new Yamaha F200 takes 89 Octane

I have ordered a new boat with the new Yamaha F200. The Yamaha website reads it takes 89 octane gas. What will happen if 87 octane gas is used? Do octane bosters realy work?

Thanks
Rodney Bondele

I’m sure that the boosters work. However I think every gas station you will visit has 89 octane. I don’t thinks it’s rare or anything.

BTW, congrats on the boat!!

Don’t waste your time on Octane boosters, it takes way too much of it to make a difference. 87 will be fine in a pinch, the computer will adjust for the lower octance, the motor just won’t be performing at optimum levels.

Why would you even want run ethanol blended 87 or 89 in your outboard motor? You spend that kind of money on a boat motor, I would put premium in there that is clear of ethonal. It’s been proven that ethonal is hard on small gas motors and you can’t buy clear low octane fuel anymore.

Great purchase, you will love the motor.

For the 10-15 cents a gallon difference just run the 89. Thats only $ 3-4.50 on 30 gallons. I’m sure it was tunned to run optimally on that octane. I always run 93 in all my recreational vehicles and preferably ethanol free and non-oxy if available! The little extra $ is worth the protection of the investment. If 87 is all you can find as long as its mixed with some 89 or 93 left in the tank you will be fine.

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I have ordered a new boat with the new Yamaha F200. The Yamaha website reads it takes 89 octane gas. What will happen if 87 octane gas is used? Do octane bosters realy work?

Thanks
Rodney Bondele

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what the dealer say?

I believe unleaded is 87
and super-unleaded is 89 around here

been told not to use that in your outboard
but Brand NEW ones – maybe changes have been made to run on the corn base GAS

I am not worried about it when filling up at normal gas stations. Just when taking trips where 89 is not available. I will be talking to my dealer about this. Just wanted aditional input. Thanks for your comments so far.

If you go to the yamaha outboard website in the specs for the 200 it does say min 89 octane but also has a spec that say maximum ethanol blend 10% which is what either 87 or 89 octane has & if you 87 was your only choice i am sure it wont hurt it.
But to be positive just get ahold of the dealer where the boat was purchased or any other authorized yamaha dealer.

A lot of fuel that is listed at 10% ethanol is actually more than that. I know of someone who trashed a snowmobile engine that was supposedly running non-ethanol 93 fuel and when he had a sample run on the fuel in the tank it came back with 17% ethanol. Gasoline supplier would not do a thing for him. I run 91 in all my engines (mower,weedeater,chainsaw,atv,boat,etc.) other than car and truck. Some gas stations don’t even know what they are getting in their tanks. Check out puregas.com website.

It doesn’t matter what the specs are. Go talk to a small engine repair shop and ask them about clear gas or ethonal. The engines might be able to handle it but the varnish and corrosion that ethonal produces is not good on any small gas motor.

The bottom line is, spend the money to buy good gas without ethonal. If you are spending $18-20 grand on a motor then the few hundred dollars more over the life of the motor is worth the piece of mind.

My neighbor has had to take his mower in to get fixed twice and I never have. He asked me what kind of gas I run in mine because the repair shop told him to start running non ethonal gas. Might be a coincidence but I think not.

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It doesn’t matter what the specs are. Go talk to a small engine repair shop and ask them about clear gas or ethonal. The engines might be able to handle it but the varnish and corrosion that ethonal produces is not good on any small gas motor.

The bottom line is, spend the money to buy good gas without ethonal. If you are spending $18-20 grand on a motor then the few hundred dollars more over the life of the motor is worth the piece of mind.

My neighbor has had to take his mower in to get fixed twice and I never have. He asked me what kind of gas I run in mine because the repair shop told him to start running non ethonal gas. Might be a coincidence but I think not.

