grrrr Ethanol!!

My uncle has had everything he owns under 50 hp basically clog up and die on him this year.. I gave him back his old 20 hp two stroke that he dropped off in my old motor graveyard last year after he bought a fancy new 4 stroke 15 mercury.. when it died this year and he brought it back for warranty service the guy without looking at it told him that it was ethanol related.. and it would be about 3 months to get it fixed as he had pretty much half the motors he sold the previous season out back waiting to be fixed everyone due to damage from ethanol. My uncle was hot.. then a couple weeks later the tractor died... then the lawnmower... then the generator... near as I can figure twas the ethanol and what it did to the glue holding together the fuel water seperator element that made me rebuild two carbs for the 83 this year.

http://www.valvtect.com

We still have several stations that sale ethonal free gas. The '09 as never seen ethonal fortunately, but all the small engines and the truck get ethonal treatment additions and have never had a problem.

Maybe we here in the midwest are sending all our bad ethanol east!
I have mentioned it before but I have not had a single problem that I can relate to ethanol. Maybe so far I've just been lucky.

I do run premium in all my small equipment.

I have just switched over to using the Marine/ethanol formular of Stabil.

I do not run anything in my boats on a day to day basis.

Same here Pete.I even have gas left in the Cub I use to plow snow.I still think it's where you buy it.

My lawn boy has an all plastic carb. lasted about three years on ethanol. Since rebuilding I pay the extra 60cent per gallon for the good stuff. I also run non ethanol in the boat.

JHadji wrote: I've had luck with Marvel's Mystery Oil in the gas. Started having trouble, mostly on the low end, about 2-yrs ago when the last local gas station holdout went on this ethanol boondoggle. Still not perfect, but it was the best of the magic elixirs sampled this summer (not tried Starton yet).

John,
Marvel is a top cylinder lubricant and really not designed to go after ethanol problems. About the only thing it may do is help keep the carb internals clean. Your problem may not be ethanol related. Remember, I have had zero issues with everything that runs on gas!

What did you do when the problem came up?

BTW, I am a firm believer in Marvel but not to treat bad gas. It as well as Seafoam are the only two "snake Oils" I would ever us. Marvel is my preferred fogging oil for lay up.

My little 4 cyl. in my Atom had been rebuilt and then stored while I finished the boat. Even though it was fogged, when started it had some stuck valves. It's a common problem with a flat head due to the position the valves are in. Marveled the gas and oil and within a couple minutes, no more stuck valves!

I bought a John Deere push mower which came with a 2oz reservoir under the cap that is filled with some sort of additive that they ask that you replace when empty. Seems to work so far. I run high octane racing fuel in the dirt bikes and will use the same mix in the weed eater. Never have had a problem as there is no ethenal in it, and of coarse the weed eater straight hauls ass, but I often wonder if I'm bout to melt the SOB down!

SN206 wrote: I bought a John Deere push mower which came with a 2oz reservoir under the cap that is filled with some sort of additive that they ask that you replace when empty. Seems to work so far. I run high octane racing fuel in the dirt bikes and will use the same mix in the weed eater. Never have had a problem as there is no ethenal in it, and of coarse the weed eater straight hauls ass, but I often wonder if I'm bout to melt the SOB down!

Sounds similar to the clean idle new Ford diesels where yo add pig urine every 10,000 miles

I didn't believe my mechanic who, for two years was preaching how bad ethanol was for marine engines. Then, just this year, I decided to run through a full tank and fill up with non-ethanol. What a difference! It ran considerably smoother with more power and no more hard starts with a warm engine. But, the most noticeable difference was the engine ran about 5 degrees cooler at WOT. If I can help it, I'll never use ethanol in anything again.

There's been some talk of raising the ethanol blend from 10% to 15%. Luckily, so far it looks like it's getting squashed for the time being. It wouldn't even been good for cars made before 2006 or so. That's all we'd need as boaters!
WSJ Ethanol Article