Posted on 02/07/2011 10:53:54 AM PST by thackney
...and he filled tanks feeding the boat’s 200 horsepower Mercury engine with gas that had been blended with 10 percent ethanol.
“I heard a station in Greenville had straight gas, but I just took it to the next one I could find. Within 10 minutes, my engine started failing,” Gray said. “(The ethanol) had crystallized and crumbled and had clogged my fuel line, and I had to tear out all of the fuel system.”
Gray saved hundreds of dollars by repairing it himself, but his troubles with the motor are nothing new to marine shop owners, lawn mower mechanics and car enthusiasts familiar with the additive’s apparent incompatibility with small engines and older car engines.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
Modern small engines can tolerate ethanol fuels. Older models are likely to have substances in their fuel lines, gaskets, plugs, tank linings, etc. that was designed with pure hydrocarbon fuel in mind and which adversely reacts with ethanol.
Great debate, at least, exists over whether using ethanol instead of petroleum is a net petroleum saver.
...and it will be made by GE in China.
Cornhucksters: Ethanol Salesmen Who Would Be President
In a National Review Online op-ed earlier this month, Katrina Trinko observed that four of the potential candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination are stuck on ethanol:
http://www.politicallore.com/economy/cornhucksters-ethanol-salesmen-who-would-be-president/1788
Pawlenty signs bill increasing ethanol content in gasoline
(May 10,2005)
St. Paul, Minn. — Gov. Pawlenty signed the ethanol mandate into law at a gas station that sells E-85, a blend containing 85-percent ethanol.
The new law would double the state’s current requirement that all gasoline sold in the state contain 10 percent of the corn-based additive.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/05/10_ap_ethanol/
Corngas- it’s RINOliscious!
My 1998 Subaru gets +2 MPG (24 v. 22) with straight gas. That’s about a 10% improvement. When I can buy real gas for a 10% or less additional cost, I do it.
It runs better on real gas too.
Ethanol sucks.
I had to have my old Evinrude boat motor overhauled when the ethanol ate through the fuel pump and carbuerator. The mechanic had a wall lined up with over 50 engines that had the exact same problem.
That’s an expensive (>$300) fix!
Would that be OK for you?
I think we can arrange that regulation...
Interesting, thanks. My lawn tractor is a 1992 MTD model so I’m not sure about it. Service guy told me “never sell it, they’re not made like this anymore”.
Link for non-alcohol 2 stroke premix.http://www.trufuel50.com/ Klotz has alcohol free race gas for sale in 5 gallon pails. Yes I know it is expensive.
It didn’t happen. Ethanol doesn’t “crystallize.”
This reporter is an idiot. But the “blame ethanol” crowd will eat it up.
I will concur on the 10% increase in mileage.
the mower deck is a tri-rotor 48” and is also equally awesome.
I always run 91 octane Premium, which by law HAS to be unoxgenated and unmixed with Ethanol. I also run it in my 400 HP 350 chev. Mercruiser, 26’ Wellcraft aft-cabin cruiser. Almost zero maintenance and all systems run flawlessly.
I believe that 91 Oct. Premium is mandated nationally to be ethanol free and unoxygneated is it not?
There is no reason in today’s computer controlled fuel injected engines for ethanol to be mixed in with gas. The computers know and adjust their fuel/air mixtures as they need to to burn very efficiently. Ethanol isn’t needed to have a more complete burn.
You waste more gas having to truck corn to ethanol plants.
You waste more gas having to truck ethanol from the ethanol plants to the gas companies for mixing.
You waste a LOT of fresh water converting corn to ethanol.
You pollute groundwater MORE with gas+ethanol than just straight gas.
You take away more farmland for human food when farmers plant feed-style corn for ethanol. You raise food prices and create more shortages as well.
You damage engines, gaskets and rubber components in your vehicle because of ethanol. Dissolves/weakens rubber/plastic, causing them to outgas (break down, become brittle/crack) far more rapidly than normal.
You force subsidies (taxes) on everyone to make it.
A gallon of gas+ehtanol has less energy than a gallon of straight gas. Ethanol has less energy in it than gas, meaning you can’t get as much work out of it than pure gas. Which means your miles per gallon decreases.
Ethanol has already lost that debate. Even Gore, not exactly a bright bulb, has realized it. Ethanol was an act of desperation, something the environmental extremists had to put up to prove an alternative energy exists, something they thought could work now, rather than some point in the future when the technology is better. It had the political plus of providing subsidies to farmers and ethanol producers. Money and fun for all, except the end users. Fact is, the modern world needs carbon fuels to run, and there is nothing to take their place, excepting nuclear energy for the power grids.
I hear ya. I run my smaller engines dry but I haven’t been doing that on my tractor. Perhaps I should install a gas
valve to do that. Thanks!
- First of all, realize that corn is processed to not only produce direct food products, like corn meal, corn chips, and animal feeds, but also to produce indirect products like corn starch (much of which is used in paper production) and corn oil.
- You waste more gas having to truck corn to ethanol plants. It normally has to be shipped somewhere for processing by either truck or rail Unless the individual farmer uses it for his own livestock), so little or no difference if it goes for ethanol or food production.
- You waste more gas having to truck ethanol from the ethanol plants to the gas companies for mixing. The end product has to be shipped to some market, so little or no difference if it goes for ethanol or food production.
I’ve never had a problem either. Early 80’s JD 318 lawn mower has never skipped a beat. Same with all of our pickups and our older Cobalt inboard boat.
I also run all of my engines(snowblowers, chainsaw, string trimmers, hedge trimmer) dry.
I have had to rebuid and replace 2 carbs.
I have replaced fuel lines.
I always put fuel stabalizer in the 2 gallon can I use for the small engines.
I have a buddy who turns off his fuel at the tank and drains the bowl on the carb after every use of his snowblower.
Yet, the EPA in its infinite wisdom , has decided to increase the ethanol limit to 15%.
The reason that ethanol made it’s way into gasoline at all was that the EPA considered an oxygenate to be a requirement in gasoline for reduction of CO emissions.
Now, you’re right that a closed-loop EFI engine does NOT need any oxygenate at all - regardless of whether we’re talking about MTBE or ethanol.
But when MTBE became a huge problem for groundwater sources, the EPA cast around and found only two other alternatives: methanol and ethanol.
The farm lobby jumped up with ethanol as a solution and here we are.
Do we need either methanol or ethanol? No, not as long as we’re talking closed-loop EFI.
BTW - as far as MPG issues go: Ferrari (you know, the Italian sports car maker?) has produced a version of their 430 Spider engine that gets better mileage and produces higher HP on E-85 than on straight gasoline. It is only a concept to prove it could be done, since they don’t envision selling many Ferrari’s into the midwest, where E-85 is widely available.
I’ll let people here ponder that for awhile as to how they did it. Other engineers (and I know who you are ;-) ), keep quiet for a bit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.