ethanol

[gero1]

was talking to some friends yesterday about all the problems they having with chainsaws, weedwackers running hot or burning up...they say from using gas with ethanol in it...i say from not mixing the oil and gas right. the owner of a local car shop pulled up and was telling us about the trouble they are having with older cars and trucks running gas with ethanol in it. anyone hearing things like this? the older diesels are using an additive every time they fill up because of the new low sulphur fuel. they make an additive for gas, should i use it?

[Pismo]

It seems.....Any problem with any engine anywhere right now is caused by ethanol in the gas.

[MOP]

I have a very lightly used Stihl leaf blower that Krapped out. I have an authorized dealer locally, turned out the carb diaphragms rotted from the Alky. He says make sure you run any two stroke dry if left for any extended time period. A local lawn guy I know is doing it as a matter of course!

[SilverBack]

I don't know about weed eaters and chainsaws but I have raced with methanol fueled engines and I can tell you that the jets are twice as big with an alcohol engine as with gas. That is one reason an alcohol engine runs cool. It is choking down so much more liquid. I know on a race engine if you just take the gas out and run alcohol you will not have an engine for much longer. It will melt down because of the lean air/fuel ratio.

[gero1]

none of this sounds good...so whats going to happen to my efi moter? will we have to start replaceing fuel lines every couple years? scoreing pistons?? was sober this morning when i thought of asking this....but now i feel good so give it to me straight. whats gonna happen to ALL our moters with the percentage of ethanol going up in the fuel we run? i will wait with moonshine in hand for replys

[Donzi Vol]

Oh lord, don't even get me started on Ethanol. Seems the same 'ole song. Something that seems like a good idea in the beginning just turns out to create more problems than we already had. I say we lobby for the "Back to the Future" Delorean motor that runs off skunky beer and banana peels.

[BigGrizzly]

I am not even going to get into this. Don't like it and won't like it.

[ky-donzi]

I have had the same luck as MOP. I had to fight with the local shop to fix the carb on my lawnmower. I don't think staybil will cure the problem either. I'm not sure of the effects on fuel hoses tho..... I have to think that the very thin diaphrams in these small carbuartors might be a little more delicate..... IDK tho.

[joel3078]

Had a ton of problems with my small engine stuff until I did the following. Fresh gas and fresh stabil. Don't just use the stabil for winterizing - use it all the time and mix it a little lighter than the recommended for summer use and a little heavyier for winter storage. Below is from their website

One ounce of STA-BIL Fuel Stabilizer for every 2-½ gallons of gasoline, gasoline/oil mixtures, or ethanol blends is the recommended dosage level.

Again fresh gas from the local gas station with lots of traffic so the gas is not sitting in the underground tanks for very long and fresh stabil - less than 2 year old as that is it's shelf life

The repair shops for small engines up my way are putting stabil in their tanks year round now as gas breaks down after as little as 30 days. 1st thing they do is hook up good treated gas to the customers engine and then go from their.

Anyway, I have been doing this for 7 years now and no more problems. Works for me on both 2 and 4 stroke small engines. We have 10% ethanol in pump gas here.

DISCLAIMER - non of my small engines are over 15 years old. The old stuff does not like ethanol. Newer engines have the rubber parts updated to handle 10% ethanol but I don't know when this happened - 90's or so? Don't know if stabil helps out with ethanol. It does help out with gas breaking down and plugging up jets, fuel lines, pumps, etc. I have had great results with seafoam also.

Good FAQ for Stabil
http://www.goldeagle.com/sta-bil/faqs_stabil.asp

There is a new Marine Stabil out now - might want to switch to that next fall!
http://www.goldeagle.com/sta-bil/faqs_stabil.asp

[BigGrizzly]

Sta-bil has a new product specifically for ethanol.