Ethanol free gasoline

  I have used ethanol free gasoline for many years for all small engines that we have but I have thought that with newer engines perhaps it's not that important. So I thought I would ask others opinions if ethanol free gasoline should still be used for newer small engines. We have bought a new 2500 generator and thought being a new generator maybe the engine will be OK using gasoline with ethanol that times have changed. Thank you

Good day.

I will try to keep this brief, as I have been known to ramble on about small engines and what needs to be done to ensure a longer life.

ALL FUEL for small engines (or any engine that is infrequently used) should be stabilized to prevent fuel breakdown (results in gum and varnish deposits in carburetors, etc). Depending on the quality of the fuel, this can start as soon as a month or two after you bought it.

Fuel that has ethanol must be stabilized with a fuel treatment designed for it as it breaks down (and absorbs moisture while doing it).

Ethanol is junk in my books, but we have to deal with it so it doesn't destroy our small engines!

Use the best grade of fuel you can get and stabilize it right away, run your engine till the carb is empty for short term storage, run the tank empty or drain it and then run it empty for longer storage periods.

I hope this helps. (If you can get gas with no ethanol, keep using it, but still stabilize it!)

Andy

Excellent to hear you already care for your fuel, so many have no idea that consumer fuel can deteriorate quickly.

I spend quite a bit of time every year, helping people (neighbours, normally...and we just moved to a different province again this spring so have a new ones to help now) clean up their badly running small engine/carb's as they can't figure out what went wrong.

Where we live now in Manitoba only a few stations sell ethanol free gas. It is usually called marine gas as boat motors are especially susceptible to ethanol related damage.

Older boats and motors were not designed for ethanol so engines and rubber fuel lines and seals etc are easily damaged by ethanol as well. My own rule of thumb is any pre 1990's boat motor(and its fuel lines and seals) are most likely not ethanol ready and would need close inspection to confirm before using ethanol containing fuel.

Not quite on topic, but good to know anyways.

Have a good one,

Andy

I have been using just plain old unleaded gasoline my whole life (whatever they sell at Walmart, Quick Trip, BP, Phillips, Shell, etc) which I believe is 10% ethanol and 87 octane.  I use it in my lawn equipment, genset, vehicals, chainsaw, pressure/power washer, motorcycles (I do use 93 octane in those), etc. Any of those that may sit for awhile, I put seafoam in the tank, run, and park.  Never had an issue starting them back up, and run just like the day I parked them.  Alot of my equipment is pretty old, including one of my bikes which is a 2009. One year I let my power washer sit for over 2 years, 2nd pull the machine fired up!  Maybe I have been lucky!  jon

So why worry about ethanol gas and small engine maintenance when most applications you'd want a small engine for you can now  do electrically?