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where does a small engine have 200 horse

I would not be concerned about octane it’s the ethanol you want to stay away from it will in time destroy any small engine, just ask any outboard motor or small engine mechanic. I would only run premium in it period. The little extra it costs don’t amount to anything compared to the damage ethanol will cause.

x2 what One Stout said.
I’d have to believe these new motors are designed to run on pump gas with or without ethanol.
We should have a poll. You have to get gas for your boat. You pull into station and your choices are:
A. 87 unleaded, up to 15% alcohol, fresh gas
B. 89 super unleaded, up to 15% alcohol, newer gas
C. 92 premium, non-oxy, no alcohol, gas is a year ol

Congrats on the new boat and motor. Those Yamis sure are nice.

If it says minimum of 89 octane that is what you need to run in it. Running 87 could lead to premature ignition which could slowly damage the engine. The reason that an engine mfg would require higher octane is that they are building a higher compression engine, and a lower octane would ignite due to the pressure rather than waiting for the spark.

I cannot imagine what Yamaha is thinking building a motor like that. If the boat is on a trailer, 89 is easy to get. If it is kept on the lake, it might make 89 impossible to get without either putting the boat on a trailer or dragging cans down to the dock.

My Offshore is rated for 89 as well. I believe most motor manufacturers are doing this because non oxy fuel is sometimes hard to come by. I wouldnt recommend running 87. In my experience at your smaller gas stations off the beat path they have 87 and 90-91 non oxy. I will run 89 if the gas station has it but I make sure to also add Yamaha Fuel Stabilizer & Conditioner. Then I also always run Yamaha Ring Free.

Back in college when I worked at a motor sports dealership the number 1 reason people had engine failures was because they ran 87 octane.

Running a higher octane than recommended is a waste of money (93 Octane). Follow the manual recommendations. Try to find Non-Ethanol gas if you can. If you cannot no worries. Just treat the gas with Stabil and SeaFoam and run a water/fuel seperator. I run 87 octane 10% ETOH gas without issues in all my toys.

There’s so many half-truths and outright wrong info on this thread, it’s hard to address all of it, but here are the big ones.

1. Running “premium” or 92+ octane fuel does NOT automatically mean you are running non-oxegenated or ethanol-free fuel. Many brands of premium contain ethanol.

2. This isn’t a 1970s era engine. Oxygenated fuels are commonplace now and modern fuel injected engines with a computerized EMS systems like this Yamaha are designed, calibrated, and tested to run well on oxygenated blends.

The bottom line is you can’t go wrong by running what the manufacturer recommends.

If running around to far flung gas stations trying to avoid the ethanol boogieman makes you feel good, then go ahead. If you like spending your time fishing instead of wasting time driving all over town looking for non-ox gas, then fill it up with fuel from a high-traffic service station and enjoy life. The engine is designed for this.

3. The benefits, if ther are any at all, of higher octane depend a huge number of factors. More does not = better.

By the same token, lower octane fuels will not necessairly “damage” an engine. Everything depends on the engine’s design and the EMS’s ability to compensate for the properties of a given fuel.

4. Any fuel can become contaminated with water. Oxygenated fuels, on average, are about 3-5% more likely to become contaminated through atmospheric moisture transfer due to alcohol’s hydrophillic properties.

Once fuel is contaminated with water, the water CANNOT BE REMOVED except by physical seperation. It is IMPOSSIBLE for any additive to remove water from fuel.

Fuel contamination problems can be virtually eliminated simply by installing a combination filter/seperator unit. These are widely available and easy to install. I run a Racor unit on my big boat and it’s simple and easy.

Grouse

Amen Grouse!!

To put it another way…I assume many of you have 150 – 250 horse power cars right? 4 stroke engine vs. 4 stroke engine folks. Built to run on today’s blended fuels. Period.
We aren’t talking about a 1970’s era carburated 25 hp motor here….

