounts

2 Cycle and 4 Cycle Gasoline Engines, Diesel Engines, Rotary (Wankel) Engines
The recommended concentrations of Sea Foam® Motor Treatment varies depending on the type of fuel and certain types of engines. Please consult the table below.

Type of Fuel


Recommended Average Mixture


Comments

Normal gasoline grades (including 10% and 15% ethanol blends)


1 oz. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment per gallon of gasoline


Can mix up to 2 oz. per gallon of gasoline if necessary. Mixing at less than two-thirds oz. per gallon will impair the effectiveness of Sea Foam®.

Diesel fuel (including low sulfur and ultra-low sulfur blends)


1 oz. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment per gallon of diesel fuel


Can mix up to 2 oz. per gallon of fuel if necessary. Mixing at less than two-thirds oz. per gallon will impair the effectiveness of Sea Foam®.

For FACTORY-DESIGNED E-85 Fuel engines


2 oz. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment per gallon of gasoline




2-cycle, gas/oil mixed fuel engines


2 oz. Sea Foam® Motor Treatment per gallon of gasoline






Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is blended oil, and WILL NOT run a gasoline, gas/oil mix or ethanol engine without introducing HYDROCARBONS (gasoline / ethanol) to the mixture at a minimum 50%. On the other hand, a diesel engine WILL run for a short time on 100% Sea Foam® Motor Treatment.
********SPECIAL NOTE FOR OIL INJECTED ENGINES: Sea Foam® Motor Treatment is ONLY added to the fuel in the above recommended concentrations. DO NOT pour Sea Foam® Motor Treatment into the oil reserve tank for oil injection!***********

Fuel injector cleaning machines in a controlled environment use Sea Foam® Motor Treatment as their safe cleaning agent mixed with gasoline or ethanol blend at a ratio of 50% gasoline or ethanol blend & 50% Sea Foam® Motor Treatment.

 

[LouDoo]

Here's what Dr Honda says about SeaFoam, you guys can do what you want but I'm sticking by his statement, this is a direct quote, I copied it from a thread July of this year. It's also been said many times before:

" No... It's because it gets asked about 10 times a month in the summer. AND... at the point of me typing this... the original post is only 9 hr's old."

" The simple answer is... it's a solvent. It's hard on ALL the rubber parts, and it will displace oil. In a car engine... it's not that big of a deal... but since you are relying on a thin film of oil, that is being transported by the fuel... I would not recommend using it. If you have a fuel issue in a 2-stroke... fix it correctly since it can cause a melt-down of the engine. "

Last edited by Dr Honda; 07-06-11 at 08:48 AM.

Lou

P.S. I realize this is the wrong thread for this argument, it belongs on the 2 stroke forum, so I apologize, but I'm not the one who made a left turn, just trying to clear things up. I would suggest any further discussion be moved to the 2 stroke threads.

 

[470]

I don't disagree with your last statement. It's just that marine grade stabile has the same solvent (Naphtha) which can be found on the msds.
I've used it in the 82 sleds,jet ski's,mx bikes,lawn mowers,chain saws,etc. over the last 30 years and have never had a seal go bad from fuel. We used it in the race dept. at skidoo for the 17 years when I was there.

 

[LouDoo]

I'm moving this to the 2 stroke section.

Lou