Porta Bote

[OldFart]

I have had one for about 10 years. It is stored in the crawl space at my cabin. I have 5 horse gas (Nissan) outboard and a trolling motor. My Nissan motor has given me a lot of trouble with vapor locking. I have been advised to NOT use gas with Ethanol in it. Would like t to know of experiences with boat and motor. Ray

 

[OldFart]

Anyone with experiences of Ethanol VS Non Ethanol gas? RAY

 

[Tenntrapper]

Anyone with experiences of Ethanol VS Non Ethanol gas? RAY

I'm not sure what type of experience you're looking for but...

I had an older Johnson 20hp. It was built before ethanol fuel came out. I rebuilt the carb and ran whatever gas was available. It only took a tank or two for it to mess up. The plastic pivot pin for the float swelled causing the float to stick. I made a new pin from a metal coat hanger (correct size) and it ran fine after that.
My understanding is motors not designed to run on it, may have parts that aren't compatible with ethanol.
By comparison, my 2019 Yamaha f25 is designed to run on it. I still try to run non-ethanol....just in case.

 

[OldFart]

Guess Porta Botes and Nissan outboards are not popular in Tennessee. Does anybody/everybody NOT use non ethanol gas? I chose the Porta Bote because of not needing a trailer (car tops), I also tow a pop up camper so don't have opportunity to pull anything else. It's actually a neat little boat. Can put it together in about 5 minutes.

 

[Pilchard]

Guess Porta Botes and Nissan outboards are not popular in Tennessee. Does anybody/everybody NOT use non ethanol gas? I chose the Porta Bote because of not needing a trailer (car tops), I also tow a pop up camper so don't have opportunity to pull anything else. It's actually a neat little boat. Can put it together in about 5 minutes.

Can't help you with the Nissan or the portabote. But I can tell you that ethanol gas is terrible in outboards and should be avoided at all costs.

 

[OldFart]

Trying this one more time. Anybody had any experience with a PortaBoat OR a Nissan outboard?? THANKS

 

[OldFart]

I lied! Trying this one more time.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I just bought a brand new Mercury 9.9hp last week and the dealer said do NOT run ethanol gas. Use 100% gas only. The OM says I can use up to 10% ethanol but I am NOT gonna attempt it. I do use ethanol in my mowers and such but I always add ethanol shield to the gas and keep the tanks full.

 

[BigCityBubba]

I have always added stabil with ethanol treatment ever since it came out in all my boat motor gas and never had any issues.

 

[BigCityBubba]

Trying this one more time. Anybody had any experience with a PortaBoat OR a Nissan outboard?? THANKS

Didn't they used to sell Porta bote in the old cabelas catalog? I have never seen one except there. I have used a nissan outboard many years ago. There was a boat rental place down in Cedar Key Florida on the backwater that used to rent skiffs and one had a nissan, It was the best engine they had and we always fought who got the skiff with the nissan. Seems as it got older and was rented out more the prop used to slip allot. The owner of the place was too cheap to fix it. Even so, I would not have hesitated to buy one if I was in the market for a small outboard.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Any small engines in my opinion, you should avoid using ethanol.

 

[tellico4x4]

When ethanol first came out one of my buddies used it in a 50hp mercury for a couple years. Had issues & took in to get repaired, literally had algae growing in carb!
Ever since then my boat, generators, chainsaws & ATVs have gotten no ethanol and I haven't had a single issue.

 

[mike243]

Pretty sure the EPA sez all engines have to be able to run ethanol, dealers saying your not supposed to seems wrong to me

 

[Lt.Dan]

Pretty sure the EPA sez all engines have to be able to run ethanol, dealers saying your not supposed to seems wrong to me

I just bought a 9.9 and was told the manual says I can run up to 10% ethanol but they recommend I use 100% gas. Knowing the effects of ethanol on various parts I will gladly use 100% gas.