Why Ethanol blended gas sucks..

[CJM]

A friend sent me this.. and people wonder why I say this stuff is junk. It absorbs water more than anything else. use startron additive if your gonna let it sit, otherwise your gonna wind up with this junk!

http://i54.tinypic.com/a2wt3s.jpg

Ive been having a heck of a time with this crap.
I now have 15-20gals of bad E10 gas that no one wants to take..

I was having back problems so my 2008 model year motorcycle sat from Oct till I tried to start it 2 weeks ago.. No go. Drained the gas and this is what came out.. doesn't even smell that strong like gas should.

No thats not beer. I just put it in and old pitcher to get a look at its color.

The manual says use of Ethonal blended fuels will void the warranty. 2008. E10 is the only thing we can get here in CT. I get to rebuild the carbs this spring.

Last year I had to drain and flush the whole fuel system in my in my 1969Dodge. Had to rebuild the carb also. It looked all green inside.. i think the Ethanol is eating the brass parts.

Walmart and others now sell the GREEN sta-Bil thats marine grade and made for ethanol fuels. I now use this and rotate all my fuel every few months.

[RATPACK Z400]

Yeah that stuff is all BS ! it concentrated corn cr@p ! it just a gas filler the goverment put in gas to save gas and line there pockets with the savings and jack the price of food up. very bad on carbs and motors IMO. you buy new car these days they come with mutiple catlataconverter,s on them that cost a fortune to change ! my aunt Ford tarus complete exhaust(3 converters) cost 4200.00 at ford dealer ! thats the price we american are paying for this liberial green BS in this counrty !

[CJM]

Be careful about this junk folks. Make sure if your gonna store the gas for any amount of time to either use star tron additive or PRI-G to make sure the gas doesnt gum up your carbs or go bad.

As for as cat converters..oh I have them on my vehicles..aint nothing in them and it still passes inspection.

[Brad77]

Yes the stuff is junk !
Becareful on some of the additives and don't trust them too much. I know that some of the additives don't work too well.
Luckily we still have a few places around here that sell fuel without ethanol. I won't put ethanol fuel in anything that sits for even a week. The stuff is a water magnet.
I only use ethanol fuel in the truck that I drive daily.
Look up reviews on additives and do research.

[Scro]

I average 1-2 more MPG with ethanol free gas in my Accord.

[CJM]

Startron and PRI-G do work, ive used them both before with good results. The additives wont allow the fuel to degrade or absorb water.

[TheLane]

thank god i love in phoenix. The only humidity here comes from our swimming pools :P

[chucked]

I just drained the gas out of my quad because of this, its garbage.

[ZeroLogic]

Originally posted by Scro
I average 1-2 more MPG with ethanol free gas in my Accord.

3ish mpg more in my truck. No one believed me because the gov put out this its better for your mpg and car ****.

Not only does the ethanol fuel sucks for the cars and motors, its using all of out crops!

[NacsMXer]

Yeah that does suck. I add Stabil to all my gas right after I get it. A little trick that many do not know about is to add race fuel to your tank if you plan to store over the winter or not use your machine often. Even if the extra octane is overkill for your machine, it will not hurt it. Race gas keeps and stays fresh way longer than any ethanol-blended pump fuel out there. Better snowmobile shops have been doing this for years when they "summerize" sleds for people. I usually get some 110 leaded in the winter, add some Stabil or Seafoam to it for good measure, and it's good well into spring time. By then it's used up and time for another fill.

[chucked]

Originally posted by ZeroLogic
3ish mpg more in my truck. No one believed me because the gov put out this its better for your mpg and car ****.

Not only does the ethanol fuel sucks for the cars and motors, its using all of out crops!

Its using our crops? :confused:

[Wheelie]

I run 70% ethanol and have zero issues with water, corrosion, or any of the other rumored effects of Ethanol. I let my quad sit for six months last winter with a half tank of fuel in it to see if it would cause any issues. It started right up in March and ran fine with 6 month old E-85.

I'm doing it again this winter, I'm trying to repeat the rumored affects of Ethanol without any success.

Ethanol is a great fuel, IMO. Mower power and cooler running without any negative side affects that I've seen in the nearly 2 years of running it.

[ZeroLogic]

Originally posted by chucked
Its using our crops? :confused:

"Corn"

[fastredrider44]

The ethanol gas is junk and is absolutely murder on carbs. I also get 1-2 mpg better in my Z71, and 3-4 in my little truck.

[250rAL]

I've been running E10 in all my motors for 20+ years and never have any problems. My trike often sits for months at a time but the carb still looks like new inside. Just saying...

