All gas-powered engines require individualized care and attention, whether you have a small fishing boat or an ocean liner. The first step to ensuring your engine runs smoothly and efficiently is adding a quality fuel-stabilizing additive. Winterizing a boat with ethanol-blended fuel in your tanks can be disastrous, as the mixture becomes increasingly unstable and prone to separation. It means that when you go out next spring, there will most likely be watery floods and dangerous phase transitions – meaning big problems! After adding the additive, run your engine so that it gets distributed through every part of its system. When you’re done fixing the ethanol problem, change all of your engine’s filters and separators. The key here is “change.” Sometimes people will remove their fuel/water filter to pour out any excess water before reusing it. Always replace the canister when pouring out water from your filter to prevent dirt or debris that was in there from getting drawn into other system components. This way, you avoid damaging those parts.