Regular with up to 10% booze-a-haul, or high octane w/out?
- Thread starter Toadmund
- Start date
I have a two stroke 50 HP Yamaha outboard on my boat. It ran fine for five years, I took the carbs out and cleaned them every year, then they switched to ethanol.....
It hasn't lasted a season yet without crapping out. I have drained the tank, rebuilt the carbs three times, installed a fuel/water separator....etc....
Yeah I'm not a big fan of ethanol.
It hasn't lasted a season yet without crapping out. I have drained the tank, rebuilt the carbs three times, installed a fuel/water separator....etc....
Yeah I'm not a big fan of ethanol.
Ask Brazil, they produce tons of Ethanol and most things run on an even higher content of ethanol. For a while, it was mandatory to have 25% ethanol. Engines can easily be made to do it, but I would prefer not to with our engines. They are already cheap engines, with cheap seals and gaskets, and are of cheap aluminium. The ethanol does not help this. It seems after I switched to pure gas, my crank seals haven't been wearing out anymore. I use 89 octane pure gas at stations I can find it, and the 93 premium pure gas at the other stations. I messed with the head and get pretty high compression, so I don't mind using the high octane, and when I get 125mpg, the cost difference is marginal.
Plastic, no (they sell it in the drugstore in plastic bottles), but it will soften latex rubber.
When I switched from the 10% ethanol to "non-oxygenated" gasoline my snow blower ran way better. So I tried it in my lawn mower, Vespa, and Motorized Bicycle. I think every small engine user should stay away from the cheap stuff.
There is a noticeable decrease in power when using ethanol fuel, because the amount of energy in gasoline is higher than in the same amount of ethanol. If an engine is not designed for use with ethanol fuel, it's not going to run as well. That means that our engines will perform better on pure gasoline than on E10.
Still, that's not to say that an engine couldn't be made to run well on ethanol. But if you want to go all-out on performance, pure gas is the way to go. In fact, I think some hardware stores sell jugs of pure gas at a pretty fair price.
Like I said before, the only parts in these engine kits(or mine, anyway) that seem to become damaged by ethanol is the fuel line, the rubber thing in the petcock(throw that junk in the trash anyway!), and the blue float bowl seal on the NT carb. All of those things can be easily replaced with quality ethanol-resistant parts. The only reason our engines should be damaged by ethanol is if the parts are poor quality. Most gas now is E10, so the parts that come with our kits should be made to withstand ethanol. I have also taken a look at my bearing seals and I have not seen any noticeable damage. But then again, who knows what different kinds of cheap hardware they throw into these china girls.
I doubt that ethanol can cause any serious harm, but the idea that pure gasoline works better overall is a well substantiated claim.
Still, that's not to say that an engine couldn't be made to run well on ethanol. But if you want to go all-out on performance, pure gas is the way to go. In fact, I think some hardware stores sell jugs of pure gas at a pretty fair price.
Like I said before, the only parts in these engine kits(or mine, anyway) that seem to become damaged by ethanol is the fuel line, the rubber thing in the petcock(throw that junk in the trash anyway!), and the blue float bowl seal on the NT carb. All of those things can be easily replaced with quality ethanol-resistant parts. The only reason our engines should be damaged by ethanol is if the parts are poor quality. Most gas now is E10, so the parts that come with our kits should be made to withstand ethanol. I have also taken a look at my bearing seals and I have not seen any noticeable damage. But then again, who knows what different kinds of cheap hardware they throw into these china girls.
I doubt that ethanol can cause any serious harm, but the idea that pure gasoline works better overall is a well substantiated claim.
