[Foxsquirrel]

I've tried various additives for the rarely used equipment to keep the fuel viable. I recently learned about aircraft fuel. My local shop, Wares in Lincoln Maine sent me to the local airport so I'll never again have to futz with the fuel on the 1973 Jacobsen that is only used for rototilling once a year. At $6 plus a gallon it's well worth it because it never goes bad .

 

[fcamp1128]

That is a nice looking tractor - one thing is for sure - they don't make them like that anymore. What has been your experience with ethanol free 91 octane gas? I have been running the ethanol free for about 4 years now in all my small engine and 2 cycle mixes and couldn't be happier with the performance and storage properties. I throw a splash of Marvel Mystery oil in now and then for good measure.

 

[plumberroy]

That is what I run 91 octane pure gas with seafoam additive . I have not had a problem with any thing since switching to it

 

[hatzie]

That is what I run 91 octane pure gas with seafoam additive . I have not had a problem with any thing since switching to it

Ethanol free is the stuff to use in your small engine... really anything with a carburetor.

I run the 91 octane Ethanol free fuel that's available from two gas stations in the area. I don't worry about additives. I mixed 5 gallons of E0 with Stihl Synthetic oil in the Green NATO Jerry can and filled all 6 Red cans with E0 91 octane last August. I just emptied the last 5 gallon RED NATO Jerry into my 60" mower. I still have about 1 gallon of mixed fuel left from last September and have zero problems with it... Yes... I painted four Jerry cans in Implement Yellow for Diesel and one blue for K-1 Kerosene along with the 6 in RED for gasoline. I don't mix em up that way.

The Tiller, Snowblower, and Pressure washer get run dry on a half pint of 2 cycle fuel after a tank drain. The Tiller and Pressure Washer don't get enough hours to even rate an oil change in one year. The snowblower stored over the hot months when any fuel inside will evaporate and make a mess of it. The other equipment doesn't get enough time off to worry about it.:tango_face_grin:

 

[TobyU]

Can't get any readily available pur gas in many areas ans no one should pay the prices for the canned stuff in the store. If you use it once a year then one oz of StaBil per gallon into an empty gas can...then fresh gas (octane and grade doesn't matter) into can. Store machine with full tank and it will start fine.
I just started two generators. Both sat for over 1.5 years. One started second pull, the other 6th pull.
I started the 11 hp old briggs a few years ago after sitting for 3 years and it fired up on 3rd pull.

 

[WrongDoug]

I can get ethanol free 90 and 110 octane but the closest gas station that sells it is a good 45 minute drive. So I may be opening a can of worms here, but does Sta-Bil work?

 

[hatzie]

Can't get any readily available pur gas in many areas ans no one should pay the prices for the canned stuff in the store. If you use it once a year then one oz of StaBil per gallon into an empty gas can...then fresh gas (octane and grade doesn't matter) into can. Store machine with full tank and it will start fine.
I just started two generators. Both sat for over 1.5 years. One started second pull, the other 6th pull.
I started the 11 hp old briggs a few years ago after sitting for 3 years and it fired up on 3rd pull.

Ethanol adversely affects the rubber compounds in the fuel system. I stay away from it in my outdoor equipment.

It's becoming more available as time marches on.
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have a lot of small municipal airports. Even if pure gasoline is 100 miles away I bet you can get Aviation Gasoline from the small airports. It's a slightly premium price but it's available and nowhere near the designer fuel price that you see at WalMart and Home Depot in quart cans.
I'm not advocating TruFuel or the various manufacturers special blends. They're out there and they might be useful to someone in suburbia that uses their chainsaw once or twice a year.

This is a map of reported E0 fuel stations. Higher octane isn't strictly neccesary. It's just how E0 is available here and a lot of other places.
https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

 

[TobyU]

Ethanol adversely affects the rubber compounds in the fuel system. I stay away from it in my outdoor equipment.

It's becoming more available as time marches on.
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have a lot of small municipal airports. Even if pure gasoline is 100 miles away I bet you can get Aviation Gasoline from the small airports. It's a slightly premium price but it's available and nowhere near the designer fuel price that you see at WalMart and Home Depot in quart cans.
I'm not advocating TruFuel or the various manufacturers special blends. They're out there and they might be useful to someone in suburbia that uses their chainsaw once or twice a year.

This is a map of reported E0 fuel stations. Higher octane isn't strictly neccesary. It's just how E0 is available here and a lot of other places.
https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

I have watched puregas.org for a number of years.
Closed to me is a marina or airport. I don't consider either "readily available"
If it is not at a local gas station whether at a separate pump of not....it's not readily available.
I will agree the price is much better than the canned gas in stores.

