It's official, I hate ethanol gas for yard equipment

It's been an easy winter so far, I haven't needed the snow blower once. With todays snow I stopped at HD on the way home last night and got some new 2 stroke oil and moved up some 50:1 for the blower. I has up and can't get the borking thing started. At first I think it's flooded so head inside to try some of last weeks duty free rum from our cruise. A while later I try again, no joy. So it's BS time with my neighbor and we brake out the duty free Johnny Walker I pull the plug, wet and black, clean it up and try again. No joy.

My neighbor had bought some of that pre-mixed ethanol free 50:1 gas you can buy for an arm and a leg from HD and other places. Turn the blower upside down and drain all the 'new' regular E10 50:1 and put in the E0 pre mix. After a squirt of raw down the carb it fires right up sweet as a nut.

Today if fires right up, I clean of another neighbors drive then start on my own and half way through the E0 pre mix runs out so I put in my own 'fresh' E10 mix. It starts right up but within in a couple of mins it's not running as sweet and I need a bit of choke to cope with the wet heavy snow.

I'm done with ethanol and garden equipment, I'm going to find a supply of E0 in SE Mi for my mower, weedwacker etc.

Just say no to Ethanol. Maybe Trump or Sanders will end subsidy for Ethanol and we can go back to E0! Please note equal opportunity political comment showing no favor to either side.

I'm thinking it's a local fuel quality issue. I've never had problems with small engines on Ohio E10.

However, my car (tuned open loop only on Ohio E10) runs like garbage on whatever they claim is gasoline in Illinois and Indiana. I will fill my car and a 5gal jerrycan just before leaving Ohio, then make my way across both states before buying any more fuel.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Look for something similar to a Countrymark station in your area, they have a fuel called "90+" that is a no ethanol premium fuel. It will cost you a bit more than e-15 premium, but it is worth it for anything without efi. We keep about 400 gallons of the stuff on the farm at all times for mowers, chainsaws, string trimmers, generators, the F150 & IHC, and snowmobiles. I also use it each winter in my bike tanks for when in storage.

Try AV-Gas. You should be able to find a small airport willing to sell it in small quantities for your "Ultra-light" or "Para-plane"

That's because Ethanol is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water, so it collects and corrodes the E36 M3 out of everything. You shoulda seen the inside of a friend of mine's motorcycle carburetor after it sat a winter filled with that new ethanol gasoline. Everything was covered in this green scuzz that no kind of cleaner would penetrate. Ended up having to get a whole new carburetor.

They have also found that ethanol counteracts the effects of zinc and other wear additives. So not only does it have a short shelf life, decrease fuel mileage and corrode everything, it also decreases engine life. Good stuff.

That's why my Miata and anything old or that I care about I run on ethanol-free fuel.

HappyAndy wrote: Try AV-Gas. You should be able to find a small airport willing to sell it in small quantities for your "Ultra-light" or "Para-plane"

Hmm, I'm 4 miles, 10 mins from an airport.

Thinking about this topic makes me

I have a bad habit of letting some of my vehicles sit. They are berkeleyed.

Funny. My snow blower started on the first try. On the gas I bought last winter.

alfadriver wrote: Funny. My snow blower started on the first try. On the gas I bought last winter.

I don't know how it is up in Michigan, but in PA the sticker on the fuel pump will say "may contain up to 10% ethanol". Which I take to mean "it might not have any, or could in fact contain a good bit more than 10%, who knows? We can't even pass a state budget, do you really think we've got the will to police the refineries?".

I also think pre-contaminated e10 is a real thing. I've seen it come out of the pump a bit murky looking a few times.

I think it is luck of the draw on a particular tank (at the station). Sometimes we have issues. When we do, EVERYTHING has issues--the weedwhacker, the lawnmower, and the blower. Sometimes the snowblower has issues, but there is no real way to compare it to the lawnmower

I will say that the Volvo 240 I had for a month ran noticeably better on Ethanol free gas. That was the only vehicle I've noticed it on, other than the better gas mileage.

