Over the past couple months, up here in the Boston area, they have introduced fuel that may contain up to 10 percent mix of ethanol. I know some parts of the country have seen this for quite some time, but it's new here.

We are seeing alot of problems starting to arise in the small engine industry. The fuel seems to be softening any plastic components it contacts. Fuel filtersespecially. We are now worried about gas tanks failing, as well as the plastic in line fuel shutoffs.

We also have been seeing quiet a bit of water in the fuel. It seams that in small quantities, this new gas is sucking water out of the air.

The worst of it is the 2-stroke fuel. I filled a 2 gallon can monday. Went to use it wednesday and notice the gas was clear coming out. Son of a bitch, i knew i mixed it!!!

Looked down in the can and the oil and gas was seperated like oil and water in less than 2 days!!!!

 

I hate that crap!!! It gummed up a bunch of crap in my SVT Focus 3 years ago when I was in WI and that was all they had up thier. I now refuse to fill up with that 10% mix ****!!! Suppose to be great for the ecconimy, and even fuel milage, but I personaly hate it.

 

No problems here with the Lightning, SVTF or SVTC and NJ has had the 10% ethonal mix for a while.

The e10 should be fine in most cars. Once it gets higher then 10%, thats when fuel systems need(should) be capable of handling it. Though that refers more specifically to the e85 that various parts of the country have.


It gets worse mileage the MTBE (think thats the lettering?) but it's cheaper.

 

it is screwing up my boat for sure, runs like crap.

no problem in the truck but i have not driven it in months, my mustang is fine.

It should only be an issue if you let the truck sick. I have done a bunch of research because of my boat and the consesus seems is that it takes 6 weeks of sitting for the ethanol to seperate from the gasoline and that is when it starts to screw things up. should not really be a concern if you drive the truck often.
I have a fuel treatment for the boat that is supposed to help prevent it, i am sure they have something similar for cars. Starbrite makes it.

 

i have been told by my engine manufacturers that your regular fuel stabelizer has been significantly less effective on the higher blend of ethanol in the fuel.

This new fuel has also been causing alot of damage to the fiberglass fuel tanks on boats.

 

I don't get it, add 10% ethanol and burn 120% to get the same place. I mean isn't ethanol susppose to lower emissions? but now your burning more fuel to get to the same place, doesn't that defeat the purpose and increase the emissions.

 

I have a lot more problems with my small 2 cycle engines. even the guys in the lawnmower shop said they are rebuilding carbs like crazy compared to years ago.

 

I think you folks have other issues.......

You might be having problems with your source or the tanks at the station pumping it.

We have been using that ethanol for years in Colorado and I can't say I really can tell the difference.

I will admit that my lawnmower won't restart with the old stuff sitting in it all winter but thats about it.

Now go ahead and Flame me......!

 

Only thing I notice is less mileage and less power. No other problems ever noticed. When my friend in his economy car (Kia Sephia) complains about getting bad mileage out of it, you know somethings wrong with it, lol. This is using Shell V-Power with 10% Ethanol. Reason I use it is because it's the only (new) station in town that isn't owned by... oh nevermind, I just trust the station where I buy gas from, and it happens to have 10% ethanol.

I also did read the Shells V-Power has something like five times the cleaning agents of any other fuels and funny enough one day my dad commented out of nowhere that my exhaust was the cleanest smelling exhaust he ever smelled, lol, so who knows, mabye it really is cleaner burning.

 

Agree, in Dallas here, I have had to rebuild all the two stroke carbs in the lawn equipment this summer, but they are ~6 years old, so not sure if the two are related, but it sure seems awfully coincidental.

 

ethanol is a pretty big joke, IMHO. like stated earlier we use more fuel, even though it's slightly better emissions. also, do people really think e85 is the solution to our oil problems? not only would it increase the world-wide food shortage (taking all the corn, etc. away from food consumption and put towards machinery consumption) but it also takes fossil fuels to process e85 in the first place!



there's lots of articles written about how e85 is ridiculous, as an 'alternative' to our fuel crisis/prices, if yall wanna do some digging.

 

For us yes. But for countries like S. America were sugar cane is plentiful, it's a very option.

I recently read an article about the octane difference between e10 and e85. Granted neither vehicle was tuned for for either gas, but the e85 higher octane rating barely made a difference. But it would be interesting to see what aftermarket tuners could have done with/for the comparison.