I HATE ethanol but I do this EVERY DAY with small engines and pure gas is nice but just not necessary. Use REAL Tygon stamped fuel line for small ones and you don't even need to use stabil or other good stabilizer all year long on mowers.
One that is clean and running fine will be fine on standard pump gas it is after the off season layup (for the many who have one) that there can/will be problems.
If you simply make sure the last time you use the mower...you DO NOT grab your 5 gal can and see it has 2 inches in it and think "Great! I have just enough to cut my yard with" -----pout that old stuff in your car, go with empty can ans stabilizer to station, pour 1 full ounce for every gallon of gas then get gas, go home and fill up mower, then cut grass, then refill mower and leave until needed next time----and you'll be just as good as using pure gas with no additives.

I wish I had local gas station ethanol free fuel but I am not going to inconvenience myself when plain old pink stabil gets the job done.

Note: never buy at parts store.
Here it is 13.99 at local auto part stores. Walmart 8.88, Meijer 8.99-9.99, Rural King 8.99-9.99 sale dependent for quart bottles.

 

[Mike Milburn]

I always put stabilizer in my fuel. When I know the machine is going to be laid up for awhile such at the end of the year, I overdose it with stabilizer. I've never had a problem yet, (As he knocks on wood LOL).
I check the fuel around here every month or so and luckily have not found any ethanol yet...............Mike

 

[Foxsquirrel]

Mostly I don't need aircraft fuel. I did lose an engine to ethanol some years ago. My first tractor, a late 50's unknown brand, dragged home from a dump, first had an old B&S 1.5 hp motor from a concrete vibrator. After it literally fell apart I had a 3hp B&S motor that did fine until ethanol, then kept getting plugged because the gaskets melted. NOTE- the modern 3hp engine was as powerful as the old engine. I replaced that engine with a newer "3hp" engine that runs fine with ethanol, though it's not as powerful as the old engines. Good thing tractors have torque!

I'm not about to use expensive aircraft fuel in all five tractors. The Ferguson TO 30 having been designed for Farmers with more common sense than education has a fuel drain plug for storage.

I'll only use aircraft fuel in the equipment that can't be drained easily, like the "David Bradley".

 

[hatzie]

I have four regular old fashioned gas stations in the area along with seven marinas and eight municipal airports that will sell fuel to the public using a credit card.
AvGas isn't over $5 a gallon at the grass airstrips 91 Zero Ethanol was around $3.50 a gallon before Memorial day when I bought 30 gallons in Warren. Boat fuel is likely around $4/gal before the summer people arrive.

AvGas is an option where there are no others but it's my last choice.

The rubber fuel line is not the only rubber in the fuel system. I've replaced Walbro 2 stroke carbs and crankcase seals on Pre-EPA Stihl FS76 line trimmers that I picked up cheap because they couldn't make em run. The carbs, seals, and fuel lines were completely knackered. The rubber diaphragms and fuel lines disintegrated and plugged stuff up and the seals were shot. No amount of hot ultrasonic carb dip is going to clear that out of those little cubes even if you make a batch of the old dangerous Methylene Chloride and MethylPhenol based stuff.
The gaskets and o-rings on the antique small and large engines swell up and get nasty on ethanol too. Not remotely worth it for me to run E10 or worse yet E15.

Just to add insult to injury E10 & E15 gasoline gets rancid faster than Ethanol free.

 

[TobyU]

I don't have anywhere near those kind of problems with stuff as long as I use stabil in the fuel at 1 oz per gallon. It cost me .28 cents per gallon more Which is far cheaper then buying gas at a marina or Airport. I would gladly buy ethanol free fuel if it were only 10 or 15 more cents per gallon but I don't know of anywhere around here that I can guarantee it is pure fuel. I will have to make me a tester and check. I don't trust what they say. Also, some of the stations that do this only will do it for their premium or their mid-grade or whatever. Around here almost every station has gone to. 20 or $0.30 more for each grade. Now if one station has ethanol-free fuel for 10 to $0.15 more than other stations standard grade fuel I would buy it but if I have to buy the premium at $0.60 more per gallon to get ethanol free fuel it is not worth it. I start things that have been sitting for 2 and 3 years with fresh stabilize fuel in them and have no issues.

 

[c5rulz]

AV gas is super stuff for storing equipment. It has a much longer shelf life than E free gas. Ethanol is absolutely awful and will never be put in any of my lawn care equipment.

AV gas is like the gas we had when we were kids. You never heard of fuel related problems back then.

Ever heard of a plane going down because of bad fuel?

