Anybody heard anything about what this is doing to snowmobile engines? Any other type of engine?

 

Makes them purr like kitten.

 

About the only gas I find in SW Florida is ethanol. My bike seems to run fine on it. If I had a choice I probably woudn't use it.
Tom

 

Ethanol is only a problem at todays formula with old fuel hoses and sitting. We have problem with it sitting in fuel tanks with humidity on the coast. Condensate and ethanol separate from gas and form crap in the tanks. The solution is change out all old rubber fuel lines. Store no gas in anything but cans. Use a inhibitor and run equipment enough to burn up aging fuel. This works with our generators , boats , mowers and anything with a gas engine. I figure snowmobiles would have the same problems sitting but I don't know for sure. Never seen a snowmobile except on TV or pictures.

 

I was just asking because I didnt know if it affected motorcycles in the same way since up here in the northeast they are stored for about 6 months

 

There are quite a few topics on this forum about ethanol in the gas. So my comment might be kind of a repeat.

But for the original poster, I read a lot about this. Most states allow or have it mandated that the gas must contain 10% ethanol. It doesn't really hurt the vehicle but it will run differently, expecially if you are NOT fuel injected.

If you have been running non ethanol gas and swith over, you will most likely notice a difference in performance for about 3 tank fulls of gas. Then the computer will have had time to adjust for the difference.

But no matter what you do, you will NOT get as good of mileage as you were before. With just 10% ethanol added, you mileage will drop, average is about 15% drop in mileage. Obviously the drop depends on a lot of factors, but with all my vehicles, it's about 15% across the board.

I have a BMW car and I live in Oregon. A year ago, Oregon did NOT have ethanol in the gas, but then they got the idea to mandate 10% in the gas. The first time I filled up the BMW it ran like crap, a VERY noticible decline in performance and mileage. The BMW dealer said to give it a few tanks full of gas for the computer to adjust. It did and it runs find now but my mileage is about 15% less than it used to be. And so are all my other vehicles.

They say 10% won't hurt anything inside the engine.

Hope this gives you a little better unstanding.

 

Here's what i've heard & read about demon ethanol:

It does eat seals & gaskets over time.

It costs more to refine a gallon of ethanol than it does to refine gasoline.

It takes more energy to do the refining.

Ethanol, in its production & useage, produces between 5% and 30% more carbon emissions than gasoline.

And (this I got out of a recent issue of American Iron), in order to get the peak efficiency out of a given amount of fuel, it takes 7 parts of regular gas to one part air in an internal combustion engine. The same engine, running ethanol, takes up to 27 parts of fuel to one part air to get the same mileage.

Ethanol sucks. It is subsidized by our government, thereby raising other associated costs, like food, and forced upon us as consumers, limiting our freedom of choice.

If a thing (fuel, in this case) has commercial viability, it will succeed in the marketplace all on its own. It shouldn't need government assistance, except to push an agenda.

Granted, as far as my truck goes, I'd LOVE to be able to plug it into the wall and charge it up over night, then drive it all day at freeway speeds. But the technology just isn't there yet. Conservation makes sense, but not when it is used as a political leverage point.

<end rant>

 

I wanted to respond to this post alone because I happen to live right smack in the middle of 1,100 acres that does produce corn for ethanol use and I use that ethanol in pretty much everything I have with an internal combustion engine and this would include the 2 strokes which are far more sensitive to fuel than my 4 strokes. E10 fuels are fine in modern equipment. Yes, you may notice a small change in their respective fuel efficiency, which in my case is between 3 and 5% on a bad day.

When you calculate the cost of producing 1 gallon of either ethanol or gasoline this can be real tricky as one must ask what factors were used in calculating the actual energy costs per gallon of refined fuel. Do we calculate the loss of land required to grow the crop? Do we calculate the cost of fuel and machinery required to maintain that crop> Do we throw in the shipping cost of each barrel of crude? Do we calculate the energy costs for pumping the crude out of the ground and so on. Ultimately the cost per gallon can be driven by so many outside sources it becomes very difficult to get a straight answer.

You wouldn't want to eat the corn we grow for ethanol production any more than you would eat a rotten apple. Additionally, some of the corn we grow is used for livestock feed so the entire 1,100 acres doesn't go for the production of ethanol.

 

Other than the deterioration, which happens quickly with reformulated there are not a lot off problems with 4 cycles, (other than ****ty mileage). 2 cycle, especially chain saws, blowers etc is a different story. Moisture will mix with the alcohol and drop to the bottom of the tank, right where the fuel pickup is. At startup you will be sucking alcohol and the water, no oil mix. According to Stihl and Husky a good idea is to shake up the machine prior to use and the fuel container prior to filling the tank

 

This is normal when you own a 2 stroke machine. If it's a bike that means shaking it around a bit before starting and this isn't just because you are running ethanol fuels. The oil and gas mix needs to be shaken too. If the gas is in a Dalmer or a fuel tank you have to shake it up good before putting it in you tank for sure and this happens even if you have zero ethanol.