No more ethanol free gas ?

[Nick]

Was out riding and stopped to get gas at the local station that sold ethanol free gas and there was a sign on the pump that due to a congressional mandate they can no longer sell ethanol free gas.

 

[gasgasman]

Yup.
I had a valve stick open on my pressure washer because of the gum residue left by the ethanol fuel.
You can use StarTron to minimize the effects of ethanol fuels.

 

[Nick]

I can buy ethanol free fuel and i do for my small engines but for the gov to mandate that we cant buy it at the pump is just one more lost freedom. Its expensive but i buy VP SEF for my mower, snowblower, chainsaws etc.

 

[cbutler]

All my equipment runs just fine on ethanol fuel I do not buy into the BS about ethanol.

 

[jostby]

there are ways to remove the ethanol. A couple tablespoons of water in 5gal of gasoline will cause the methanol to bond with the water and separate from the gas. It will drop to the bottom of the fuel. Try it in a small water bottle, you'll be amazed. Google it for exact instructions. i tried it with a 1L water bottle and with about 1 teaspoon of water got about 1/4 cup of separation. It may have been on this site that I read about it but you can google it for easy instructions. Use the large clear water bottles (about 3 gallons?) from the grocery store and then turn it upside down and let it separate. A small tap in the lid makes it easy to drain the water/ethanol after it separates.

But as cbutler says, I have never had an issue either. My boat is now parked until probably next June (same as the last 15yrs). I don't treat my mower, rototiller or motorhome any different either, whatever fuel is in them is what they start with in the spring which is quite a while of non-use in my area. I don't drain the fuel from my bikes but I do treat them better and start them about every 2 weeks throughout the winter.

 

[Cruiser]

I've taken classes dealing with it.. its problem are real and well documented. It does many things.. that is why even HD released a report in AMA magazine telling readers it does not approve its use in their engines. John Deere, Honda, kawasaki, Briggs and Kohler all have issues with it and recommend not using it or at minimum using starton to reduce its effects.

 

[iajim]

The topic of ethanol, gasoline, av gas, etc. seems to go on forever. Please be very careful about "removing" the ethanol from gasoline. It only constitutes about 10% but it also acts as an octane booster. You'll need to make up that difference somewhere(Klotz, VP?). I agree with cbutler, I've never had a problem with ethanol. Other people I'm sure have had some problems. Some gas retailers/tank farms were blending Methanol, not Ethanol with the gasoline. It was all advertised and believed to be the same but as you can imagine it only created more problems. Methanol is very corrosive but it is favored as a fuel in race cars( where allowed) because it produces more power. The alcohol doesn't cause the fuel to go "stale", it may absorb some moisture but most of the time it prevents fuel moisture problems from occurring as you might have with winter time icing. The first aspect of fuel degredation is loss of vapor press. Then you have a loss of "light ends", light and medium naptha.These two events overlap somewhat. Plastic fuel jugs, the tank on your bike, they don't work as well as metal cans. By now the ethanol has had time to absorb some moisture from the air because it wasn't sealed in a metal can and the ethanol is doing its job of removing the moisture, not boosting octane or carring oxygen to lower emissions. Now you've lost some octane rating and remember mixing 2 stroke oil with gasoline of any type will drop the octane. At this point the fuel should probably be dumped into your car/truck, anything that isn't too picky about fuel quality. It isn't usually necesary to run race fuel, but octane booster or stabilizer is a good idea. If your bike doesn't use the gas as quickly as planned, use it somewhere else. Jim

 

[rosco]

I like ethanol gas. It has greatly increased my business over the last 10 years. We do way more carb cleans than we use to. I would say the #1 thing that I see with ethanol is that it seems to break down the rubber gskts. in the fuel petcocks. This in turn goes down into the carb and plugs up jets and causes float valves to start leaking. Ethanol in a Harley is not good. I had to put it in mine on several occasions and it sounds like my engine is going to hand grenade under a load.

 

[roostafish]

Ethanol fuel destroyed the carburetor on my lawn mower, and on my son's TTR 125. I hate it. I recently purchased clear gas from a local station who is now selling it from 5 gallon cans to get around the new "mandate" from our lovely government. It is still available.

High octane is almost wholly unnecessary in two stroke bikes. Not sure of the compression ratio on Gas Gas, but Husqvarna two strokes have 6:1 compression.

You will make more power with lower compression anyway, as long as the bike doesn't detonate, you don't need higher octane.

There are plenty of reasons to run race gas, and my EC 250 had a steady diet of the stuff, even at $8.50 a gallon, mostly for consistency in fuel quality. It also smells awesome, and helped my attitude...

 

[Cruiser]

Ethanol absorbs water/moisture and does not drop it to the bottom but suspends it and dirt in floating pockets of a grayish gunk that will wipe out a small carb. Also the ethanol mix burns hotter internal temp of comb chamber causing the smaller engines that do not have a complex fuel management system to not run well.. There is not one manufacturer currently that I know of that recommends ethanol for any engine under 3 cylinders. John deere says ours will "work" but they do not run as well and we have experienced issues. All service tech's in field now carry ultrasonic carb cleaners in the service trucks and use them regularly.. Its a bit different when comparing a guy riding a bike that is very highly maintained and used by the same guy and a fleet of 60 units with single or twin cal. engines who have at least one go down a week and they use them 6-10 hrs a day 6 days a week. What we see the end user of a home mower or MC may never get the hrs of use.. I have a 04 KTM and I have to clean my carb regularly. I have 128 hrs on it. 1600 miles about. I have guys at courses that have walk behind greens mowers they bought this season with 500+ hours of use. They cost $11,000 each and they bought 28 of them. I have boxes of carbs for them now and have had in depth conversations with engineers about jetting and use and ethanol quality. Startron is so far the best option if you cannot buy ethanol free.. go talk to the mechanic at the marina who works on the jetski's..

 

[Cruiser]

And if you search you can still find it,, low-E or non ethanol is sold now but not directly into street vehicles.. I have a place near bethlehem Pa.. extra $0.25 gallon for high test non eth. and for 100 octane it was around $5.25? they dont have the same tax on that fuel now.. I'm sure it will change. I'm going to go buy some this week before it changes again..

 

[motorhead]

www.pure-gas.org
My 5.0 in the f150 loves non ethanol gas(better mpg),and so do the bikes.
Lost my local dealer in early spring.wondered what happened to cause this. He told me his supplier didn't want to mess with it anymore. Although another retailer popped up around here they only offer 87 octane.
Used to run 92 in gasser and 89 in truck. Gonna try the other retailer soon with the 87 in the truck.
Ethanol sucks

 

[brokenheadbrad]

I recently found 112 octane ($7.99/gal) at a shell in fort Collins Colorado. Ran it this weekend and didn't really notice much difference from 91 pump. I don't know if it's ethanol free but I'm pretty sure it's corn-fed. just my 2 cents.

 

[motorhead]

Most manufactures design their engines to run on readily available fuel such as premium unleaded 91-93 octane. So unless your motor was tuned for 112 octane, you would not notice a "seat of the pants" difference.

 

[bukwheat]

Most manufactures design their engines to run on readily available fuel such as premium unleaded 91-93 octane. So unless your motor was tuned for 112 octane, you would not notice a "seat of the pants" difference.

I buy 112 octane in 5 gal cans, mix 50/50 ratio to 93 octane pump gas. Cures the minor detonation on my 11 GG 300.

 

[motorhead]

I run 93 octane non ethanol gas from a pump. Cures the minor detonation that occurs using 93 octane 10% ethanol blend in my bike most noticable in sugar sand.