Gas line degradation

[brantley moats]

Hope someone can shed some light on this. I helped my fishing buddy repair his 2003 225 Mercury EFI, I believe this was near the end of the Mercury production of the EFI's. He had taken the tank out to replace the aerator pumps the weekend before his problem occurred. The next weekend after running for several hours the motor started starving for gas. Upon inspection of fuel filter we found many small pieces of what appeared to be plastic. The dealer said it was caused by alcohol degradation of the grey fuel line between the motor and tank. We took apart this line and sure enough you could see the inside of the grey fuel line (Mercury Factory gasline)literally decomposing into small plastic pieces. The black fuel line which the grey line connected to at the motor showed no degradation. My question is why would the Mercury company recommend this type grey line over the black gas line. And why would they be still selling it for replacement instead of recommending the black line which is obviously more resistant to the alcohol if indeed this is alcohol degradation. By the way he has been running Premium gas in this motor since it was new.Note: After replacement and flushing motor is running good .Thanks in advance for any insight into this.

Brantley

 

[Rob LaMoy]

There are NEW lines that are ethanol approved. They too are grey but have black lettering on them. Be sure they are ethanol approved. Remember that in 2003 the politicians hadn't put it to us yet with the ethanol garbage and so mfrs like Merc had no idea it was coming.



In my opinion, Mercs are the most reliable motors out there. I am quickly approaching 1,000 hrs on my '99 175efi and she is still strong. I actually passed a Gambler boat during take off yesterday!

 

[Bob G.]

I thought it was grey fuel line with BLUE lettering.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Black, blue....whatever! So long as it says ethanol resistant!

Now go throw some stinkin Fat Albert grubs and catch some toads Bob! That's what I threw yesterday and I turned a college kid (my co-angler)onto them.

 

[Mini]

why run premium? I think that motor calls for 87 octane.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

He's lucky he hasn't blown the motor running high octane.



TOXIC

 

[brantley moats]

Ya,ll could be right about that old hose it was grey but all the lettering has long been gone.I will look at the new black hose we installed from the dealer and see if says anything about "alcohol resistant", I do not recall that being written on the hose but it very well could be, I hope so. Rob , I agree with you on the Mercurys, I also run one and hope I get 1000 hours.

Thanks,

Brantley

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Missed that part. Yeah, merc says run 87 so that's all I run. The non ethanol I'm getting now is 89 but over 6 months old, so I'm sure it lost some!

 

[Eric Aasen]

I just replaced my fuel lines on my 2004 Optimax. The old lines are grey with orange lettering. The new resistant lines from Mercury are grey with blue lettering. The line from the tank to the bulb can be black and doesn't have a liner and is usually resistant to ethanol. Since ethanol was only mandated in the mid-2000s, Mercury had no way to know that ethanol resistant lines would be required. Boats manufactured since 2007 have the correct lines. Those manufactured prior to that,should have the lines replaced.



NoCAL