Ethanol

[Hand2ThePlow]

I have been doing a lot of repairs over the years due to ethanol.It eats up rubber parts in carbs,fuel pumps,and gaskets.Star Tron seems to help with ethanol issues.It must be used religiously for it to really work.

http://mystarbrite.com/startron/

I've run nothing but ethanol in my JD STX46 (Kohler Command engine) since I bought it in 1994 without a single issue.
I rebuilt the carb last year but otherwise have had no problems.

Here in Iowa (yes the ethanol capitol of the world) the gas stations all sell ethanol free gas (87 octane). I'm surprised some are having trouble finding non-alcohol gas.

 

[warcloud]

Sta-tron has worked well for me in my mowers tractors and boats. If i stroe my equiptment for any length of time i drain the gas out

 

[bxkubota]

I have been running av gas (airplane fuel) in my Commercial Toro pushmower for three years now with no problems. My Kubota tractor, well it still gets the red diesel.

 

[indypower]

Star Tron is great stuff. The "Marine Grade" of Stabil is also good stuff and is made specificly for ethonal. Since 1995 all small engine manufactuerers have said their engine will run just fine on up to 10% ethonal, which is what most gas stations sell now.

 

[lobsta1]

Up here in the Northeast you cannot buy non-ethanol gas. It has already cost me over $5000 to replace the fiberglass 300 gal fuel tank in my old Bertram.It involved MANY hours of my labor, extensive use of a sawsall cutting out bulkheads, pulling up a teak cockpit deck, fabricating new mounts & then glassing every thing back together again.

Numerous boat owners found out the hard way that SOME fiberglass tanks dissolved materiel into solution that that passed right through 10 micron filters & then precipitated out & then stuck to the valves in a black terry mess. That then stuck the valves open & caused engine rebuilding time. It was a crap shoot what tanks suffered this fate so a prudent measure dictated that the tank be replaced.

The financial papers today had a write up about the EPA getting ready to grant a waiver to allow the use of 15% ethanol. At this time it is still against the law to use more than 10% ethanol in standard gasoline. This is strictly to satisfy the corn & ethanol lobbies. Economically it is plain stupid to be making ethanol from corn. Currently every single group that manufactures or uses engines has come out AGAINST the use of E15. Even UL labs will not certify any current standard fuel dispensing equipment for E15.

Al

 

[MikeSp]

Star Tron is great stuff. The "Marine Grade" of Stabil is also good stuff and is made specificly for ethonal. Since 1995 all small engine manufactuerers have said their engine will run just fine on up to 10% ethonal, which is what most gas stations sell now.

The first year I owned my Toro 589 with water-cooled, fuel-injected Kawasaki engine, it ran flawlessly. Starting January 1st of the next year, all filling stations in Missouri were required to subsidize farmers by using Ethanol fuel. With the 2nd mowing season starting that spring, the mower would start, run for a few minutes and then start cutting out until it died -- it would overheat the fuel pump and gas bubbles(as opposed to liquid) would appear in the fuel line and the fuel filter would empty. This $12,000 POS spent more time at two dealers during the second year than it did with me and it was a miserable failure all of that mowing season. When the third mowing season started and it still failed to run, I demanded from Toro a different ZTR since it could not be repaired. With a substantial amount of paper trail from me and nearly a court case, Toro took back the ZMaster 589 and sold me a G3 74985 with me paying them some difference. It took Toro and/or Kawasaki another 6 months or more to get the 589 running and the dealer told me that dual fuel pumps were finally installed since neither the Toro fuel pump or the Kawasaki fuel pump would work with 10% ethanol. Therefore, I am not so sure that all gasoline engines after 1995 were designed for 10% ethanol fuel -- the G3 with 29hp Kawasaki air-cooled engine is into its 2nd mowing season and runs great (but no EFI on this engine).

MikeSp

 

[noma]

Hi So i was wondering if the unleaded gas that is 85 octane has any ethonal in it it should not right.

 

[Hand2ThePlow]

Hi So i was wondering if the unleaded gas that is 85 octane has any ethonal in it it should not right.

Ethanol blend in Iowa is higher than standard unleaded. E10= 89 octane, standard= 87 octane. So my guess would be is that 85 octane is non-ethanol. Also, all pumps here have to be labeled if they contain 10% ethanol.

As I said earlier, my '94 JD has run on E10 for 16 years without any engine problems. My brother-in-law mows commercially with a JD455 (Kawasaki engine) and runs E10 also without problems. On the other hand, I ran E10 in our Suzuki 4 wheelers and they all had issues the first year. After switching to non-alcohol fuel they now run fine.

 

[Rooster7]

It is a shame that ethanol causes these problems. Especially now days when the US needs to cut as many ties with the Middle East as possible. It also created a lot of new jobs. But I understand that if its wrecking our equipment, we have no choice but not to use it.

 

[JayC]

Ethanol is killing my equipment I have lots of small engines which many do not get used often and the Ethanol is causing a lot of problems with their fuel systems I use Sta-Bil and it helps but are any name brand gas companies making gasoline without adding this stuff. I cannot think of one good logical reason to use it any where, but, that is just my Humble Opinion! So I do not want to start a war here, I would rather hear how to handle this situation since it is not going away. Thanks
Leo

We have no choice up here - all fuel has ethanol in it, except diesel. The only piece I don't have to worry about is my Kubota L4200 diesel - I have about 16 pieces of gas powered equipment - a dozen dirtbikes, atv, mowers, generator, snowblower, etc... and I kinda dread pulling out any of them, since the put-away process is a PITA. Other than the stuff that is going to be used constantly, I drain it dry. Simply said, the best thing you can do with a gas system these days is drain it. The whole 'dry is bad' thing is a myth. Since I don't know if a machine is going to sit for a week or a year, I set up everything do drain as simply as possible, and I usually change the oil while I'm at it. Everything sitting in my garage has a dry fuel system, and has fresh oil in it. Basically, I set up everything for long term storage when I park it. It's a pain keeping it that way, but it's the only way I can be sure that anything and everything will start when I dump fresh gas in it, and when I pull something out, I pour in fresh gas and it starts first or second pull/kick/turn every time. Sucks, but that's the government for ya (thanks for the ethanol, dems). Old gas out of the tools/toys gets dumped into my pickup, so it doesn't get wasted.

JayC