My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

[bigdee]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Hasn't MTBE been banned for years?

Your right,my bad. But still hate ethanol....if it ain't gas it don't belong in the tank but unfortunately we have to live with E-10.
Although expensive you can buy canned fuel that is ethanol free and blended for long term storage.

 

[DirtyOldBoat]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

The tanks are clean as they can be, fuel lines are clean.

How do you know? Have you tried running non ethanol gas in them and found that this problem immediately goes away?

I'm not questioning that there is something going on with your carbs...but it ain't the ethanol.

 

[hblair]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

How do you know? Have you tried running non ethanol gas in them and found that this problem immediately goes away?

I'm not questioning that there is something going on with your carbs...but it ain't the ethanol.

I know the tanks and lines are clean because I've taken them off and inspected them. Non ethanol no problems. Ethanol no does cranky when store month or more. Logic tells me that ethanol has something to do with the problem. Hmmm.

Have you ever been around race cars that run alcohol? Talk to guys with experience with them. The first thing they do before leaving the track is emptying the carb. Why is that? Could it be that alcohol draws moisture? What does moisture do inside a carb?

How can you confidently say "it aint the ethanol"? Wow...

 

[DirtyOldBoat]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

The first thing they do before leaving the track is emptying the carb. Why is that? Could it be that alcohol draws moisture? What does moisture do inside a carb?

What does that have to do with anything? You are not running pure alcohol. Moisture does not, and never has plugged up a carb. It can cause some problems over long periods of time (much more than 3 weeks) but it still won't clog anything.

How can you confidently say "it aint the ethanol"? Wow...

Well, if my truck doesn't start I can confidently say "it ain't the seatbelts" every time too.

 

[hblair]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

What does that have to do with anything? You are not running pure alcohol. Moisture does not, and never has plugged up a carb. It can cause some problems over long periods of time (much more than 3 weeks) but it still won't clog anything.

Methanol and alcohol have similar molecules, both draw moisture. Moisture can cause corrosion. Carburetors are made of pot metal (usually zinc alloys) unlike the brass jets and fittings, this can corrode (white rust). In my dirt bike case above, the bikes have fuel in them all the time (should not as we have established this causes problems), not just sitting in storage for 3 weeks +, but also when they are used. I have observed white rust in the bottom of the bowls. Unlike a fuel injected system (big time p.s.i. pushing everything through) a gravity fed, non sealed system like a dirt bike can clog pretty easy. Doesn't take much to clog the little pilot orifice.

Well, if my truck doesn't start I can confidently say "it ain't the seatbelts" every time too.

Are you sure about that? The only way you can really be sure is to study the wiring diagram or disconnect the seat belts and try it yourself. We had a car (GM product I think, been 10 years) here in the shop ten or so years ago that wouldn't run with the Right tailamp unplugged. If I posted that on an internet board I'd be insulted, because everybody knows that can't happen! It didn't make any sense until we observed the fuel pump circuit was completed with the Right Tail lamp plugged in.

Crazy things happen in this world of ours...

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

I am glad I live where I do, there are quite a number of stations that sell ethanol free fuel and really not much more expensive than the E10.

 

[aspeck]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Oil, ethanol, and phones, why do they all go down the same path? Everyone has an opinion ... Plea be respectful of the other guys opinion ...

 

[philipp10]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

So after seeing the carb gummed up you assumed Ethanol was the issue? Sorry, carbs have gumed up for years. I have experienced this issue many years ago, well before ethanol was ever around. If you leave fuel in your carb AND the carb has a slight airleak across its gaskets, cycling of temperatures will cycle the air in and out of the carburetor over months of time. This will evaporate the fuel leaving behind varnish which will cause clogging. This is not an ethanol issue, it is a combo of an older carb that leaks ever so slightly and leaving the gas in for months on end. Hot weather makes it even worse.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Oil, ethanol, and phones, why do they all go down the same path?

....and never seem to be allowed to die....

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Boy we never learn from our past do we and {polotic's} just the same. During the very first oil squeeze this country introduced alcohol into fuel for the first in large quantity's across this country. Now for those of us that were of a cognitive age in the 70's you cannot forget how almost every gas station you saw back then had to dig out there old tanks and repalce them with new tank's...the alcohol literally ate the old corrsison right off the tank's...leaks everywhere and gas was expensive...It was so bad and so prevalant the epa became invovled and required stations to clean up the contaminated dirt by the way a whole lot of car dealerships had the same problem....Yes once upon a time a car dealership had gas pump's..ever wonder why they dont now.

Now as to the moral of the story.....The above statement is factual.....as to your milage as alway's that will vary...:laugh:

 

[bruceb58]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Why do these old threads get resurrected? And why does it have to be these types all the time?

 

[mscher]

Re: My Ethanol Experience.....yes here we go again, but it happened to me

Why do these old threads get resurrected? And why does it have to be these types all the time?

Not a bad idea to keep the be-awares of ethanol/gasoline in the lime light, due to it's ever present potential for problems.

I now have yet another "project", getting my chainsaw to run properly, after changing the fuel lines, that had turned to "cooked spaghetti", from ethanol added gasoline.

Started on the first pull for years. Probably some of the disintegrated fuel line, in the tiny carb.

Hoo-boy.