No more stations or grades without ethanol

[s.tyler58]

I've noticed that the gas station where I used to buy premium without ethanol has marked their pumps that all fuel grades have ethanol now. I found the following on Reddit when trying to search for a station that did not put ethanol in their gas.

 

I guess it's what I get for living in a corn producing state but this sounds like it's coming from the source which is not in Nebraska.

 

A while back someone mentioned an additive that they said reduces the effects of ethanol on our carburetors. Does anyone recall what that was or have a suggestion?

 

Do I have to start planning on rebuilding my carburetors every 3 months or six thousand miles or whatever?

 

You all realize that ethanol is the most expensive way to create fuel to just kills gas mileage and engines right? Up yours Al Gore

 

...in the Eternal scheme of things, this isn't even the blink of an eye.

Edited April 22, 2018 by s.tyler58

[MiCarl]

There are Federal mandates for the amount of renewables as a percentage of highway fuel. It's very difficult for gasoline distributors to meet those requirements without blending ethanol into the fuel. Now days even the environmental lobby recognizes that using ethanol as a motor fuel is a bad idea. But there is a pretty big ethanol lobby resisting any change.

 

Adding ethanol is also a cheap way to boost the octane of gasoline. I've never bought into the assumption many make that premium gasoline is by its nature ethanol free.

 

Here in Michigan a pump doesn't need to be labeled as containing ethanol for blends of 10% or less. So it's not easy to find out which fuel is ethanol free.

 

The only thing I know to do is anytime a motorcycle (or any piece of carbureted piece of equipment) is going to sit for a week or more is to make sure the fuel is treated (I use Sta-bil) and the tank is fuel to reduce moisture uptake.

[s.tyler58]

There are Federal mandates for the amount of renewables as a percentage of highway fuel. It's very difficult for gasoline distributors to meet those requirements without blending ethanol into the fuel. Now days even the environmental lobby recognizes that using ethanol as a motor fuel is a bad idea. But there is a pretty big ethanol lobby resisting any change.

 

Adding ethanol is also a cheap way to boost the octane of gasoline. I've never bought into the assumption many make that premium gasoline is by its nature ethanol free.

 

Here in Michigan a pump doesn't need to be labeled as containing ethanol for blends of 10% or less. So it's not easy to find out which fuel is ethanol free.

 

The only thing I know to do is anytime a motorcycle (or any piece of carbureted piece of equipment) is going to sit for a week or more is to make sure the fuel is treated (I use Sta-bil) and the tank is fuel to reduce moisture uptake.

Henry's Hard Grape, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Twisted Tea...all created to make money from the by product of Ethanol manufacture. And how many new Teenage alcoholics are we creating at the same time?

 

...in the Eternal scheme of things, this isn't even the blink of an eye.

[snyper316]

I would say something but will try to avoid it the best I can.. I have noticed that since the last administration I have had really hard time finding the older vehicles I had grown to love.. If I do find them they are sky high. Oddly enuff I don't have to go far to find the old bikes.. I HATE FUEL INJECTED COMPUTERIZED things. I want my simple 3 to 5 wire start... I don't understand how I decided I really didn't want to let go of my Tahoe.. It is the first odd engine I have owned. What's worse its throttle by wire!!! I almost did go out and by an epa erased 2001 tahoe. But problem was he took out the cats. too. It was carbureted!!! It sounded damned good too but last time I took the catalytic converter off a car I played he'll getting it inspected so I beat a hole thru it since it was straight and put them back on my Ford Tempo. I know cars today are built for ethanol but I am like this song!!!

 

 

 

 

Never ride faster then your angel can fly. I am as free as the wind on my face.

[BlueSky]

Carbs will plug up if they sit too long with alcohol free gas too. I live on the east coast and alcohol free gas is available here mainly because of the boats I think. I never put ethanol gas in my bikes and the carbs still plug up. So, I suggest just keeping some additives in the fuel occasionally if you are not riding the bike regularly, or draining the carbs when parking the bike for an extended time.

