Ethanol Free Gas

I insure my Commando with Hagertys and periodically get a magazine. The magazine does not seem to cover bikes, but this month there is a short piece about Ethanol free gas. They give a web site that shows where to find Ethanol free gas by region. There are apparently a lot of them, except in So. Cal. (RATS!!!) I thought a few of you might want to know.

http://www.historicvehicle.org/Commissions/Commissions/Legislative/Pure-Gas-Map

http://www.historicvehicle.org/Commissi ... /Northwest

Speaking about RATS, or at least the problems our elected ones cause us. A friend of mine has been doing several experiments to see how modern Californian bought gas screws up things and those of you running Amal carbs might like to know (or you might not ) that after a few test he found that in less than two weeks time ( 10 days ) the Viton tips of newly bought Amal float needles expanded by 10 thousands of a inch. He says they must not be made with the newer Viton type GF that is more ethenol resistant. He started testing this stuff because the float needles in Linkart carbs were expanding so much that they would litteraly cut off the gas flow!!! Not sure yet how much more the Amal float needle tips will keep expanding, only time will tell & FWIW they are all the brass type. We now have some of the Aluminum float needles & will test them to see if it's the same type of Viton. It all adds up to the same thing said here before, Ethonal gas sucks!!!

I have had tons of calls and work the last few weeks on Chain saws, weedeaters, lawnmowers, and my fleet of motorcycles. All with ethanol related damage. Gummed up carbs, blocked filters and ruptured and or swollen fuel lines. And the calls keep coming. It's great for business, but bad for being able to use the item when needed.

That site shows 3 places to get ethanol free fuel in my town. I have been to all 3 and talked to the managers. One of the stations still has ethanol free signs up but all 3 said they had not had ethanol free fuel for a year or two. Jim

comnoz said:

That site shows 3 places to get ethanol free fuel in my town. I have been to all 3 and talked to the managers. One of the stations still has ethanol free signs up but all 3 said they had not had ethanol free fuel for a year or two. Jim

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I guess I'm more lucky, so far. The one place I went did have it (at a premium) and I hope the fiberglass tanks on my Bultacos are happy. Next tank for the Norton hopefully will be alcohol free too.

BigBird, you're the man! I noticed that Eureka was included in the Northwest map, looked it up and there it was. Going to start filling there tomorrow and see what difference it makes. 92 octane ethanol free

http://www.rennerpetroleum.com/

AVGAS, thats the trick, smells awesome.

don't think we'll have to worry about it much longer
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_senate_ethanol

Josh Cox said:

AVGAS, thats the trick, smells awesome.

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Nice colour too, and it runs good.

Dave
69S

pelican said:

don't think we'll have to worry about it much longer
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_senate_ethanol

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Yeah, if the House of Representatives and the President agree.
Remember, the abolition of the tax incentives for ethanol is part of/depends upon a deal being arrived at on increasing the US' debt ceiling.

true, but ethanol is getting a lot of complaints as we are well aware. The longer it's around the more people hate it. It's basically a big scam. Even if they don't end it on this vote I think it will come up again because there's too many angry people denouncing it right now. At least we can keep our fingers crossed.

Don't I remember that a large part of going to ethanol was pollution reduction? They may stop the ethanol subsidy, but may still require it due to carbon emissions. But doesn't corn turn into carbon when it burns too? I'm just saying that don't bet they'll stop putting corn in gas just because they don't get extra bucks for growing corn. It would be nice though. I seem to remember they only did it in the winter (or summer?) around here for a long time or was that other crap that was giving people cancer?

Dave
69S

It's all so artificial. Politicized science.

The dictat of those concerned about smog is that there shall be oxygenates in gasoline. Straight gasoline floats on top of a lake or water table; oxygenates dissolve in it.

The first choice of Cal-EPA and EPA was MTBE. To be sure, crony capitalist factions in the oil industry pushed it too - on their competitors - getting authorities to require all to buy it and use it. The unintended but predictable consequence was water pollution whenever gasoline storage tanks leaked or were overfilled or when anyone with a 2 stroke ran their outboard on a reservoir. While ethanol is not as toxic, it too dissolves in and is bad for groundwater, just not as bad.

Both MTBE and ethanol move through the soil faster than gasoline because of their solubility in water; they have subsurface mobility. The other components of gasoline - benzene, tolulene and the rest - float on top of ground water and bacteria in the soil metabollizes them. Those gasoline components, if introduced to a reservoir tend to float to the top where they evaporate but the oxygenates tend to dissolve into the water.

I filled up with 4 gals of ethanol-free. Bike ran worse. Tweaked the carbs but I think it's not use to pure gas. :mrgreen:

It's already addicted.

Dave
69S

Ethanol in gas is a boondoggle. Is the energy return on investment greater than 1.1 (100 BTUs in 110 BTUs out ) ? At $0.45 a gallon, I aught to be making it. Corruption pure and simple. Dave, if the non-oyx gas doesn't eat Bultaco tanks, let me know. Er, ah, my Commando runs fine on E10...

Greg

'71 Sherpa S (not T)
'69 Matador
'66 Metralla (almost)