A few days ago I was in a hurry and filled the bike with gas out of my boat, BIG mistake! I had filled the boat bout a month ago, but the gas had already gone bad. The bike almost immediately started to buck, cough, spit out of the exhaust and intake. It wouldn't stay running. Tried siphoning only got 3 gallons out. So I figured while I'm there I will replace the fuel filter. And of course the dealership was out of stock! Dam&it! So I went ahead and removed the filler neck assembly. Removed the fuel filter. It was almost solidly plugged up. So I took a can of carb cleaner and cleaned what I could. Reassembled, and refueled with fresh gas. No the bike runs and has alot more power!

A couple of lessons here:
1. Use known fresh gas! This ethanol sh$t doesn't last at all!
2. The service manual wasn't kidding when they said to replace the fuel filter at 25000 miles! ( I know I should have then, it has 33000 now!)

 

How or what are going to do to treat your boat fuel???

 

I got bad gas at a station I regularly fill up at. The bike started spitting and would not run. I trailered it home and siphoned the tank then used the quick disconnect under the tank,made up a fitting and used the pump to pump the rest out. Refilled with fresh gas and she's been good for over 1500 miles. I took a small container with the bad (black) gas to the station and got my money back. Never been back there since. Lesson learned!

 

I vote that the fuel you bought for your boat was contaminated.
Fuel (even Ethanol blend) does not go bad after a month.

Lesson should be purchase your fuel from a top tier brand station.
I know, you could get bad gas from anywhere. But the chances are very slim when using a top tier (and well used) station.

The issue you had was not caused by Ethanol. People have been using it for years without any issues, and some didn't even know they were using it.

Every year at the end of mowing season, I put the mower, weed eater, and leaf blower in the shed.
And every spring I take them out, and all of them have always started and ran just fine.
They sit from November to April, and I have never had any problems.
Yes, they all are using regular Ethanol blend fuel.

 

I am in the industry, if you go o a well used station, no matter what brand you will get on spec gas, gas stays stable for a long time in the tanks. Was there anyflooding in the area, did you drain from the bottom of boats tank? Station pumps have filters on them that get changed regularly, the truck terminals have 80 micron strainers, the truck itself could have issues dending on last load but majors monitor this very closely. Did you fill boat at marina or at a station?

Having said all this I still run seafoam through a tank of gas every now and then.

 

I trust gas stations for the most part. Didn't see why my car filter can go 100,000 plus miles but my bike's can't.

So I just replaced my fuel filter on the RG for the first time last month, (12 years old and 93,000 miles.)

The inside of the tank surprised me as to how clean it was, and the filter when opened turns out would have gone indefinitely.

But one load of bad gas like I got 20 plus years ago shut down my car within 2 miles and the folks at the Clark Oil station in Cleveland got to remove the tank and flush the system at their cost.

Sometimes it happens, fortunately not often.

 

I always add Seafoam to my bike after fill...just to make sure it maintains quality...just the way I like to do things & hasn't failed me yet.

 

The boat gas runs the mower just fine with a little popping. The fuel came from a high volume station, always been good before. My employer did get a load of bad gas in several of their fueling stations, about a year ago. The repair shop wasn't happy! I think that is what happened to me, I just didn't discover it until I put in a fuel injected motor( Boat runs fine, not great but fine.)

 

Go to your local small engine repair shop and ask them to show you the repairs slips on the motors they have repaired because the owner used Ethenol. It will change your mind.

 

I think the reference was to Ethanol blend gas 10% ethanol,, which most are nowadays, not E85 ethanol which is what 70% ethanol?

The simple answer is, he has a bad load of fuel which was unnoticed in his carb engines. As soon as he put it into an EFI motor it ran like crap. Or he has crap in the tank on his boat...

I used to work at a Medium duty truck shop. You cant even imagine the amount of times we had to repair a diesel truck cause some schmo put regular gas in it, realized it and then tried to put diesel in as well.... Screwed the trucks up big time.

One of my guys would take the fuel out of the trucks, and pour a good amount of it into his older camaro. Thing smoked a bit, but ran. Soon as I tried to put it in my Geo, wouldnt even run.

Carb motors can handle a lot more S4!t then EFI motors can...