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High ethanol problems?

gadzooks

gadzooks

Member
There has been a widespread problem in my area of Virginia lately with gasoline reaching the service stations with too much ethanol. The limit is 10 percent ethanol, but hundreds of complaints to the state led to an investigation of service stations, and they found that some of them had gasoline with as much as 50 percent ethanol. I have read in the newspaper what happens to cars, but what can happen to a motorcycle?
 
I work on boats in Maryland and we have E10 here as well.

The problems with ethanol are:

It is a solvent so it cleans up everything in your tank. That is fine if your tank is clean, but guess where any trash is going?

It absorbs water. Not a problem with newer cars as their tank is not vented to atmosphere while sitting. Most motorcycles are and this allows water to be absorbed into the fuel.

It can be corrosive. You may have to upgrade to an alcohol safe fuel line. Some fuel hose has a plastic type liner that melts when ethanol is used in it.

It actually is a pretty good fuel, but you will burn more to make the same power as gasoline. So the higher the ethanol content, the worse the gas mileage. If they are really running 50% ethanol, you may find your bike running lean.

As long as you ride your bike a lot, the E10 should not be a problem. I have talked with fuel guys and they say it, E10, starts coming out of phase in as little as two weeks. Yamaha outboards recommends running fuel stabilizer year round. The water it absorbs can damage fuel injectors and high pressure fuel pumps. I have pulled pumps out of boats that are actually rusted because of the water in the fuel.

Just gives you a reason to ride more.:)

Ride Safe!

FWIW, I have been running the E10 in my bike for over a year and no problems. No fuel stabilizer either, I ride as much as I can.

Watch out if it is really 50% ethanol. I am almost positive you will be running lean. That could definately NOT be cool.
 
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Good post Sheepdogmarine...only thing I can add is Ethenol is basically a filler additive to make fuel "stretch" farther, trumped up by the oil companies as really necessary and put into service quickly as the "darling" that would save our gas reserves. I did notice that my gal's Honda Civic fuel mileage went from 40 mpg to less than 30 mpg combined city and highway...so not much savings as far as the consumer, but the petrol manufacturers made out like bandits...hmm extra money for reformulated gas during the summer AND less gas use by 15% or more...small wonder they scored so well on Wall Street.

The long term effects are being felt years later as dissolving resins in fiberglass fuel tanks, rusting in unlined fuel tanks, rubber component deterioration. And of course the source is GREEN biofuel eh...FOOD resources like corn and soy converted to FUEL...which of course the big unspoken question...where did the money go and who continues to benefit from this...certainly not the rider or consumer. Now don't you feel better that you can breath easier, but the price of food just went up again, as well as more maintenance on our rides. JMO :small3d015:
 
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You are right, it is a filler additive, but it will work as a fuel by itself.

Problem is you need to use more. Ask anyone with a E85 car how much their fuel mileage dropped when running straight E85 as opposed to E10. I'll bet it is 25-30%. So where is the savings? There is none.

Another problem it created, and if you own horses, you will know what I mean, is that it drove up hay prices. Many farmers quit growing hay and grow more corn because they can make more money. Hay prices near us nearly doubled and it is hard to find.

And now they are pushing E15!

Nuff said! Don't want to turn this into a political post.:small3d015:
 
Sheepdogmarine said:
You are right, it is a filler additive, but it will work as a fuel by itself.

Problem is you need to use more. Ask anyone with a E85 car how much their fuel mileage dropped when running straight E85 as opposed to E10. I'll bet it is 25-30%. So where is the savings? There is none.

Another problem it created, and if you own horses, you will know what I mean, is that it drove up hay prices. Many farmers quit growing hay and grow more corn because they can make more money. Hay prices near us nearly doubled and it is hard to find.

And now they are pushing E15!

Nuff said! Don't want to turn this into a political post.:small3d015:
Click to expand...

the pumps here in SC have to post on the pump if there using ethanol as an octane booster i had a new z-71 that was flex fuel it got 20mpg with 87 gas and 14mpg e85 the only pump i've found around here thats not using ethanol is WAL-MART gas lol can u beleave that?
 
Yeap part of the problem is the tanker driver.Lets say hes at the the rack getting loaded and lets say hes lazy.You see the ethanol is first to be loaded so if there is any diesel or other fuel left in compartment or WATER this gets mixed in he was supposed to drain this before loading trust me its a pain.second thing that can happen is whats called a hot load to much ethanol mixed in.third what stations that never had this in there tanks are now full of water and you cant just keep adding more ethanol to it it makes more lets say there's 2 inches of water and you just added 2000 gallons of fuel well now you get 4 inches of water in tank ethanol is nothing but garbage but we are stuck with it because of the gores of the world.The fix there is a chemical that will dissolve the ethanol cant say out load what it is EPA cops might beat me up like Jesse james:s

Ok ok the chemical name is pure gasoline no additives nothing added. Here in Michigan it can be found at personal storage tanks :s.Landscapers construction companies the big 3,farmers.They get the fuel ordered that way because there not a station going through 10,000 gallons a week and so they don't want the ethanol in there fuel because of water it attracts.If these guys did they would have leaking tanks from rust or on the older fiberglass tanks the risen gets sucked out.
 
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