Warning about today's Gas and Carburated Cars.

bremereric

bremereric

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I had three bad instances with the ethanol they add to the gas. Seems if you let your old ride sit for a while the gas evaporates and leaves behind a sticky corn mess. My Shebly Dakota died twice on me. My Aspen wouldn't start because the needle valve underneath the shooter got stuck closed. And just lately I could not start the Gran Fury. Stuck float valve was the culprit. All issues have been resolved now and won't return. I use Lucas Oil Product's Safeguard Ethanol Fuel Conditioner. One 16oz bottle treats up to 80 gallons of gas.

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Most stations in this area have ethanol free regular (87) and far as I know, the only premium sold here is ethanol free. It's only 91 octane though so I add octane booster in the Aspen. Even in my daily drivers (winter '96 Dakota, summer '08 Mustang), both of which use regular, I pay the extra 20 cents/gallon for ethanol free. When most of them added ethanol free regular, they used the E85 pumps since sales of E85 were all but non-existent, especially in winter. At zero degrees, ethanol fuel doesn't work so well (won't vaporize well below 40 degrees) and the chance of getting a vehicle running it to start are slim to none.

In reality, the independent tests of fuel in this area showed the "Up to 10% ethanol MAY be added" fuel to have 0 to 6% ethanol, with the average being 4%. Still, ethanol free is guaranteed to be pure gasoline so, that's what I use.

There is a VP Fuels station near my house that sells 110 race fuel from the pump and of course it's ethanol free but,,,,,,,it's leaded fuel and is for off road use only. Get caught running it on the street and you're in big doo-doo.
 
Up here, Shell advertises that they have added stabilizer, before it comes out of the pumps. I've been burning their 87E10 since 1999, with no issues. One of my beaters,now has 5 or 6 year old gas in it, and still starts and runs every spring, and every fall, when I move it from one side of the yard to the other,lol. Boy I hope we never get your gas here.
 
Coming up to 5 yrs of running 93 non ethanol.
My corn free gas is generally the same price or a little less as the big guys corn gas.
 
When you could find 93 octane here, it was always "May contain up to 10% ethanol" and was always about 20 cents cheaper than the ethanol free 91 octane premium (which right now is $3.17/gal), same as with 87 octane regular. Why ethanol free would be 20 cents/gallon more, I have no idea but the extra cost is worth buying it, IMO.
 
I have used e-10 for 25 plus years with no problems, the exception being watercraft and the lawn mower because the alcohol does not store well. The alcohol will pull H2O from the air and put it in the tank.
 
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When I start useing e-85 IN volume, I will only keep the fuel in the tank on hand. There are additives that help with the H2O but every thing I've seen says keep the tank full and the carb empty. So I'll shut the pump off and run the carb dry in between uses, and for extended storage run tank empty and run regular fuel thru the system.
One of last jobs I had before retiring was working for a escovation co. in the shop, for some reason I was the guy to get the junk running after the service trucks would put e-10 in the welders on there rigs. The brass goes fuzzy green and the aluminum fuzzy white, it never fails to plug needle and seats. After about two years of raising heck I covenced everyone to use regular unleaded and sta-bill in the small engines. ya who!
 
I made a lotta money when E10 came in.
I was working as a motorcycle mechanic,metrics mostly. A Honda dealer as well as other lines. All those little engines with all those little carbs, and all those lazy peoples, and year after year. I couldn't teach them anything. So I went along for the ride. Every spring, the rush was on.It was often February before I caught up.
All our gas locally is oxygenated, except at the airport, and there you have to have a special key-card to unlock the pumps.
 
We're very lucky here to have ethanol free fuel available and none of it is oxygenated, never has been. From what I understand, ethanol free has made it's way to almost all the stations due to the same old thing,,,,,,demand. Give the people what they want, weird concept, ain't it? lol
 
E10 came to our town in 1999. I designed my engine to run on it, and it has always burned 87E10 right from day one. It is happy on it and runs full timing, and makes way more power than the chassis can handle......so to me, I would vote to keep it. It has saved me thousands of dollars since 99.
 
Visit www.pure-gas.org to find out what stations in your area have non ethanol gasoline. I am fortunate to live close to a station that has 89 octane non-eth. I fill my 5 gal with it for all of my OPE and mini bikes. As soon as I fix the fuel sender in my Mirada, she will get her first tank from there. In a pinch, the Lucas product mentioned at the beginning of the thread is supposed to work good. I usually just use a bottle of SeaFoam myself. In my spare time, I'm a small engine builder, and have made a lot of $$$ repairing ethanol damage.
 
We still have 9 out of 10 stations in this area that have ethanol free 87 available. Generally runs 20 cents/gal more than "May contain up to 10% ethanol" 87. All premium is ethanol free no matter where you go. It's only 91 octane though so I have to run octane booster in the Aspen. I used to run a gallon or so of 110 octane race fuel per tankful but sadly,,,,,,,,,,the only station that had 110 at the pump closed a couple years ago so that's kind of put a damper on that idea. It was "leaded off-road use only" but who's counting?:cool:

If you test the "up to 10%" stuff, in most cases it's really 0% with an occasional 2 or 3% ethanol so, it's not really that big a deal, at least around here anyways.
 
Aspen500 said:
We still have 9 out of 10 stations in this area that have ethanol free 87 available. Generally runs 20 cents/gal more than "May contain up to 10% ethanol" 87. All premium is ethanol free no matter where you go. It's only 91 octane though so I have to run octane booster in the Aspen. I used to run a gallon or so of 110 octane race fuel per tankful but sadly,,,,,,,,,,the only station that had 110 at the pump closed a couple years ago so that's kind of put a damper on that idea. It was "leaded off-road use only" but who's counting?:cool:

If you test the "up to 10%" stuff, in most cases it's really 0% with an occasional 2 or 3% ethanol so, it's not really that big a deal, at least around here anyways.
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At my dealership, we have a fuel analyzer. Usual 87 octane tests at 9 percent ethanol. It helps us diagnose if the fuel tanks ethanol content sensor is messed up or not. I was unaware that pump premium was non eth....AFAIK it still has eth, at least here in Michigan. 91-93 octane isn't doable in my low squeeze 318 anyway LOL 89 should be fine though.
 
I think how much ethanol, if any, depends on where you live, the fuel suppliers, state regulations, etc...................That's my guess anyways.
 
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