[chucked]

Once my yfz sits for a month or so, it wont start without draining the old gas out of the carb

[fastredrider44]

Whatever we have here in town sucks. I have been keeping float needles on the shelf for 450Rs, YFZs, and 400EXs. :rolleyes:

[Wheelie]

I think Ethanol gets a bad rap. The fuel sucks today I won't deny that, however, I don't think the Ethanol is the problem. Whatever ingredients the gas companies are using aren't playing nicely together.

I've soaked fuel lines and carburetors in E85 for months, the fuel lines look like new when pulled out as does the carb. My quad has no 'alcohol' specific components in the carb, it's only re-jetted. I have no water in my fuel, no corrosion issues and the stock 450r fuel line has not swelled or 'rotted', in fact it looks like new inside and out.

[250ex_dan]

Originally posted by TheLane
thank god i love in phoenix. The only humidity here comes from our swimming pools :P
LOL
same out here in Queen creek!

[jcs003]

i had issues with fuel i let sit in my tank. i was fooling around with jetting and any other thing i could think of and decided to get fresh and the think started first kick and ran great. the ethanol additives are problematic to say the least.

[jcv400ex]

It does drop your gas mileage, can't speak for anything else though other than it does have a different smell after a week or so. I use to get 5 gallon of gas for the lawn mower during summer and snow blower during winter, but have since changed to a 1 gallon size. It does seem to go bad sooner.

[CJM]

What happens is water separates and causes the fuel to go to heck. my friends let thier quads sit all winter (ran carbs out of gas) and when we went to start them in the spring no matter what we did it wouldnt kick over. Poured in a half gallon of fresh gas-fired right up. They had used stabil and added 3x what the bottle said..it didnt do jack.

I did learn some interesting info about startron aka soltron, its nothing more than naptha aka coleman white gas fuel. Really tho Im not sure.

What I do know is gas I stored using PRI-G for 3 years I used in my lawnmower with no issues at all. It was also E10 gas.

Whatever the case, its a smart idea to run you carb dry and dont let the gas sit untreated.

[CJM]

Got some more info about E15.. DONT USE IT IN ANYTHING IF POSSIBLE!!!

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/e15/#no-use


What Vehicles May Use E15?

* Flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs).
* MY2001 and newer cars.
* MY2001 and newer light-duty trucks.
* MY2001 and newer medium-duty passenger vehicles. (SUVs).


What Vehicles and Engines May Not Use E15?

* All motorcycles.
* All vehicles with heavy-duty engines, such as school buses, transit buses, and delivery trucks.
* All off-road vehicles, such as boats and snowmobiles.
* All engines in off-road equipment, such as lawnmowers and chain saws.
* All MY2000 and older cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles (SUVs).

[Sjorge450R]

Originally posted by fastredrider44
The ethanol gas is junk and is absolutely murder on carbs. I also get 1-2 mpg better in my Z71, and 3-4 in my little truck.

I had to rebuild the carb on my dakota once a year because of it. THe only place in my town that sold gas without ethanol was our Gulf, but then that went out of business!!!

[chucked]

O yea, I just remembered my Seadoo has a sticker that says "Absolutely do not use fuel containing ethanol, catastrophic engine failure can occur"

I don't know of a place that sells ethanol free gas.

[Brad77]

Some of the members on here that have not had any issues using ethanol fuel makes me wonder if there are different grades or something.
I just know that I have seen the separation of the fuel and water. It happens most in the red fuel jugs. Although separation can happen in any fuel container.
I am just glad we still have a few places around my area that sell fuel without ethanol. Before I found the places that sold good gas I used this additive with good success.

[Brad77]

Oh and here is a tech sheet on the phaser additive.
http://www.phaser3000.com/Assets/phaser%203000.pdf

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by Wheelie
I run 70% ethanol and have zero issues with water, corrosion, or any of the other rumored effects of Ethanol. I let my quad sit for six months last winter with a half tank of fuel in it to see if it would cause any issues. It started right up in March and ran fine with 6 month old E-85.

I'm doing it again this winter, I'm trying to repeat the rumored affects of Ethanol without any success.

Ethanol is a great fuel, IMO. Mower power and cooler running without any negative side affects that I've seen in the nearly 2 years of running it.

I run the stuff from the pump in my snowmobile. This is the first year I can remember, that I had no issues starting my sled after it sitting all summer.

Usually before with regular unleaded, I would get gunk built up in the carbs (I'm usually too busy to winterize the thing properly). I would get the green build up and nasty gas like everyone else is saying, except this was on regular unleaded. Last season was the first year I ran the ethanol blended gas in my sled, let it sit all year again, sprayed a little ethanol and it fired right up. Just for the sake of doing so, I pulled the carbs apart to clean them up and there was literally NO build up inside the carbs.

The only thing that slightly concerns me is that it will supposedly dry out fuel lines, which I could see happening, but so far the ethanol has done nothing bad as far as corrosion or gunking up my carbs.

