E10 and 2001 Grady fuel system?

[Salinity Now]

Im sure this topic has been beat to death on this and other forums, but I thought Grady owners would be the best place to get first hand knowledge.

I have a 2001 265 with OX66 250s, previous owner dry stored and only used regular gas at his marina, so no Ethanol yet into the system. I trailer the boat, but in the Mid Atlantic (Hampton Roads VA area) E10 is pretty much all you can find. I still have about 50 gallons left in the fwd tank of gas that came with the boat and the aft tank just got sucked empty.

I have new filters and am planning on having spares, but has anyone found any major fuel problems with this era GW boat hoses, tanks etc? Ive seen the horror pics of deteriorated fuel lines and clogged filters, so I was thinking about running 1 engine on the old gas tank and filling the aft tank up with about the same amount and go for a "shake down" cruise. My thoughts are if the engine with E10 goes bad, well atleast I have the 2nd to get home on?

Id love to hear thoughts, recommendations or experiences, still loving this boat, the more I dig into it, the more "stuff" I wanna tweak and work on, but after getting the steering and tabs sorted out, its taken on a whole new level of ride quality that I was really wishing for and finally found.

Thanks

 

[seasick]

I have a 2001 Grady, smaller than yours and have had no problems with E10. I d have a plastic tank though. If your tanks are aluminum, you may have varnishes on the tank surfaces. Unfortunately the E10 will start to dissolve the varnish and that could cause issues. If you can't inspect the tanks, I would add a small amount of E10 to the empty tank and run on it to see how it goes. If there are no issues, add progressively more gas and run it. Eventually fill the tank and run. That way if there are small deposits, you will dissolve a little at a time. Carry spare filters and don't go too far. Good luck

 

[Fish Tank]

Spare filters as well as adding remote filters (if not already on the boat) are a good idea. If the filters do get clogged, stop and change them. Running the engines with a fuel restriction will cause the engine to run lean, causing the cylinder temperature to increase, and could lead to catostrophic failure. Another thing to check is that the fuel hoses (boat and engine) are ethonol rated.
Also, if not stabilized, the 50 gallons of real gas could be shot depending on how old it is.