Mixed up gasoline cans

[MossRoad]

...I need to use the ethanol-free in the riding mower ...

Just curious, but why? :confused3:

 

[Diggin It]

Put a bit of water in a small container, preferably a tall narrow one similar to a test tube. Mark the height of the water on the tube, now pour in 5-10x as much gas, shake and let it settle. If the separation line between fuel and water is higher after letting it sit for a few minutes, it's the ethanol gas. Reason being ethanol will mix with water and separate out..........Mike

If it's that simple .... cool.

 

[airbiscuit]

Ethanol is the Devil's Spawn. :devil:

 

[downslope]

Does it really matter? If the non-ethanol is $4.40/gallon and the ethanol stuff is what? $3.30 a gallon? If you replace it, it's costing you less than $5.

(4 gallons * price difference)

It only matters because of the inconvenience it is causing.

The mower was running crappy, backfiring, bad idle, etc. So I drained the gas and replaced with Trufuel ethanol-free from Home Depot as a test. It immediately ran fine and i finished the grass cutting.

The Trufuel comes to about $20 per gallon at the box stores. So I took a 25 mile each-way ride to the only station in the area that has ethanol-free at the pump and picked up 5 gallon @$4.40. Regular 87 in our area is running $1.79.

I was stupid for not marking the can. Who knows, maybe I just had a bad batch with excess ethanol, I have read that can happen occasionally, and this mower always ran fine on 87 pump gas in the past.

I'll just take a guess picking the can and if it runs bad I'll know I chose the wrong one.

Thanks for the different suggestions.

 

[Ford850]

If they are both fresh, I doubt you'll notice a difference. But if it bothers you I'd fill the mower with either one until it's convenient to get a refill, and dump one of the cans in your car/truck then refill it with the good stuff.

 

[downslope]

Ethanol is the Devil's Spawn.

You're not lying about that. Every one of the old gas farm tractors I have would end up with tiny rust flakes in the carb bowls after setting awhile, so I would have to disassemble and clean/blow out. And then eventually the neoprene or whatever on the needle valve tips would fail and need a rebuild. Maybe an additive would have helped but now I just drain everything completely before winter storage.

 

[downslope]

If they are both fresh, I doubt you'll notice a difference. But if it bothers you I'd fill the mower with either one until it's convenient to get a refill, and dump one of the cans in your car/truck then refill it with the good stuff.

Oh, there was definitely a difference and both were fresh. It would barely run on the "bad" stuff. I should have just dumped it into an almost full tank on the pickup (34 gal capacity) and been done with it.

 

[oosik]

Yes - dump it in your pickup and be done. Strange - fresh oxygenated gasoline should run just fine in your mower. If not - something is definitely wrong.

 

[downslope]

Yes - dump it in your pickup and be done. Strange - fresh oxygenated gasoline should run just fine in your mower. If not - something is definitely wrong.

Yeah, I think the gas was bad even though it was fresh, maybe had some E85 mixed in, who knows? This mower always ran fine on regular 87 in the past.

 

[RalphVa]

Think the alcohol will drop out with any added water. Could take 2 clear cylinders and put the same amount of each gasoline in each. Then add some water, a small but measurable amount. Mix and then compare water levels. The water level will be higher in the ethanol blend cylinder.

Ralph