Neighbor Drives 50 Miles to fill up with Fuel with no Ethanol.

[catskinner]

Ken, if he is driving 50 miles (100 mi round trip?) in a Z-71 pickup to buy fuel, he should put in a tank and get it delivered. He's burning way too much fuel and wear on his vehicle to have that make any sense at all. I think his use of "destroy an engine" is overstated, but I'm sure he sees a difference in performance between the ethanol blend and pure gasoline. On highway driving, I get 1-3 miles/gal more with pure gasoline. There are two non-ethanol stations in a town 10 miles from me where we shop regularly. I buy small engine gasoline from them because it just works better. One station is only about 5 cents more per gallon than the ethanol-blend stations and the other is a full-service station that's about 50 cents more per gallon. I've never seen non-ethanol at 75 cents more than regular gas as LMan1967 has in his location. I would think that would guarantee no sales and very old gas, but who knows?

A full service station I've thought they were extinct.:laughing:

 

[jinman]

A full service station I've thought they were extinct.:laughing:

This is a very old service station with only two pumps. They run a quick oil change/state inspection shop on one side and a tire shop on the other. Their fuel customers are primarily elderly folks who want them to pump fuel and also routinely check tire inflation and engine oil coolant levels. When you use only a tank of gas every two weeks, the higher cost isn't too much of a bite. There's never anyone on their fuel island without two people there to clean windshields and do the checks. The current owner is probably going to retire in a few years and I suspect their practices may change. These are the types of businesses that were called service stations instead of the current crop of gas station/convenience stores that dominate.

 

[sweettractors]

Ethanol-free gas is at least 75 cents a gallon more here.

55 Cents higher here. Ken Sweet

 

[radioman]

After reading all these threads on ethanol stuff - its just makes my head spin listening how bad it is and problems associated with it. :confused2:
Ok- so we all know its a bad thing. what can we do to make it work? We are stuck with ethanol in our gas. Do we need new carb designs to counteract the rusting, the rubber deteriorating? what else can we do?

 

[RickB]

After reading all these threads on ethanol stuff - its just makes my head spin listening how bad it is and problems associated with it. :confused2:
Ok- so we all know its a bad thing. what can we do to make it work? We are stuck with ethanol in our gas. Do we need new carb designs to counteract the rusting, the rubber deteriorating? what else can we do?

Problems are predominantly storage-related and typically occur with small engines.
Treat the fuel, or better yet, run 'em dry prior to storage.
Just like everything else machine related, a little preventative maintenence goes a long ways.
Driving 50 miles for a preferred fuel is nothing short of absurd IMHO given the overwhelming lack of evidence the guy is actually doing anything other than racking up miles, spending money and ultimately, wasting fuel.

 

[Pilot]

Because of the drought and it's effect on the corn crop & prices there is some political pressure to suspend the ethanol requirement. I don't know if the proposal will get anywhere--with an administration that only a year or so ago approved 15% ethanol, I'm not too hopeful. Nothing is likely to happen until after the election.

 

[WilliamBos]

That is nice to hear that old folks have a full service station that they can turn too. Those are rare nowadays. We have one locally, a small village down the road from me. It is also the same station that many a youngster got an apprenticeship, and went on to become a mechanic.

This is a very old service station with only two pumps. They run a quick oil change/state inspection shop on one side and a tire shop on the other. Their fuel customers are primarily elderly folks who want them to pump fuel and also routinely check tire inflation and engine oil coolant levels. When you use only a tank of gas every two weeks, the higher cost isn't too much of a bite. There's never anyone on their fuel island without two people there to clean windshields and do the checks. The current owner is probably going to retire in a few years and I suspect their practices may change. These are the types of businesses that were called service stations instead of the current crop of gas station/convenience stores that dominate.

 

[Stimw]

He drives a Chevy Z-71 Pickup with 327 eng. Retired plant maintenance foreman from the Corvette plant in Bowling Green Ky. He swears the fuel containing ethanol will destroy most engines over time. Is this a proven fact? If it is, why is the gumment subsidizing it? Ken Sweet

First, I don't believe 327 engines were still being used when the Z-71 trucks came out! (1980's ????)
I only run premium, 93, gas in my 2 cycle engines with stabil.
We have had ethanol since the 80's, most of the cheapie stations were using it first.
But I think they are putting something else in too. I have a Crapsman garden tractor that was running bad. I cleaned the carburetor and it had something that looked like gelatin in it and I run fuel through it regularly.
I had not used my boat in 1 1/2 years (I/O with aluminum belly tank), I pumped 25 gallons of gas out of it. I put it in a 5 gal bucket as I pumped it out and let it sit to check for water, then put in my pick up and ran it with no problems. I even pumped the gas through a water separator filter on the boat. The filter didn't have any water in it either when I was done.
I know a lot of problems are real but I'm sure some are misdiagnosed.
Some outboards are having fuel lines eaten from it according to a boating forum I visit.

 

[ljohnson778]

First, I don't believe 327 engines were still being used when the Z-71 trucks came out! (1980's ????)
I only run premium, 93, gas in my 2 cycle engines with stabil.
We have had ethanol since the 80's, most of the cheapie stations were using it first.
But I think they are putting something else in too. I have a Crapsman garden tractor that was running bad. I cleaned the carburetor and it had something that looked like gelatin in it and I run fuel through it regularly.
I had not used my boat in 1 1/2 years (I/O with aluminum belly tank), I pumped 25 gallons of gas out of it. I put it in a 5 gal bucket as I pumped it out and let it sit to check for water, then put in my pick up and ran it with no problems. I even pumped the gas through a water separator filter on the boat. The filter didn't have any water in it either when I was done.
I know a lot of problems are real but I'm sure some are misdiagnosed.
Some outboards are having fuel lines eaten from it according to a boating forum I visit.

The Z-71 rpo spans many years, and the Chevy 5.3l is commonly referred to as a '327' ci motor.

 

[k0ua]

My company car has 254,000 miles on it. Original engine and Every gallon has contained ethanol. Now that said, I have had trouble with small engines and destruction of rubber tubing from ethanol. I now run non ethanol premium in the small engines. But I think an automobile that is made for ethanol will not have any trouble with it. I would rather that ethanol was not in our fuel, but it is and I don't think your engine will be destroyed from using it.

James K0UA