Ethanol In Fuel

[Gregoryuw]

Hey guys , I just winterized the 2007 Vmax , put a tank of 100 octane ethanol free fuel in the bike .
This 07 is the last of the carb bikes I have , fuel sucks these days , I put 93 and marine stable in the others but did also put the 100 octane in the 2013 vmax .
I know around here in eastern PA every pump says 10% ethanol , any of you guys running into fuel problems .

 

[Tex85]

I haven't run into any problems mechanically from it yet, however I do notice a drop in gas mileage when using the stuff with 10% ethanol.

 

[one2dmax]

We have a large gas station chain that is starting to buck the system around here. QT (Quicktrip) is starting to put stations in with an ethanol free pump (was it's own pump and thought it was diesel at first before they put the labels on). Will be going out of my way to use it and convince everyone I can to use it too.

They are going to try it at a few locations and if it does well they will implement everywhere. Hopefully the trend for using it makes them quit carrying the blended crap and buck the government and show them that the public doesn't want the shit!

 

[SpecOps13]

I have heard that Ethanol is on the way out.
It has caused so many negatives in so many
directions that gas companies and Govt. want
to go back to the old standard of Non Ethanol.
Will this ever happen?, is another complete story.

 

[srk468]

Only mechanical problem I've had is it varnishes and gums the carbs up after sitting too long but that's about it. Ethanol is actually an oxygenator though so I've noticed my bike is just a little bit faster at the track using 92 pump gas vs 89 ethanol free but the mileage is a little better on the ethanol free stuff. Your results may vary though.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

The ethanol seems ok for daily use. Just don't let it sit for long....like in anything that gets used seasonally!

 

[Tex85]

I think I have seen this posted in the forum before but figured I would throw it up again for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

http://pure-gas.org

Helps you find ethanol free gas wherever you are.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[KJShover]

We don't use it up here. They tried it a long time ago, it's shit fuel for our climate. So, they ditched it and never looked back.

 

[jfeagins]

Qtrip was actually the first station offering eshit mix, but they werent required to label back then. I spent big bucks rebuilding carbs on my datsun, boat, and pickup - FOR NOTHING. I was at my wits end trying to figure out wtf, when I finally went on a vacation out of town, bought gas elsewhere and noticed the car finally running right again. Back home after vacation, fill up at QT again, and carb troubes on the car came right back. So I took my truck elsewhere to gas up as a test. It miraculously began running better too. Next trip to the lake we tried fueling the boat out of town at a diff brand station, and it also ran much better.

 

[customizedcreationz]

Lots of racers are building E85 because it makes more power than regular gas. I was amazed once I started getting into the race scene a little more.

Guys build specific E85 motors because it is oxygenated and makes more power. But yes it does not last long. MR9 and other rated MR fuels also ( being oxygenated ) dont last long at all either, but show good power increases.

I would question though, why fill up with 100 octane?

Back in the day, high octane in old motors would be used if you had detonation. If you sparked you added more octane rating till you stopped sparking , or you took out timing ( retarded it ) to reduce spark knock. Most new fuels now have all kinds of additives to keep fuel lasting longer, and higher octane fuel doesn't necessarily mean it has extra additives.

Tuning for E85 also requires more fuel ( bigger jets or longer injector pulses etc ), which then in turn uses more fuel. So using E85 in your regular car usually shows declines in mpg.

Todd

 

[one2dmax]

E85 does not make more power and in fact is harder to burn. What it does do well is allow for more compression before detonation which DOES make more power. There are significantly less BTU's in E85 when compared to most other fuels (other then pure Ethanol which is even worse). If you have a more or less stock engine then you will not see any gain at all by running E85 since the pump fuel has more then enough octane available for it.

What is becoming more common is to build engines with more compression or even more boost and run the E85 since it's cheaper then the equal race fuel. You will need approx 30% more fuel when converting to E85 with the same given engine when compared to regular/race fuel.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

No problems whatsoever with the 10% stuff.
We've had it for at least a decade here in Houston and Gulf Coast area.
I've had it sit in lawn equipment for 9-10 months with no issues, and 6-7 months in the bike.
A chainsaw I had sat for two years and fired right up, but it was 2stroke mix so don't know if that counts.
I don't use any storage additives.

 

[KJShover]

Up here in the summer, there was some complaints about it. Loss performance, corrosion etc... about the same type of complaints people have, down in the lower 48. But when winter rolled around and the interior's temps started to drop, things started to not start, run poorly and flat out shit the bed. They did some more testing then said no to the oxyfuel in the interior. Then up north, south and other parts of the state quickly followed suite. No more oxyfuel in the state of Alaska. As for the AV gas, there used to be a gas station across from the trooper's station that had the 100 low-lead at the pump.

Them were the days. Gas was about $1.40 a gal and the 100 low led at the pump was around $2/gal. Before we would go racing or getting ready for some street heat, you would see the muscle cars or other people in their trucks filling up with the avgas.

Here are some articles about what was going on up here. There were questions and studies about exposure and other things.

Exposure pdf

Alaska's Oxyfuel Anguish

 

[PaulVmax]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ethomix-E...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item588d94dbbe

try this stuff its great !

 

[cgswss]

The biggest problem with blended fules is storage. Like you, when I put the bike away for the winter, I go out of my way to get 100% gas. The blended fules will often break down in storage and give you water in the tanks. In newer bikes it should be a problem but older bikes may have gaskets and seals that dislove in the stuff.

When I used to race, we had "alcohol" Classes. (witch I ran) You have to use a LOT more alcohol to get the same power as pure gas, but if you use a way more you get great benefits form it. One thing it does is cool your pistons a LOT faster then Gas so you can run more compression and more advance. My E100 bike was much faster then my Gas bike pulse, frankly, I had to do a lot less work on it from week to week. Of couse if someone left the cap off the alcohol drum we got what we called ... Water.

If your bike gets faster with e10 or e15 gas, your bike is just jetted too rich. Its not because of and extra power in the fuel, its because you are really leaning out your carbs a little.

When I dream about building my Q ship, I have Sean build me a "E85" 1500 motor. Of course we have a problem how with having to stop for gas every 80 mile or so, with that we would have to stop every 40 mile or so!!!

 

[DMAN999]

I use Sta-bil Marine Ethinal Treatment every other tank full on my Max.
http://www.goldeagle.com/brands/stabil/
And there is a lot of info on Ethanol in fuel here:
http://www.goldeagle.com/engine_care/411onethanol.aspx

 

[johnblaid]

Ethanol in fuel sucks so bad I can't really use that kind of language here.

 

[jagco1]

Bad gas picture, came from a gas station this summer pass - bike started popping and back firing.