You guys must have some seriously crappy fuel in Cali. I have not had many of these issues and i know our gas is on the crappy side.
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Hi everyone,
As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.
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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.
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Thanks for your patience and support!
Here is something to think about ! Gas is worse than I thought !
- Thread starter GaryM
- Start date
Startron and Stabil work great, nearly identicle products. Seafoam needs to be avoided because it contains high %'s of alcohol which adds to the problem. I also use Xylene, though not available to us Californians, we can buy it in AZ. Xylene will increase the octane numbers closer to 100.
Interesting about the seafoam. I have a snowmobile buddy that swears by Xylene which you can get at home depot here.
Does it remove water as well?
Tinken
Husqvarna
Pro Class
I buy it at Home Depot or Lowes in Arizona. I'm not sure if it is hydrophillic or not. It keeps my 511 and other high compression engines from pinging and they tend to run cooler too. I mix startron/stabil as recommended and add 1 to 2 ounces of xylene per gallon of fuel. A gallon can of xylene treats 128 gallons of fuel.
Correct...
Old Geezer
Husqvarna
A Class
Xylene will raise the octane rating, as will acetone or a mix of the two. Higher octane = slower burning fuel = less chance of detonation at high ignition BTDC advanced timing. That's all good!
A quick internet search says that typically you need to run with something like 30% xylene to gas, in order to gain a 5 point increase in octane (like from 87 to 92). That would require adding a 4 1/2 cups of xylene to your empty one gallon gas can and filling up with gas....which of course wouldn't be too practical or cost effective.
Smaller amounts of xylene/acetone/diesel or 2 stroke oil mixtures to the tune of 3 to 6 ounces/gallon are supposed to do a bangup job of decarbonizing and raising fuel economy, and would probably stabilize ethanol/gas blends.
Of course it could all be just snake oil...
A quick internet search says that typically you need to run with something like 30% xylene to gas, in order to gain a 5 point increase in octane (like from 87 to 92). That would require adding a 4 1/2 cups of xylene to your empty one gallon gas can and filling up with gas....which of course wouldn't be too practical or cost effective.
Smaller amounts of xylene/acetone/diesel or 2 stroke oil mixtures to the tune of 3 to 6 ounces/gallon are supposed to do a bangup job of decarbonizing and raising fuel economy, and would probably stabilize ethanol/gas blends.
Of course it could all be just snake oil...
Xcuvator
Husqvarna
Pro Class
I have several places to get E free gas and use it as much as is practical, but still add Stabil or Sea Foam if the engine won't be started for awhile. The poor Toyota forklift gets hand me down gas from drained tanks that will barely burn if poured on a fire and still starts and runs after several months sitting. 
As a side note:
The E gas wouldn't be so hard to deal with (swallow) if it made any sense. The amount fossil fuel required to make the fertilizer and power the farm machinery to work the ground, spray, plant, harvest and truck the corn to make the E far exceeds the amount of E produced. WTF??
On top of that the E fuel produces less energy, so more must be burned to do the same amount of work, miles etc.
As a side note:
The E gas wouldn't be so hard to deal with (swallow) if it made any sense. The amount fossil fuel required to make the fertilizer and power the farm machinery to work the ground, spray, plant, harvest and truck the corn to make the E far exceeds the amount of E produced. WTF??
On top of that the E fuel produces less energy, so more must be burned to do the same amount of work, miles etc.
firecrackerkid
Husqvarna
AA Class
As evidenced by my picture I prefer to eat my sugar and drink my alcohol.
Old Geezer
Husqvarna
A Class
Dude, you positively slay me!!! LOLAs evidenced by my picture I prefer to eat my sugar and drink my alcohol.
This whole ethanol/gas thing is all about stretching gas reserves, regardless of the fact that it takes so much energy to make the ethanol in the first place AND causes a drop in fuel efficiency (we're supposed to stick our heads in the sand and pretend to be ignorant). The government can say "see, we're using 15% less gasoline, just do the math". But it's all BS.
I have several places to get E free gas and use it as much as is practical, but still add Stabil or Sea Foam if the engine won't be started for awhile. The poor Toyota forklift gets hand me down gas from drained tanks that will barely burn if poured on a fire and still starts and runs after several months sitting.
As a side note:
The E gas wouldn't be so hard to deal with (swallow) if it made any sense. The amount fossil fuel required to make the fertilizer and power the farm machinery to work the ground, spray, plant, harvest and truck the corn to make the E far exceeds the amount of E produced. WTF??
On top of that the E fuel produces less energy, so more must be burned to do the same amount of work, miles etc.
Actually not true based on everything ive read, however corn ethanol is rather poor, enery output of ethanol to total energy input is about 1.3/1. Sugar cane based ethanol is substantiall better at about 9/1.
Fortunately all US subsidies and tariffs on imports of ethanol (mostly Brazilian) were abolished effective 1/1/12 thus making US corn ethanol either stand on its own or fold up.
Xcuvator
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Good points adam, based on what you have read.
Tinken
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Acetone has a very fast evaporation rate and will lower your octane level. I get my snake oil from squeezing snakes.
firecrackerkid
Husqvarna
AA Class
Old Geezer
Husqvarna
A Class
Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read on the internet, or on forums for that matter. But at least we get multiple viewpoints from which to form our own opinions.
pvduke
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Alcohol of any kind: LOUSY for gas motors. period. esp 2T.
Storing: top it up and ad stabill. after sotrage dump that crap and use fresh fluids everywhere.
Want better gas: use octane booster (little bit goes a LONG way) or mix with race gas. pretty sure 2T crank seals were not designed to work with acetone etc...that stuffs ganrly.
Storing: top it up and ad stabill. after sotrage dump that crap and use fresh fluids everywhere.
Want better gas: use octane booster (little bit goes a LONG way) or mix with race gas. pretty sure 2T crank seals were not designed to work with acetone etc...that stuffs ganrly.
Kartwheel68
Husqvarna
Pro Class
In the early 80s the crazy turbo F1 cars used almost straight gel toluene as their "gasoline". You can use either xylene or toluene if you can get them easily, that is basically all that is in can octane boosters you buy at the auto parts store. Those are just bandaids though, the best bet and the most consistent fuel is straight race fuel (which is overkill on octane) or even better and 50/50 mix of race/AV and non-ethanol pump. AV gas is great, but its too slow burning, it needs at least a little bit of pump mixed for it to work at its best in a motorcycle. I use 2 gal of 110 race (Sunoco, just cos thats what I can get easily local, any brand of 105-110 will work) with 3 gal of non-ethanol pump in my 5 gal can. Works great, and gets the fuel up around 100 octane which is what these engines were originally designed for since 99 octane was the octane of "premium" pump gas in the 70s.
You are correct that Sea Foam contains alcohol but it is not Ethanol but rather Isopropyl which has a larger molecule (Methanol is CH4O, Ethanol is C2H6O and Isopropyl alcohol is C3H8O) so it still serves as a good solvent but is less likely to permeate rubber and soft metals like aluminum. If it doesn't permeate them then it wont leach out any of the those elements that make all that nasty stuff in you're float bowl.Startron and Stabil work great, nearly identicle products. Seafoam needs to be avoided because it contains high %'s of alcohol which adds to the problem. I also use Xylene, though not available to us Californians, we can buy it in AZ. Xylene will increase the octane numbers closer to 100.
Seafoam works.