Ethanol

[Hip_Shot_Hanna]

I posted this in General but no one read it so i thought you folks here would like to know why your chainsaw / weed eater / 2 stroke engine wears out quicker than they used to .
ETHANOL and boats (BAD THING )

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http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps...16/1034/SPORTS

Marine board officials say they have no documentation of a marine accident yet, such as a drowning on a coastal river bar because a boat lost power because of ethanol but said it's only a matter of time.

"The ethanol eats everything up inside the engine and it eats up fiberglass tanks," Knox said. "A lot of boats have fiberglass tanks and it eats through, and then it eats through the boats because they're fiberglass, too. It eats a hole right through the bottom of the boat."

Asked if he's seen evidence, Knox said:

"A guy was in here the other day who'd just had his boat rebuilt, $7,000 or $8,000 worth. He'd had the bottom of his boat rebuilt and a new tank put in, and he was hoping there'd be enough people to get together to do a class-action lawsuit, which I would support. It would be great to put together an attack."
Seems like it eats the seals on 2 stroke engines , and just generaly eats glass fiber ..................

[farminghandyman]

so don't spill your beer.

ethanol was the original fuel it is the fuel most racers use, If it is eating rubber and gaskets it is becasue the manufacture is using cheap sub standard parts.

[Hip_Shot_Hanna]

well my brother inlaw works for a major oil company and they spent half a billion $ on pumps, pump seals and valves , valve seals last year , like he says Ethanol eats em , and adding the ethanol is one of the last jobs before loading it onto a truck , E 85 aint pumped round , they mix it at the tank farms just before delivery , its just too agressive on pipelines , now if it eats pipelines whats it doing to the insides of your engine especialy 2 strokes ?

[fordy]

Originally Posted by farminghandyman

so don't spill your beer.

ethanol was the original fuel it is the fuel most racers use, If it is eating rubber and gaskets it is becasue the manufacture is using cheap sub standard parts.

..............I was under the assumption that most racers are using pure alcohol , rather than either methanol or ethanol. Chemically , they are different and have unique properties unto themselves , I think . , fordy

[Old Vet]

Most two cycle ingine manufactrues recomemded regular gas not with ethinol. This is why. If you use regular gas it willrun fine but if you use ethenol you will have trouble later on. You can get regular gas at many places but you have to look for it.

[Windy in Kansas]

Indy cars have been using ethanol. http://www.marcodriving.com/07/race8.htm
If you read far enough (third paragraph from the bottom) it tells that all cars in the 2007 series used 100% ethanol.

This site tells of the switch from methanol to ethanol: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=104939

The 2008 Iowa Speedway event was hosted by Ethanol producers and there is already a contract for the 2009 race event.

Iowa-Iowa corn producing ethanol--and the corn producers car was making fast progress to the front of the pack--just before losing traction and crashing.

[farminghandyman]

on most small motors I have found that adding some "alcohol" actually improves the running of them, as any water in the system will move through.

(one factor, alcohol is not a volatile as gasoline so it does not vaporize as fast, also it burns slower (higher "octane" rating), and normally to get a good alcohol running motor the compression and normally you need larger jets in the carburetor,

It is a different fuel, and the characteristics of burning it are different,

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It is that it does not eat the metal pipelines as much as it cleans them, and they can not afford to have all the "crud" broke lose in the pipe lines, and many times they use the same pipe for many different items, they send one batch of some thing through and then something else, through and so on, with ethanol (why it kinda got a bad name to begin with on filters and so on as it broke all the varnish and other crap loose in the fuel tanks and lines plugging the filters, and once it is clean any pin holes that were plugged or nearly through can corrode usaly by other contaminants again forming a hole,

(yes it is hard on rubber parts) again not being formulated correctly for the chemicals that they should have been designed to possibly carry,

and the corrosion seems to Be more when the fuel is contaminated with water or other,
what I read is actuly happening is the cleaning action of the ethanol cleans the materials and then other things then can attack some metals such a s soft aluminum, as there is a galvanic action that can occure.

it is not that they could not have built a quality product, but that they apparently chose not to, as ethanol has been on the horizon ever since the 1970's and Brazil ran nearly 100% ethanol for years, it is not that they do not know how to build to resist the cleaning actions of the alcohols, but that they chose not to.

and now blame it on the fuels not there lack of building a quality product.

on some fiberglass products the resins are not compatible,

http://www.searay.com/pdf/ethanol.pdf
http://www.in.gov/idem/files/la-072-gg.pdf
http://www.nmma.org/lib/docs/nmma/gr...tion_Paper.doc

[Beeman]

Alcohol is a corrosive and it attracts water, 2 bad things for a full time fuel in a general purpose vehicle. It also doesn't mix well with general use 2 stroke oil and requires special 2 stroke oil when run straight.
Running alcohol in a race car is a whole nother deal. Anyone that runs alcohol in a race car will drain the system and run the car on gas before parking it for any length of time or they won't have a carb. They also get a large amount of water from the crankcase when they drain the oil, some drag racers will just drain out the water at the bottom each week since the water settles to the bottom of the oil pan.

[Cabin Fever]

I buy non-ethanol gasoline for all of our power equipment.

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

I buy non-ethanol gasoline for all of our power equipment.

It's getting harder to find non ethanol blended gas. You live in a state that mandated all diesel have bio blended with it, I'm surprised they didn't mandate that for gasoline.

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

I buy non-ethanol gasoline for all of our power equipment.

At most larger lakes their are places to buy regular gasoline since some of the engines only run regular gasoline and not ethanol blended gas. In some locations Exxon and others sell regular gas for a few cents higher to run on equipment. All you need to do is to ask and they will tell you if it is a ethanol blended or regular gasoline except at convince stores and they won't know.