Vegetable paper compressed gaskets have been around for awhile. They are known to dislike ethanol. It would seem the ethanol thing is overblown by some on both sides of the issue. It depends on what group a person talks to. Around here ethanol is considered to be good for the farmers, and this is farm country. However, the folks who keep vintage cars do not like it at all. Motorcycle folks do not like it much either. Boaters just plain hate the stuff. It seems to have eaten the grey fuel lines on an older garden cultivator, an older string trimmer, an older generator, an older snowblower, and though I cannot prove it, seems to keep making the tank in an older Toro gas tank dirty no matter how many times I clean it out and in just a few days. Now the snowblower was self inflicted, gas got left in the tank for a couple months. The rest of the stuff was all drained out and ran out before storage. But after a couple uses the gas lines all fell apart. Could be however the lines just died of old age. I do know I no longer use ethanol in any of the older stuff, none in my 2 stroke mix, and as seldom as possible in my new mower. But I may get over being paranoid by next year and go back to ethanol, who knows. My service tech said ethanol is fine in small engines but thinks 91 octane is the way to go with it. I asked him what he puts in his new Harley and he looked around a bit and pointed to a small fuel station in the corner of his shop and replied. Real gasoline. Need to add, this is from folks in my area, I have not talked to folks from other areas.
