Ethanol in Gasoline - Fuel Additives Gasoline - Truth

[beppington]

Ethanol will clog your small engine carburetors if it is left in a tank for about 2-3 months. Ethanol will create a solid and you'll have to get your carburetor rebuilt. You also should not use ethanol in ANY 2-cycle engine. The engines and carburetors just aren't built to use it. So... beware!!! :2cents:

Not my experience at all. We have only 1 ethanol-free gas station in our city, & it's far enough away & thru lots o' traffic that I haven't bothered to visit it. So ... although God knows I'd prefer no ethanol ever, anywhere, ever, all my engines have ethanol in them, & my 2 lawn mowers, weed eater, pole saw, blower, & Kawasaki Mule all sit for months on end with ethanol in them, & all start & run just fine. That said ... they are all in an enclosed detached garage; Not completely weather-proof, but very close (there's air access through the soffit & into the open trusses & up through the ridge vent). I think limiting the temperature fluctuations the ethanol filled tank experiences is key.

 

[mmurphy]

Ethanol will clog your small engine carburetors if it is left in a tank for about 2-3 months. Ethanol will create a solid and you'll have to get your carburetor rebuilt. You also should not use ethanol in ANY 2-cycle engine. The engines and carburetors just aren't built to use it. So... beware!!! :2cents:

As for your vehicle, you will experience less gas mileage with ethanol added to your gasoline. It's a trade-off... cheaper gas or better gas mileage. I avoid ethanol fuel... period! The ONLY benefits of ethanol is to help remove water from your fuel and give farmers a reason to grow products like corn.

I always leave my string trimmer, chain saw with fuel over winter, next summer fill with ethanol blend and they fire right off. Never had the problems others claim.

 

[MHarryE]

I'm up here in northern MN where most of my gasoline engines (except cars and pickup) are idle for 6 months of the year. That means 3 chainsaws, 2 or 3 string trimmers, 1 JD lawn tractor with a 2 cylinder Briggs & Stratton, 1 garden tiller, 1 push mower and 4 outboards. Never had a problem. In our town you can actually get ethanol free premium for use in off highway machinery only, but only during the winter months with the intent being for snowmobiles. I do use Sta-Bil in the fuel when I store for winter.

 

[Bedford24]

Believe what you want to believe - In a few months or less some of you won't post on here the troubles you have had - MSDS sheets - the EPA - Department of Agriculture - and before I forget the Multiple Class Action Lawsuits from the Automotive Industry, Out Door Power Equipment Industry, as well as others currently sitting in the Federal Courts attempting to Stop the use of Ethanol and 15% Ethanol just agree with the information I have provided in the Brochure - of Course our customers are learning the hard way when we tell them "Sorry we sold you the Equipment not the Fuel - Warranty only covers defects in Materials and Workmanship" - Also, the thermastat has NOTHING to do with your O2 sensor - my god man where did you learn that- O2 sensors are degraded by the Combustion, fuel, and oh yeah additives like Sea Foam - ok - trying to educate and help out see this forum has members that like to think everything is hunky dory - By the way This Fuel Related Failures that are not covered by warranty - goes for all Engines no matter if it were a Ford, Hyundai, Kawasaki ---- Some of you need to stop in a speak with a LARGE reputable Dealer.... Good Luck - hope you have deep pockets - and the Government is Phasing in the levels of Ethanol in the Fuel - first none, then for two years 5% then for the close to past two years 10% and now approved for 15%.... ok I can spend my time elsewhere assisting and educating from a Dealership Level.

 

[Bird]

Believe what you want to believe - In a few months or less some of you won't post on here the troubles you have had - MSDS sheets - the EPA - Department of Agriculture - and before I forget the Multiple Class Action Lawsuits from the Automotive Industry, Out Door Power Equipment Industry, as well as others currently sitting in the Federal Courts attempting to Stop the use of Ethanol and 15% Ethanol just agree with the information I have provided in the Brochure - of Course our customers are learning the hard way when we tell them "Sorry we sold you the Equipment not the Fuel - Warranty only covers defects in Materials and Workmanship" - Also, the thermastat has NOTHING to do with your O2 sensor - my god man where did you learn that- O2 sensors are degraded by the Combustion, fuel, and oh yeah additives like Sea Foam - ok - trying to educate and help out see this forum has members that like to think everything is hunky dory - By the way This Fuel Related Failures that are not covered by warranty - goes for all Engines no matter if it were a Ford, Hyundai, Kawasaki ---- Some of you need to stop in a speak with a LARGE reputable Dealer.... Good Luck - hope you have deep pockets - and the Government is Phasing in the levels of Ethanol in the Fuel - first none, then for two years 5% then for the close to past two years 10% and now approved for 15%.... ok I can spend my time elsewhere assisting and educating from a Dealership Level.

