nivek
As Above So Below
That's one of those discussions A friend and coworker of many years takes jerry cans to other counties that do not have an ethanol mandate for his lawnmowers and old motorcycle.
From my p.o.v I use 87 octane in everything and have no choice but to use E10 - that's all there is. The only thing bad about it is the shelf life is very limited, maybe 6 months. I never let fuel sit in any of my lawn and yard equipment - run it dry before storage. Even when it gets a little stale I just toss a can of Seafoam in there - half can for 5 gallons and it's off to the races. I've had carbs apart on my lawn mowers and tractors and never found any evidence of .... anything really. Clean, rubber lines intact.
The Harley requires 92 octane from the factory so it gets the 93 that's available. It gets stored on fresh fuel with Seafoam and sometimes I even siphon the tank dry at the start of the season just to give of more fresh fuel. It's fuel injected and after 17 years of this is a happy camper.
The 'vette has a .030 over 350 small block in it, old camel hump 2.02 heads. Originally an 11:1 motor that's probably squeaking out a tad more from the overbore. I have no way to easily calculate the compression ratio but it shows a solid 215 psi per cylinder +/- only about 2-3 psi so it's tight as a drum. I'd normally expect to see maybe 180-185 psi per cylinder on the family station wagon. The previous owner - who didn't do the work - spoke of what a horsepower monster the thing was and lamented the lack of 100 octane gas. Because that's what they said to get rid of him. Comparing today's gas with the old stuff is a bit of apples and oranges.
It took me a long time to figure out what was wrong with the thing and in the end - relevant to talking about gas - it was a series of small things that added up that weren't immediately obvious. Timing, vacuum, distributor. So I've got that little pressure cooking cruising perfectly with zero detonation on 93 octane E10. I've been through the Holley 4160 carb and fuel lines, pump, filters more than once for other reasons. I dunno, it's gas, it works and doesn't do anything bad I can tell. I could get 100 octane aviation fuel - from one of the grass strips that those verdammit Hudson Valley Wave UFOs came from - but haven't found the need yet.
I had a brand new Troybilt riding mower a few years ago and used to run an ethanol mix in it, after a while it was running crappy and took it in to be serviced under warranty...The service guy told me to stop using fuel with ethanol because it gums up the carburetor...He said small engines don't burn the fuel hot enough to burn out all the ethanol, sounds legit to me so I've stuck with that premise lol...
Three weeks later my neighbor borrows my new riding mower and blew it up...So now I'm using a used craftsman riding mower I bought which I really like the hydrostatic transmission it has...Anyway I always use 93 octane straight gasoline in the craftsman and haven't had any issues with its fuel combustion...
Yeah I always drain the fuel out when storing for the winter and also remove the cutting blades and battery, then come spring like I did yesterday, I change the oil, air filter put fresh fuel in, charge and install the battery, check tires yada yada and start using it again...That craftsman I have has been a good reliable mower, I think I paid only 400 dollars for it used a few years ago, maybe 500, can't remember lol...
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