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Stability of ethanol free fuel

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Boulder Ed

Boulder Ed

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Ed
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Does anyone know how stable ethanol free gas is? Is it any longer shelf life than normal 10% ethanol fuel? Should you add stabil if planning on storing it 6 months before use? For my UTV, riding mower and generator, I rotate (5) 5gallon containers that I keep in a warm shop in a flam cabinet, labeled with the purchase date. I normally swap them out before 4 or 5 months.
 
I've heard that no ethanol gas can last a long time if kept in a metal container. For generator and two stroke tools I've had really good luck with stabil.
 
The longest I've got with regular gas in a metal gas can was around 4 years. The longest I've gone with the 10% blend was 2'ish years in a metal can.
 
Boulder Ed said:
Does anyone know how stable ethanol free gas is? Is it any longer shelf life than normal 10% ethanol fuel? Should you add stabil if planning on storing it 6 months before use? For my UTV, riding mower and generator, I rotate (5) 5gallon containers that I keep in a warm shop in a flam cabinet, labeled with the purchase date. I normally swap them out before 4 or 5 months.
Click to expand...
I’m impressed that when I put the ethanol free in my bike the computer Calculates I will get 35-40 additional miles on 4 gallons
 
LaserDave said:
Another inconvenient truth?

autos.yahoo.com

Classic Cars Are Greener Than Electric Vehicles: Study

Well, how about that…
autos.yahoo.com autos.yahoo.com
Click to expand...
It does not matter, it's how virtuous you are or appear to be driving your electric vehicle.
fart-south-park.gif
 
Tigerkf said:
Watch these that way you don't have to depend on someone's opinion on a forum.
Click to expand...

I don't need anyone's opinion after changing the gas tank on the Ranger, or realizing the gas tank on the small generator had been ruined.
 
My anecdotal experience is that ethanol-free fuel alone was not enough to keep my stuff's carburetors from degrading while fuel sat in them unused over months. Also, Sta-bil brand stabilizer added to the "up to 10% ethanol" gas was worse than the ethanol-free fuel. Ethanol free fuel with Star-Tron fuel treatment at 1 oz per gallon is working perfectly, first time I ever took a carb engine out of seasonal storage and didn't have to do any reconditioning at all.

I'm gonna watch those videos above maybe someday. But my own practice is I won't trust anything but ethanol-free fuel with Star-Tron for carbureted engines.

EDIT: I couldn't help myself, watched the first two videos. Seems clear, the ethanol fuel, stabilizer or not, is a horrible idea for carburetors. And stabilizer can give an edge to non-ethanol fuel, but there's a quantum leap in performance between E10 and E0. This squares exactly with my personal experience.
 
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TruFuel claims 2 years opened and 5 years unopened shelf life for their products which are E-free. They do have a stabilizer included.
trufuel50.com

Why Use Ethanol-Free Gas from TruFuel? | TruFuel Ethanol-Free Gasoline

The damaging effect ethanol has on small engines is well documented. Unlike station gas, ethanol-free TruFuel is specially designed to protect outdoor power equipment.
trufuel50.com trufuel50.com

For the genny, I ran the tank as dry as possible of pump fuel and then poured in some TruFuel and ran it dry too before storing.
 
Straight gasoline - without stabilizer - isn't all that much better at staying fresh without gumming up carbs. I still remember having to strip and clean the 4-carb bank of my Yamaha XJ650 Maxim, after it sitting idle for just a little over a month. Formulation might have gotten better since, but I wouldn't trust E0 to do much better than E10 gas, without adding stabilizer. As much as I detest the politics of how E10 was mandated, now that it's so prevalent, E0 is not worth the expense or effort, except maybe for boat motors, where a large (vented) fuel tankful needs to be stored for long while.

Now that I don't bother doing lawn care myself, the only small dumb-carb gas engines I keep around are the portable generator and pressure washer. I find it easier to drain the carb float bowl after every use, and drain the fuel tank (of the stabilizer-added E10) every year or so. Has worked well for the past 14+yrs.
 
TruFuel didn't get the job done in the premix for me, but I think half of the problem was poor quality carbutetors for my Echo trimmer. I have given up forever on 2-strokes.

But ethanol-free plus Star-Tron is working great. For small engines and occasional use motorcycles, it's a winner. I still run regular up to 10% ethanol pump gas in my Triumph. Gas doesn't sit in anything but the tank.
 
I've never had a problem with Stabil in ethanol fuel on modern (post ~2000) motors. Problems in Holly carbs were cured with a change in elastomers. After about 6 months the engine may run a little rough, but it is still runnable.

Make sure your fuel tank is FULL when putting item in storage or 100% sealed (no vent lines etc) - anything else allows tank to "breathe" with temperature changes allowing moisture in. Moisture cases a real problem if humidity is enough to create dew. Cold fuel in tank allows humidity "breathed" to condense and get in the fuel causing these commonly seen issues - or in the case of diesel, can cause biological growth that coat filters and pit you injectors and pumps.

Real world experience based on a decades of sticking bracket cars in covered trailers, motorcycles in metal buildings, zero-turn mowers in garden sheds, etc. Put the additive the container BEFORE you fill it. Treat every drop you are not positively gonna use in 1 month.

Cannot comment on if "Star-Tron" is better than Stabil - I have never used Star-Tron
 
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mr72 said:
My anecdotal experience is that ethanol-free fuel alone was not enough to keep my stuff's carburetors from degrading while fuel sat in them unused over months. Also, Sta-bil brand stabilizer added to the "up to 10% ethanol" gas was worse than the ethanol-free fuel. Ethanol free fuel with Star-Tron fuel treatment at 1 oz per gallon is working perfectly, first time I ever took a carb engine out of seasonal storage and didn't have to do any reconditioning at all.

I'm gonna watch those videos above maybe someday. But my own practice is I won't trust anything but ethanol-free fuel with Star-Tron for carbureted engines.

EDIT: I couldn't help myself, watched the first two videos. Seems clear, the ethanol fuel, stabilizer or not, is a horrible idea for carburetors. And stabilizer can give an edge to non-ethanol fuel, but there's a quantum leap in performance between E10 and E0. This squares exactly with my personal experience.
Click to expand...
As you know, I use ethanol-free fuel in all my carb. machines + sta-bil. I learned the hard way many years ago on my rarely used ATV. Also, drain the carb bowl. E- fuel was mostly to find a use for excess corn ???
 
Jesse H said:
If only.

There's an entire industry with land and materials wasted to grown corn to make ethanol.
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Not to mention all the nitrous oxide produced from growing corn that greatly contributes to the level of dangerous greenhouse gases!
 
StromXTc said:
Just go get true fuel at 20 dollars a gal and also if you don't like the price of gasoline go pick up an all electric Tesla , only starts at $49,000. As our beloved president thinks, what's the big deal?
Click to expand...

And keep your generator handy so you can charge your "zero emission" vehicle when the grid crashes.

I get way better results with Star Tron then I ever did with Sta-Bil.
 
TX Papa said:
E- fuel was mostly to find a use for excess corn ???
Click to expand...

No, it was developed as a black hole in which to dump more subsidy money into, making it appear to be cheaper.
Oh, the ad campaigns for that back in Iowa as it came about were such bull droppings.
Excess corn when people around the world are starving in some places? Riiiiight.
 
Ethanol-based fuels were originally billed as an alternative to MTBE. MBTE was a fuel additive at the start of emissions as a way to provide oxygen (to complete combustion reduce CO and NOx) and an anti-knock additive (since tetraethyl lead was bad).

Then ADM etc got involved
 
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