Are you mad at us, or blaming us, for not complaining about problems we've never had? I've never said ethanol won't cause problems; only that so far I've certainly not had any problem caused by it. But if I do, I'll post it on here. And I think the others who have had no problems would do the same thing. But you know, gasoline engines have been known to have problems sometimes even before ethanol was introduced to our gasoline. But it sounds now as if you (and perhaps others) have found a way to avoid providing warranty service by blaming problems on the ethanol. I can't help but wonder how many problems have been blamed on ethanol when ethanol had nothing to do with the problem. And I'm certainly not saying ethanol has not caused some problems, I'm just not convinced that all gasoline engine problems resulted from ethanol.

And you seem pretty adamant about blaming us for using gasoline with ethanol. Well, some of us have no choice.

 

[Bedford24]

Not mad confused myself that people can be so hard headed... I work at a dealership in AG - have friends that work Automotive - Dodge had the first issues with their in tank Fuel pumps having a Plastic composition that was not compatible with Ethanol - then as far as on the side I am an engine builder and have seen more Blown Head Gaskets on newer cars because they have a "Closed Loop" cooling system - with the thermastat still being mechanical they are too slow at the 195 degree recomended setting - with aluminum heads they disapate heat quickly but also absord heat quickly - all in all the tempuratures exceed the manufactured specifications and blown head gaskets - I use two differnt machine shops in the area and both stay backed up more than they ever have been with Dealer and Customer work since the Fed has phased us in to the 10% Ethanol. No dealer is using this as an excuse - it is our job to educate the customer - I can not speak for other dealerships but we preach education to save a customer money - and so they get the most out of their products. But as far as this being old wive's tales none of this is - what it really is the truth behind what the EPA is shoving down our throats like they have been since the Clinton Admin... to shut down our industries... I came home from the service and worked my tail off to get into Engineering - got to do it for five years before the EPA's regulations shut down the company I worked for....

 

[Bird]

Not mad confused myself that people can be so hard headed

And who are you accusing of being hard headed?

we preach education to save a customer money - and so they get the most out of their products

OK, so just for the sake of argument, let's assume that you've convinced me that ethanol is a horrible thing. Now what can I do about it?

 

[brokenot]

Long story short: If currently available and properly used ethanol blends were causing blown head gaskets and such as you allege, then making such a post on an internet message board wouldn't be necessary....because it would be commonplace. Nobody would need to know an "engine builder", or have connections "down at the machine shop" to be in on the latest scuttlebutt, because every day there'd be head gasket failures aplenty to witness first-hand.

That's the most amusing thing about topics like this.

"Everyone listen....I'm going to clue you in on what's occurring everywhere!"





Or not.

 

[crazyal]

One of the biggest problems with Ethanol is it's a solvent. On older engines it cleans out all the gunk left over the years in the tank, fuel line(s), and carb/ injectors. Anything that gets cleaned out has to make it's way through your fuel system and be burnt.

Fuel injected cars and trucks have a sealed tank so they don't have to worry too much about moisture getting into the tank but small engines aren't so lucky. Around here the first thing to suffer was snow blowers. For the last 10 years or so keeping a carb clean on one was near impossible. I don't think people really understood why it was happening. In hindsight it's easy to figure out. VT had been slowly switching from MTBE in the winter to Ethanol (less than 5%). People would leave the gas in it all summer long and in the fall it wouldn't start.

Then as the mandate hit people did the same thing with their lawn tractors not knowing that the summer before they ran 10% Ethanol and left it all winter long. The changes in temps played havoc and in the spring small engine repair shops were swapped with work. Boats also took a big hit.

I'm not a big fan of Ethanol but I'm not going to replace my thermostat with a 150 degree one. The engine has been designed to run at a specific temp. When warming up it's not as efficient as it is at it's operating temp. The computer will try to adjust but it's going to think that the engine just hasn't warmed up.

 

[mmurphy]

Well I hope some of the doom is true about ethanol. My poor old Escort wagon just is not pretty anymore but, it runs to good with 237,000 miles on it to just give it up.