[aDviSol2y]

Originally posted by Wheelie
I run 70% ethanol and have zero issues with water, corrosion, or any of the other rumored effects of Ethanol. I let my quad sit for six months last winter with a half tank of fuel in it to see if it would cause any issues. It started right up in March and ran fine with 6 month old E-85.

I'm doing it again this winter, I'm trying to repeat the rumored affects of Ethanol without any success.

Ethanol is a great fuel, IMO. Mower power and cooler running without any negative side affects that I've seen in the nearly 2 years of running it.

Ya, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about bad E10. We live in one of the most wet parts of the country, and we have no issues. My bike has been sitting since September. The other day, it fired right up! My carb never has any junk in it. The gas never smells any diferent. Maybe it's not what kind of gas these people are buying, but where they are buying it from.

[CJM]

Im not sure why you dont have any issues Wheelie, maybe its where you get the gas,maybe its the distributer of the gas IDK. Ive pulled apart plenty of carbs and seen plenty of gas separate since it came out-least around here. We dont even have E85, we have E10 only. Perhaps thats part of the reason you arent haveing as much issues-maybe it works better with 70 to 30 mix vs 10 to 90?

What happens is:
1. The E10 tends to clean out all the junk in the system usually b/c its a bit more like a solvent than gas is when blended. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. In older vehicles with crabs it can cause the brass to degrade and corrode depending on the exact makeup, it can also cause all those deposits to come loose and wreak havoc on your engine and fuel system.

2. If you let the junk sit long enough-unless your tank is quite full (and even then sometimes it doesnt matter) the ethanol will absorb water and will separate from the gas. This means your left with nasty stuff.

3. Older vehicles do not like the blend, specially carb'd vehicles b/c it doesnt burn the way like the gas that was originally used to design the fuel system and engine.

4. They "CLAIM" it is better when infact its a load of horse poo. It costs money to make it (oh sure they are using junk corn but still it needs to be refined and made into ethanol) and it lowers your mpg by quite a bit in some cases.

No, its all another bunch of crap by the damn EPA. Just like emissions and computer controlled systems. If anyone of you can answer why a 1975 Ford F250 with a carb and a 400 big block gets near the same damn mpg as 2002 F250 with a 5.4L V8 I'd like to hear it. Dont argue that the power of the newer engine and such-trucks make up for it in gear as did cars back when..

No, its all bs and im frankly sick of it.

[buck440]

well you did put e85 in a motorcycle that is not suppose to run on it or handle it's corrosiveness plus it was stored without a stabilizer. it's like putting a nail board under your tires and driving over it and wondering why there flat.

[CJM]

Originally posted by buck440
well you did put e85 in a motorcycle that is not suppose to run on it or handle it's corrosiveness plus it was stored without a stabilizer. it's like putting a nail board under your tires and driving over it and wondering why there flat.

exactly. if the thingisnt designed to operate properly on the stuff it aint good...

[Wheelie]

Ethanol isn't nearly as corrosive as most people think, it's less corrosive than tap water--look up it's ph level.

Also, gasoline will draw water without ethanol in it.

Check out e85performance.net, there are tons of people running E85 in 60's Muscle cars without changing over to 'alcohol' grade components and not having any issues.

I don't think Ethanol is to blame for all the issues, it's the blend of the fuel. There are a lot of additives in today gasoline, I suspect that there is a chemical reaction between the additives causing the issues--not the ethanol.

If the 10% of the fuel is causing all the issues described here, I should be having a ton of problems. 22 months on corn without any problems.

[CJM]

Maybe it is the blends themselves that the stations use or the stations storage tanks.

Still, baffles me the following happened:
Friend stores atv for 3 months, friend tries to start it after those 3 months it wouldnt kick over no matter what. Had to use fresh gas with it and it finally started up no problem.

Rewind to about 4 years ago (at least, if not 5-6) I had a pos suzuki 230 quad and took it apart after it blew. I let the tank, still full of gas sit for at least a year, put it in the snowblower one winter and it cranked right up with no issues. This is def before we had nothing but ethanol gas here in NJ. i checked the gas, no water in it, smelled fine.

[Brad77]

Originally posted by CJM
Maybe it is the blends themselves that the stations use or the stations storage tanks.



Yeah I just can't help but think that there is something more here with the issue.
Just a few months ago we had to replace the fuel pump in my Dad's car because of bad fuel.
A friend of mine owns a bike and atv repair shop and he told me that he has seen an increase in carb problems since ethanol fuel has been in use.
So I don't know if its the regional area, particular stations or oil companies that are making any difference in fuel grades.

[06typeS]

agreed its garbage, i would travel extra distance to a station that doesn't use any ethanol in their gas over one thats close.

Not to be the politics person, but if you don't want to see it raised to 15% start getting on your US senators and house reps. There has been talk of it