No more ethanol free gas ?

[Nick]

Was out riding and stopped to get gas at the local station that sold ethanol free gas and there was a sign on the pump that due to a congressional mandate they can no longer sell ethanol free gas.

[gasgasman]

Yup.
I had a valve stick open on my pressure washer because of the gum residue left by the ethanol fuel.
You can use StarTron to minimize the effects of ethanol fuels.

[Nick]

I can buy ethanol free fuel and i do for my small engines but for the gov to mandate that we cant buy it at the pump is just one more lost freedom. Its expensive but i buy VP SEF for my mower, snowblower, chainsaws etc.

[cbutler]

All my equipment runs just fine on ethanol fuel I do not buy into the BS about ethanol.

[Cruiser]

I've taken classes dealing with it.. its problem are real and well documented. It does many things.. that is why even HD released a report in AMA magazine telling readers it does not approve its use in their engines. John Deere, Honda, kawasaki, Briggs and Kohler all have issues with it and recommend not using it or at minimum using starton to reduce its effects.

[iajim]

The topic of ethanol, gasoline, av gas, etc. seems to go on forever. Please be very careful about "removing" the ethanol from gasoline. It only constitutes about 10% but it also acts as an octane booster. You'll need to make up that difference somewhere(Klotz, VP?). I agree with cbutler, I've never had a problem with ethanol. Other people I'm sure have had some problems. Some gas retailers/tank farms were blending Methanol, not Ethanol with the gasoline. It was all advertised and believed to be the same but as you can imagine it only created more problems. Methanol is very corrosive but it is favored as a fuel in race cars( where allowed) because it produces more power. The alcohol doesn't cause the fuel to go "stale", it may absorb some moisture but most of the time it prevents fuel moisture problems from occurring as you might have with winter time icing. The first aspect of fuel degredation is loss of vapor press. Then you have a loss of "light ends", light and medium naptha.These two events overlap somewhat. Plastic fuel jugs, the tank on your bike, they don't work as well as metal cans. By now the ethanol has had time to absorb some moisture from the air because it wasn't sealed in a metal can and the ethanol is doing its job of removing the moisture, not boosting octane or carring oxygen to lower emissions. Now you've lost some octane rating and remember mixing 2 stroke oil with gasoline of any type will drop the octane. At this point the fuel should probably be dumped into your car/truck, anything that isn't too picky about fuel quality. It isn't usually necesary to run race fuel, but octane booster or stabilizer is a good idea. If your bike doesn't use the gas as quickly as planned, use it somewhere else. Jim

[jostby]

there are ways to remove the ethanol. A couple tablespoons of water in 5gal of gasoline will cause the methanol to bond with the water and separate from the gas. It will drop to the bottom of the fuel. Try it in a small water bottle, you'll be amazed. Google it for exact instructions. i tried it with a 1L water bottle and with about 1 teaspoon of water got about 1/4 cup of separation. It may have been on this site that I read about it but you can google it for easy instructions. Use the large clear water bottles (about 3 gallons?) from the grocery store and then turn it upside down and let it separate. A small tap in the lid makes it easy to drain the water/ethanol after it separates.

But as cbutler says, I have never had an issue either. My boat is now parked until probably next June (same as the last 15yrs). I don't treat my mower, rototiller or motorhome any different either, whatever fuel is in them is what they start with in the spring which is quite a while of non-use in my area. I don't drain the fuel from my bikes but I do treat them better and start them about every 2 weeks throughout the winter.