This is for modern fuel injected motors. The recommended fuel grade will give designed performance. If using lower octane the computer will adjust and possible lower performance may be noticed. If it’s a serious compromise the motor will go into a safe mode and alarm(s) will sound. My 150 Verado comes with a water separator from the factory. Modern closed fuel systems do an excellent job of limiting moisture to the point it’s a non issue with regular use. It’s the long down times, like over winter storage that fuel degradation can become an issue. There your motor manufacturer will recommend what to do. In the end, with a new motor, do what the manual says and if there’s a problem let warranty fix it.

So, to kinda clear the air here. Yamaha does RECOMMEND that you run 89 octane or higher in that motor, along with a handful of other motors. With that said it doesn’t state anywhere that I am aware of that you MUST run 89 or higher. Again with that said there are some things that will happen if you run 87. The motor will adjust according to what octane level that it senses. It will de-tune some to adjust to the lower octane but you would be hard pressed to be able to notice a difference. 87 octane will NOT harm that motor nor will it shorten its life.
As far as the ethanol is concerned it is honestly not worth worrying about. As of right now all that Yamaha states or recommends is that you don’t use fuel that has more than the stated 10% ethanol. Yes I know and also Yamaha knows that just because it says 10% doesn’t mean it actually is. They have that figured into it. They do state to avoid the new 15% ethanol that is starting to show up at this time. The only thing I would suggest is to run Yamaha Ring Free in EVERY tank of gas and also use the Yamaha Fuel Stabilizer and Conditioner.

My .02

Thanks for all the input. I am going to use the Yamaha additives. When I get to areas that only have 87 Octane I am going to enjoy the fishing.

Here is a link to Evinrude motors opinion on Ethonal. You decide what you are comfortable with.

I will be running non oxygenated fuel in my boat

Evinrude Motor

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Here is a link to Evinrude motors opinion on Ethonal. You decide what you are comfortable with.

I will be running non oxygenated fuel in my boat

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Wrong!

Are you kidding me? You can’t tell that site has nothing to do with Evinrude? It’s some generic part peddler’s site. You’re going to take engine advice from some generic mechanic? Hope that works out for you.

BTW, Evinrude’s current stance on oxygenated fuels is simple: Evinrude outboards are designed for use with ethanol blended gasoline in concentrations up to 10%.

Grouse

Your right, you win the debate since I mis-wrote on that coming from Envirude, but we all know that if its on the internet it must be true.

I still wont be putting ethonal in my boat. Do what you want.

I’ll take fresh 3 day old 87 oct 10% eth over 97 oct non-oxy that has been sitting for weeks or months any day of the week! Remember, not a lot of turnover on those non-oxy tanks.

-J.

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I’ll take fresh 3 day old 87 oct 10% eth over 97 oct non-oxy that has been sitting for weeks or months any day of the week! Remember, not a lot of turnover on those non-oxy tanks.

-J.

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Yeah, but water contamination of fuel was never a problem before ethanol was invented. Oh wait. Yes, it was…

What did we blame all our engine problems on before ethanol became the whipping boy?

Grouse

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I’ll take fresh 3 day old 87 oct 10% eth over 97 oct non-oxy that has been sitting for weeks or months any day of the week! Remember, not a lot of turnover on those non-oxy tanks.

-J.

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I’ve been going to Fleet Farm in Lakeville. The non-oxy pumps are always busy so I would guess they have good turnover, but yeah other places it makes you wonder how long it has been sitting there.

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I’ll take fresh 3 day old 87 oct 10% eth over 97 oct non-oxy that has been sitting for weeks or months any day of the week! Remember, not a lot of turnover on those non-oxy tanks.

-J.

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Yeah, but water contamination of fuel was never a problem before ethanol was invented. Oh wait. Yes, it was…

What did we blame all our engine problems on before ethanol became the whipping boy?

Grouse

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YEAH and people forget with the EPA standards on these small engines the carb passages are so much smaller it takes nothing to plug them. How many fuel filters do you see on small engines from the factory, few and far between this alone would solve many issues.