[s.tyler58]

Carbs will plug up if they sit too long with alcohol free gas too. I live on the east coast and alcohol free gas is available here mainly because of the boats I think. I never put ethanol gas in my bikes and the carbs still plug up. So, I suggest just keeping some additives in the fuel occasionally if you are not riding the bike regularly, or draining the carbs when parking the bike for an extended time.

The only thing I do regularly with this bike is repair, wait for parts, leave it with the mechanic for 6 weeks at a time, and hope this time it's done. I've been putting seafoam in the tank but not every tank and not being able to buy non-ethanol just started last week.

 

...in the Eternal scheme of things, this isn't even the blink of an eye.

[Flyinfool]

There are a lot of us that have been force fed ethanol for a long time now.

 

Yes you will notice a drop in MPG.

 

Yes you will have a drop in performance.

 

Yes you will have cab issues if you do not stay on top of things.

 

Yes you are more likely to have tank rust issues if you leave the tank low for long periods of time.

 

With all that said.

I have had to use ethanol gas almost exclusively for the last ten years in my Venture. I add an oz seafoam to every tank of gas. I have yet to have to pull the carbs in 10 years. When I will have the bike sit for a long time It gets a heavy dose of seafoam and some Stabil with the tank filled right to the very top. I will do that winter fill with ethanol free if I can get my hands on it. When I am traveling I will fill with ethanol free any time I can. But that is in reality rare.

 

Over the winter they have bumped up the local gas from 10% to 15% ethanol, I am not sure what that will do to me this summer. I noticed it on my truck that the MPGs dropped a bit. Since my truck is a flex fuel that can take up to 85% ethanol, it as a device that measures the ethanol content of the fuel so that it knows what it is being fed and knows how much fuel to dump in. My engine scanner can access that sensor to tell me the ethanol content of what is in my truck.

[snyper316]

There are a lot of us that have been force fed ethanol for a long time now.

 

Yes you will notice a drop in MPG.

 

Yes you will have a drop in performance.

 

Yes you will have cab issues if you do not stay on top of things.

 

Yes you are more likely to have tank rust issues if you leave the tank low for long periods of time.

 

With all that said.

I have had to use ethanol gas almost exclusively for the last ten years in my Venture. I add an oz seafoam to every tank of gas. I have yet to have to pull the carbs in 10 years. When I will have the bike sit for a long time It gets a heavy dose of seafoam and some Stabil with the tank filled right to the very top. I will do that winter fill with ethanol free if I can get my hands on it. When I am traveling I will fill with ethanol free any time I can. But that is in reality rare.

 

Over the winter they have bumped up the local gas from 10% to 15% ethanol, I am not sure what that will do to me this summer. I noticed it on my truck that the MPGs dropped a bit. Since my truck is a flex fuel that can take up to 85% ethanol, it as a device that measures the ethanol content of the fuel so that it knows what it is being fed and knows how much fuel to dump in. My engine scanner can access that sensor to tell me the ethanol content of what is in my truck.

Mine is not fancy like that unless I don't know how to access it. I know it runs corn and it loves to eat the corn juice so much my mpg on average go from 16mpg to around 11mpg and hwy goes from 19mpg to maybe 13mpg if I'm lucky. So am I really saving a buck there.. I do t think so IMHO!!

 

Never ride faster then your angel can fly. I am as free as the wind on my face.

[Flyinfool]

Mine is not fancy like that unless I don't know how to access it. I know it runs corn and it loves to eat the corn juice so much my mpg on average go from 16mpg to around 11mpg and hwy goes from 19mpg to maybe 13mpg if I'm lucky. So am I really saving a buck there.. I do t think so IMHO!!

 

Never ride faster then your angel can fly. I am as free as the wind on my face.

 

If your car is flex fuel, that it has the sensor, You need a good code reader to access it via the OBDII port.

[BlueSky]

I haven't tried seafoam yet. I use Gumout for high mileage engines that has PEA in it. It works well.

[djh3]

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All listed in your town I think as "pure gas" off their site

[Flyinfool]

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All listed in your town I think as "pure gas" off their site

 

Except those were all from 2 to 4 years ago, It was just last week they said no more real gas.