 

[plumberroy]

Mostly I don't need aircraft fuel. I did lose an engine to ethanol some years ago. My first tractor, a late 50's unknown brand, dragged home from a dump, first had an old B&S 1.5 hp motor from a concrete vibrator. After it literally fell apart I had a 3hp B&S motor that did fine until ethanol, then kept getting plugged because the gaskets melted. NOTE- the modern 3hp engine was as powerful as the old engine. I replaced that engine with a newer "3hp" engine that runs fine with ethanol, though it's not as powerful as the old engines. Good thing tractors have torque!

I'm not about to use expensive aircraft fuel in all five tractors. The Ferguson TO 30 having been designed for Farmers with more common sense than education has a fuel drain plug for storage.

I'll only use aircraft fuel in the equipment that can't be drained easily, like the "David Bradley".

Definitely a Frankenbradley cool though

 

[Tractor-Holic]

AV gas is super stuff for storing equipment. It has a much longer shelf life than E free gas. Ethanol is absolutely awful and will never be put in any of my lawn care equipment.

AV gas is like the gas we had when we were kids. You never heard of fuel related problems back then.

Ever heard of a plane going down because of bad fuel?

I have heard of a few small planes like Cesna's crashing due to bad gas after taking off from small local airports ,but it was water in it,not the fuel's fault...
Some went down due to carb icing also when weather conditions were ideal for it to happen..

I never had much trouble with carbs in my youth on my go-cart,mini-bikes and motorcycles,or even my cars--it wasn't until the 90's when the gas started being spiked with ethanol ,that old carbed engines started having problems..

I remember the "oxogenated" fuel that came out around 1992 cut my gas mileage down by nearly 5 mph and I could tell the engine had less power..when I drove my '81 Chevy van to Nashville in 1992,after I used up two tanks of gas bought in MA and CT,I noticed right away it was running better and had more guts after I started filling it with non-ethanol gas in PA and TN...soon as I got home and filled it here,it went back to running "eh"..

 

[Nouveau Redneck]

Ethanol adversely affects the rubber compounds in the fuel system.

That is only true for fuel systems in vehicles and equipment that were built before they started adding ethanol to gasoline. All fuel systems since then have been designed for gasoline with ethanol, and use materials made to work with up to 10% ethanol without deteriorating.

 

[hatzie]

That is only true for fuel systems in vehicles and equipment that were built before they started adding ethanol to gasoline. All fuel systems since then have been designed for gasoline with ethanol, and use materials made to work with up to 10% ethanol without deteriorating.

That's all of my lawn and garden equipment. My Troy Bilt Horse IV Tiller, 1994 Bunton BG52 Mower, Stihl line trimmer brush cutters, Blower, and Chainsaws are all mid 1990's that were made post Ethanol but didn't fare well on it. I also have a 1972 Horse I with the original Lawson Tecumseh HH motor. All of them came to me cheap because of runability issues or dead carbs related to Ethanol fuel.

I have one Horse I and one Horse II that are re-powered with modern Asian motors that have never seen Ethanol and will not while in my possession. Honda and Predator claim they will run fine on E10 but not on E15. My read is just say no...

My experience with carburetors on outdoor equipment made in the last two decades tells me that they are not designed to put up with Ethanol fuel either. Yes the fuel lines and some of the internal rubber components were changed on the more expensive machines but Ethanol still chews the carburetor castings up.

Red AvGas contained Lead. Green Avgas is unleaded but it still has lower levels of aromatics, benzene, and other undesirables than pump gas.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

That is only true for fuel systems in vehicles and equipment that were built before they started adding ethanol to gasoline. All fuel systems since then have been designed for gasoline with ethanol, and use materials made to work with up to 10% ethanol without deteriorating.

Yes,then "they" decided to jack up the percentage to 15% ...:tango_face_sad:
It's coming...soon...

Also,who knows just how much ethanol really gets added to the gas ?..
I bet some samples would far exceed 10%...who keeps tabs on that ?..

E85 is 85% ethanol,I can imagine what that does to some older carbs & fuel systems--and engines..never seen any for sale here in MA yet..

 

[TobyU]

I used to use the oxygenated fuel back when we had emission testing and it seemed to run a little bit cleaner if you had one that was having a hard time passing. Of course we got good at hooking up EGR valves and adjusting timing and everything to get to pass on hydrocarbons and then put them back to the way they ran the best soon as we passed the test. It was only every other year. Thank God they got rid of that. I never saw that much of a reduction in fuel mileage. Not 5 MPG. I've never seen 5 MPG reduction in mileage between any forms of fuel not even pure gas vs. Ethanol. Maybe two and a half 2 and 3/4 in a worst-case scenario.

 

[ChuckT]

I have recently switched to non-ethanol gas from a new WAWA, they've built 3 of them in town.