I know I had to rebuild the Tillotson carbs on my snowmobiles at the start of every season because the ethanol would dry up the gaskets and seals over the summer and then they would run like absolute trash.

And I also know from a friend who owned an FR-S and another friend who's a big-wig at a 'Yota dealership that you can't run a steady diet of ethanol in the Frisbee twins. Screws up the seals in the high-pressure fuel pumps and then they blow up. We went ona roadtrip in my friend's and had to get ethanol gas because that's all we could find and immediately the high-pressure pump would start making a chirping noise. Asked my friend at the dealership and he said that they've put tons of HPFPs in them for that same reason. Do it long enough and the pump goes kaput.

Stay away from the leaded avgas for something you walk behind, you can get E0 pretty easy in MI, look for marinas and gas stations near the water. I don't think the E0 you can get now is the good old 90s gas though, it probably still has the increased volatility issues.

This sounds more like just plain old bad gas to me, I've never had a problem with E10 in small engines aside from 4 strokes that aren't run dry before storage. The 2 strokes just gum up a little like they always have and aren't hard to get going again, but I run 32:1 in everything.

I normally don't have any issues because all my lawn equipment has been converted to manual or electric and I use my boat so often. The issue is with this new house the boat has been sitting since September. I ran it once in the driveway and it was fine but I'm still a bit concerned.

BrokenYugo wrote: but I run 32:1 in everything.

Tell me about running 32:1. Even in things marked 50:1. What are the up and down side. Any tech as to why. I'm intrigued.

My old snow blower had been running fine and then the other day I found I had to run on partial choke. So, I figured I need to clean the carb or at least the main jet. Nope, the primer hose had broken off at the carb where it makes a sharp bend. So I pulled the jet assy. and took it apart. Clean as a whistle. Put it all back together and now runs just fine. Info: this is the old style carb with the adjustable main jet. Ethanol has not given me any problems on this 21 yr old Tecumseh.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Old school 2 stroke wisdom is more oil=more better, better ring seal and piston cooling (allowing for a leaner fuel air ratio, which the extra oil forces to some extent). 50:1 is an emissions and smokey idle thing. My dad has been dumping 32:1 in a 50:1 spec snowblower for probably 15 years at this point, never had the carb apart, never drains it, never fouled a plug, just takes a few extra pulls to get it going in the fall.

http://www.pure-gas.org/ search there.

These sites list alcohol free gas stations. Here in Atlanta the one I use is always busy with people with gas cans and various powersports machines in truck beds.

http://www.pure-gas.org/

http://www.buyrealgas.com/

I hate e-10 for small engines too. Gaskets in my string trimmer were ruined after only a couple of tankfuls.

By the way, what's this "snow blower" thing y'all keep discussing?

I will say I learned to mix with Sta-bil all the time and never had an issue with ethanol gas..

We have Kwik Trip gas stations and they advertise their high octane 93 (iirc) for small engines and such because of the no ethanol content.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

Yeah, blue stabil, double dose, seems to help.

BrokenYugo wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: Yeah, blue stabil, double dose, seems to help.

I used red stabil and mixed it 50/50 with sea foam and did double dose. But yes.

M2Pilot wrote: By the way, what's this "snow blower" thing y'all keep discussing?

It's the best know Southerner repellent known in the North

When forced to use E10, usually due to time contraints, my string trimmer consistently takes 5 pulls to start instead of 3, and the 5.5 horse OHC Briggs on my mower takes 2 pulls instead of 1. And, there is a definate loss of power with both compared to running E0. Unless we are out of town, I use E0 in all three of the cars exclusively. SWMBO's Focus ALWAYS gains 2MPG on E0 vs E10 (unless I steal it for a few hours, then it seems to lose about 5MPG. Haven't figured that one out yet )