[djh3]

I'm only as good as the information I can find. No responsibility for accuracy. It's up to the web site to keep it up. Go by your local small airport and get some av-gas 110 low lead. Its all gas all the time or a marina. Down here we have WaWa and they offer unmolested gas @ 91 octane usually. If you go to the airport you will have to ask for "can gas". My local here had a minimum of 10 gal, which was OK as I was running it in a race car.

[luvmy40]

Star Tron enzyme treatment claims to be focused on ethanol problems.

 

https://www.autozone.com/fuel-and-engine-cleaners-additives/fuel-additive-and-cleaner/star-tron-16-oz-ethanol-treatment/455620_0_0

[s.tyler58]

I'm only as good as the information I can find. No responsibility for accuracy. It's up to the web site to keep it up. Go by your local small airport and get some av-gas 110 low lead. Its all gas all the time or a marina. Down here we have WaWa and they offer unmolested gas @ 91 octane usually. If you go to the airport you will have to ask for "can gas". My local here had a minimum of 10 gal, which was OK as I was running it in a race car.

I appreciate the research but they all have brand-new stickers on the pumps stating that all grades of gasoline have 10% ethanol.

I guess I will just start using additives.

 

...in the Eternal scheme of things, this isn't even the blink of an eye.

[djh3]

Yea no problem. We saw that a bunch in IOWA and Kansas a few years back when I was traveling for work. They had a bunch of pumps going to the E85 stuff. I have read a few places that lobbyist are pushing to go to 15% added corn. That will cause most of us with older "non-flex" vehicles to sell trade or possibly have engine issues as the ecm will not adjust to that crap. Same with my 13 Victory, it specifically says no more than 10%. Now a carb you can rejet and make it to run on it. I never paid much attention to how up to date those listing were. Shoot 5yr old most of them places could be out of business. If you have an oil distribution outfit that supplies fuel to stations sometimes they have fuel available there and it is corn free.

[s.tyler58]

Yea no problem. We saw that a bunch in IOWA and Kansas a few years back when I was traveling for work. They had a bunch of pumps going to the E85 stuff. I have read a few places that lobbyist are pushing to go to 15% added corn. That will cause most of us with older "non-flex" vehicles to sell trade or possibly have engine issues as the ecm will not adjust to that crap. Same with my 13 Victory, it specifically says no more than 10%. Now a carb you can rejet and make it to run on it. I never paid much attention to how up to date those listing were. Shoot 5yr old most of them places could be out of business. If you have an oil distribution outfit that supplies fuel to stations sometimes they have fuel available there and it is corn free.

I found ethanol free premium, 91 octane at $3.26 a gallon, at all places a Farmers Co-op outside of Lincoln yesterday. It's 40 miles from my home though

 

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[snyper316]

I found ethanol free premium, 91 octane at $3.26 a gallon, at all places a Farmers Co-op outside of Lincoln yesterday. It's 40 miles from my home though

 

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I about flipped our gas jumped 19 cents and ethanol free premium went from 2.99 to 3.28 what is going on that gas is so high?

 

Never ride faster then your angel can fly. I am as free as the wind on my face.

[rbig1]

its not worth worrying about. I use low octane fuel 10% mix. When it starts slobbering as I call it either drop down a few gears or run the speedo to the top for a mile. The latter is more fun.... If you get moisture in the fuel the corn will separate from the gas. So at the end of the year you can pull off the fuel line for a few seconds to clean out the crap at the lowest point in fuel line. I don't do it, most of the carbs that gaskets couldn't take it have been rebuilt the kits have been updated by mfg.

[BlueSky]

I about flipped our gas jumped 19 cents and ethanol free premium went from 2.99 to 3.28 what is going on that gas is so high?

 

The economy is picking up with more demand for fuel. I sort of suspect it may also be caused by the fact that a couple years ago, congress changed the law and now allows oil companies in the USA to export crude oil which they couldn't do before. They could only export refined oil products.

[snyper316]

Sounds like a good way to slow the economy.

The economy is picking up with more demand for fuel. I sort of suspect it may also be caused by the fact that a couple years ago, congress changed the law and now allows oil companies in the USA to export crude oil which they couldn't do before. They could only export refined oil products.

 

Never ride faster then your angel can fly. I am as free as the wind on my face.