Possible first lawsuits over ethanol and warrantee coverage

[Bruce]

Down in Lauderdale today working on a 130' Corporate Euro tub owned by a major marine manufacturer and in talking to the Capt about the effects of ethanol, he let slip that he has heard the Corp big wigs having meetings on the tub recently discussing the failures of gas engines related to detonation due to excess water drawing out the ethanol and leaving the gasoline seriously low in octane ratings causing said problems.

Said engines once torn down were rejected for warrantee due to the use of low octane fuel.

One owner though is a lawyer out of NY who is not about to swallow the cost of replacing the new engines only to have the problem happen again.

Capt said the execs are very concerned about the future possibility of having to eat engine replacements due to the ethanol.

Will be interesting to see if this makes the marine news or is kept quiet.

[Peter]

It is going to be a big problem since very few people seem to understand that when you draw off the water, you take the ethanol with it and are left with out of spec fuel.

This is not like the old days where you drained the water, changed the filter, and went on your way.

The real b**ch is that you may get low octane gas from a supplier (marina or gas stattion) that doesn't understand this. They drain out the water and go on selling moose-milk gas off the top of the tank to unsuspecting customers.

Aside: It's been raining a lot here in New England. In my little town there are 4 places to buy gasoline for your auto. I happened to drive by the biggest one the other day in a downpour. It was raining better than an inch an hour at that particular moment, the storm sewers were not keeping up, the streets were flooded all over the place, gutters were running like rivers. And do you know what those fools at that gas station were doing? They were delivering fuel from a big tanker truck right in the middle of the monsoon rains. I don't think I'll be buying any gas from them for awhile!