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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Fiberglass gas tanks and ethanol
Posted By: Peter In Response To: Re: Fiberglass gas tanks and ethanol (Carl)
Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, at 10:40 a.m.
Carl;
Thank you for the very complete and through response. More information like this is needed in order to determine the bottom line on this fiberglass tank problem.
One school of thought has said that the degredation of the fiberglassresin takes several weeks before the goo begins to show up in the engines.
Your experience seems to be a nearly instantaneous bad reaction to the addition of the ethanol fuel. And then after you went to Jersey gas and cleared the problem, again you experienced an immediate adverse reaction to the ethanol upon returning to NY gas. I think that is a significant piece of information, but I don't know where it is going to fit in the final puzzle.
I have noticed, following this subject for the last year or so, that some of the tanks seem to have a gel-coat-like interior, and others have what looks like exposed glass matt.
Does anyone out there know anything more about this difference? There are very few reports of people having problems that are ALSO accompanied by photographs. The ones that are seem to have the type of tanks with the exposed glass matt. Is there something to this? I don't know.
On another site one poster was saying a single tank of ethanol-laced fuel wiped out his home-made tank.....but the tank was constructed with epoxy resin, not poly or vinyl resin. Epoxy is not at all compatible with the ethanol. Is it possible some of the older tanks got made with epoxy?
The Fiberglass Tank and Pipe Institue claims that the in ground fibergalss storage tanks used in the fuel distibution industry are E-10 compatible. Even the earliest ones dating back to the late '60's. They do not go so far as to say that any fiberglass tank is compatible, just the ones that concern them. i.e. the in-ground storage tanks used all around the country in gas stations.
If the fiberglass resin manufacturers knew what to put into the resin to make it E-10 compatible in the '60's could this resin have been in use for at least some of the tanks at Bertram and Hatteras? If so which ones? How do we tell?Also it seems like you, your Dad, and the fellow behind him are all buying gas at the same marina. One can't help but wonder what role the marina's storage and distribution might have played the whole saga. I know at least one seller of marine fuel in my area who was utterly clueless that he was supposed to clean out his tanks befor the switch-over.
BTW are your motors the same vintage as the boat, or newer re-powers? Particularly are they post 1980? Did you do any upgrading to elastomeric parts like the fill lines, vent lines, and fuel pump diaphrams?
Do you have any plans to open the old tank up and check the inside? If you do would you consider taking pics and posting here?
I apologize because once again I have more questions than answers.
Carl, thank you again for posting. Please let us know how the new tank works out for you. I sincerely hope your problem is solved.
Peter
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