Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
Frankly, the booth at the show struck me as a classic snake oil display. They also had a magnetic gizmo that you put in the fuel line which cleans all the crud out of your diesel fuel. However, something was definitely happening in those bottles, assuming they actually contained water and Stabil, Startron, etc. One thing I was thinking is how you are very unlikely to have 50% water in your tank, and the situation when you have say 0.5% water may be very different. Somehow I doubt that mixing 50% water with your fuel, no matter how thoroughly dispersed it is, would not be a good thing for your engine. I've searched around the Web a bit and there is very little information on fuel stabilizers other than manufacturer's claims and the recommendations of Joe the backyard mechanic. Ethanol fuel definitely degrades fast, and it does attract water more, so I think the need for a good stabilizer is there. Just wondering which ones actually work!
I saw a fuel additive display at Home Depot near the weed eater and chainsaws. The name of the stuff had the ethanol word in it. It was "Ethanol something" or "something Ethanol." It might be the same thing you saw at the boat show.
First off the test was rigged, as you guessed. The bottle was 50/50 water and snake oil. If the bottle had one cup of water and one cup of magic stuff it would mean that if you poured the magic stuff in your gas tank you might be lucky to absorb 1 cup of water, not a half a tank of water. You will not have a tank 50% full of Ethanol Medic and 50% water. Most gasoline already has 10% alcohol, which makes it absorb water anyways.
(A chemist can correct me if I am wrong) There are many different kinds of alcohol. Methanol, Ethanol, Propanol, Butanol, Hexanol, etc (I can't remember all of them). Some are attracted to water, and some are attracted to oil/petroleum products, and some are in between. You need several different types of alcohol to remove the water from your gas. One type of alcohol needs to be attracted to the gas, another needs to be attracted to the water, and another type needs to attract the other two types of alcohol to each other. Just because 1 cup of Ethanol Medic will mix with 1 cup of water does not mean that putting the same amount of EM in your tank will remove 1 cup of water.
Snake oil.