Quote:
green74 - 9/8/2007 8:04 PM
also they put a yamaha fuel/water seperaton in the bilge. i was told not to bother dumping it every once in a while because i wasn't going to see the water in the fuel because of the ethenol. i was also told that racors are a waste of time because the ethenol keeps the water suspended in the fuel so you wont see it. i was told to just replace the filter. i'm sorry but a fuel/water seperator seperates the water from the fuel so it can be extracted right?
|
It is true that water is miscible (dissolvable) in ethanol. So a small amount of water, perhaps from water vapor in the air or condensation in your tank, will dissolve in an ethanol-gas mixture. This dissolved water will then pass through your engine and be expelled inthe exhaust. However, there is definitely a limit to the amount of water that can be dissolved in E10 gas before it is saturated.
"When water content reaches the 0.4 - 0.8 weight percentage, water and ethanol separate from the gasoline. They float above the gasoline in the tank, which can cause engine stalling." (see
http://www.greenfuels.org/ethanol/terms.htm) [Note: I think that water will SINK BELOW gas rather than float on top of it.]
Here is a neat interactive chemistry lession about how ethanol and water interact (
http://www.mpcfaculty.net/mark_bisho...l_solution.htm).
Personally, I think that a water separating filter is still necessary even with E10 gas. You need both he filter itself for sediment and the water seperator for any precipiated water. I use disposable 10 micron filters rather than a racor with a bowl, but that is personal preference. I change my fuel filters every 50 or so hours as recommended by Yahama, which is a lot more often than was common in the old days.
I think that either your mechanic over-simplified things or perhaps you did not include in your post all of the detail provided by your mechanic for sake of brevity.
is my service advisor full of sh**? 
