Briggs & Stratton Blowing Smoke

[Scrubcadet10]

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Pure-gas.org - ethanol-free gasoline in the U.S. and Canada

Pure-gas.org is the definitive web site listing stations that sell pure gasoline in the U.S. and Canada.

www.pure-gas.org

 

[randyjoe]

Where can we purchase non-ethanol gas? Second question: Is stabilizer necessary for non-ethanol gas stored in gas cans for 1-3 months?

Any gas starts to go bad after 2-3 months stabilizer is always a good idea, on your gas question, most premium gas is ethanol free if in doubt ask the store manager. Water is a natural by product of ethanol fuel I add a little heet in the red can to help fight that problem

 

[bertsmobile1]

How long is a piece of string.
Some fuel in some places in some seasons will store for months while other will start to go off in a matter of minutes.
Microclimate is also a big factor as is relative humidity & dew points.
It is a lot more complicated than most think so there is no absolute answer to your question.
To this extent I offer this annodate .
My landlord & I live 400 yards apart.
He is on the top of an east facing hill & stores his current ride inside a big steel barn .
I am on the flood plane 30' lower than is barn & store my current ride outside on a paved area under a motorcycle cover .
We can both top up our tanks from the same servo at the same time on our way home.
If we miss the following fortnightly ride, his fuel will have gone off
Mine will be fine for just over a year .
AFAIK adding a stabilizer AT THE RECOMMENDED RATIO will do no harm even if not needed but may not work even if needed .

 

[Born2Mow]

Second question: Is stabilizer necessary for non-ethanol gas stored in gas cans for 1-3 months?

Third Question: If there is no ethanol present, IOW only gasoline, then exactly what would the "stabilizer" be stabilizing ?

 

[footballfan33]

Third Question: If there is no ethanol present, IOW only gasoline, then exactly what would the "stabilizer" be stabilizing ?

I was wondering the same thing. But I figured it has something to do with lower octane fuels being less stable than high octane fuels.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Even ethanol free fuel goes off now days.
For some strange reason everyone is obsessed with ethanol.
Ethanol is the devils fluid so every fuel problem has to be caused by ethanol.
The actuality could not be further away.
Petrol used to be a distilled extract from oil, but the demand soon outstripped the supply so we worked out how to combine lighter fraction together and react lighter fraction with heavier fraction and then split up the heavier fractions to the point where you got noting from a barrel of crude other than petrol & tar .
Competition between the various brands force them to always use the cheapest processing to make what you put into your tank.
Modern petrol is no longer petrol.
It s a light fuel oil with some added volatiles so there is just enough vapours to start a cold engine.
LEave a bowl of fuel ( because it is not petrol ) out in the sun for a few minutes and it will change colour.
This is the volatiles compounds evaporating off , often called aromatics because you can smell them.
LEave it for longer and it will go very dark & start to smell like the swamp it came from .
Eventually it will turn almost black become really thick & sticky and will stay like that for months till it finally becomes tar.

40 years ago if you tipped a pile of petrol ( it was petrol back then ) into a container, like an old hub cap to wash the grease off the front wheel bearings before being repacked & replaced , if you went inside for a pee, the hubcap would be bone dry when you came back .
This should bring back memories for the over 50's on the list .

Modern cars & trucks are all computer controlled fuel injected engines and will start if there is 0.01 % ( by weight ) of volatiles in the fuel.
But your mower needs 2 % .
Old stale fuel can be used if you add some acetone or start your engine with some sort of starting fluid.
Once the engine is hot there is enough energy in the hot metal head & piston to evaporate some of the heavier fractions to provide enough vapour to start the engine .
Remember only gasses can burn so if the fuel can not vapourise then it will not burn .
And a carburettor does not vapourise the fuel, it atomises it in the hope that the increased surface area will allow enough volatiles to come out of solution to start the engine .

 

[Joed756]

 

[footballfan33]

Even ethanol free fuel goes off now days.
For some strange reason everyone is obsessed with ethanol.
Ethanol is the devils fluid so every fuel problem has to be caused by ethanol.
The actuality could not be further away.
Petrol used to be a distilled extract from oil, but the demand soon outstripped the supply so we worked out how to combine lighter fraction together and react lighter fraction with heavier fraction and then split up the heavier fractions to the point where you got noting from a barrel of crude other than petrol & tar .
Competition between the various brands force them to always use the cheapest processing to make what you put into your tank.
Modern petrol is no longer petrol.
It s a light fuel oil with some added volatiles so there is just enough vapours to start a cold engine.
LEave a bowl of fuel ( because it is not petrol ) out in the sun for a few minutes and it will change colour.
This is the volatiles compounds evaporating off , often called aromatics because you can smell them.
LEave it for longer and it will go very dark & start to smell like the swamp it came from .
Eventually it will turn almost black become really thick & sticky and will stay like that for months till it finally becomes tar.

40 years ago if you tipped a pile of petrol ( it was petrol back then ) into a container, like an old hub cap to wash the grease off the front wheel bearings before being repacked & replaced , if you went inside for a pee, the hubcap would be bone dry when you came back .
This should bring back memories for the over 50's on the list .

Modern cars & trucks are all computer controlled fuel injected engines and will start if there is 0.01 % ( by weight ) of volatiles in the fuel.
But your mower needs 2 % .
Old stale fuel can be used if you add some acetone or start your engine with some sort of starting fluid.
Once the engine is hot there is enough energy in the hot metal head & piston to evaporate some of the heavier fractions to provide enough vapour to start the engine .
Remember only gasses can burn so if the fuel can not vapourise then it will not burn .
And a carburettor does not vapourise the fuel, it atomises it in the hope that the increased surface area will allow enough volatiles to come out of solution to start the engine .

I specifically mentioned the ethanol because I saw a lead mechanic for a large ranch giving a talk on small engines. He stated the "old" ethanol "gums up" and causes thing to not run great. I don't necessarily view it as a boogeyman, as much as I do a potential cause of fuel system issues.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Ethanol is fine in engines that are used very regularly like your car .
It is not fine for engines that are used infrequently
Before ethanol was introduced carbs on things like blowers & line trimmers got clogged up because unleaded is not petrol as I explained .

Now the fact that the "benefits" of ethanol are 100% bull does make me angry as I hate being lied to and I really hate governments lieing to the population en mass.
Ethanol was added to fuel for one reason & one reason alone , to reduce the amount of crude being imported from the Middle East .
The fact that it was a bonanza for corn growers & distillers so carried a couple of senate seats was a double bonus for the GOVERNMENT .

Down here there is only one distillery and funny enough it is owned by a relative of the longest serving conservative prime minister we have had in receint years .
Even more smelly is the states with conservative government strictly enforce the "you must sell E10 rule " to the point they monitor fuel stations and fine the operators if they sell more plain unleaded than E10 , the Labour states don't do it .

I hate E anything firstly because it cost me more in the long run and does less than nothing for the environment but writing a great long spiel about the sins of E10 will not help fix any problem .

What does work is tipping out the old fuel & running the whatever dry when you have finished using it. and that applies to what ever fuel was in the tank