My Motorcycle Hasn't Liked Ethanol

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Lurch

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My'07 United Motors V2S 250R seems to run better w/o ethanol. Any advice on this?
There are 2 or 3 local gas stations that still have non ethanol gas, and that's what I've been using in my car and bike, but I'm going to switch the car fuel to Shell soon.

I was thinking of running Shell gas in the bike too, but it may have ethanol.
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In the early Spring my bike was really running kind of rough, and I was told that it was because of ethanol deposits in carburetor. So I switched to ethaol free and added Lucas UCL to it, and it eventually ran better, and now it runs pretty good.

L
 
Up here most of the Premium 91/93 octane gas is ethanol free. The extra $.15 per gallon, compared to 87, in a motorcycle tank is hardly noticeable and would be worth a try for you.
 
Originally Posted By: o2man98
Up here most of the Premium 91/93 octane gas is ethanol free. The extra $.15 per gallon, compared to 87, in a motorcycle tank is hardly noticeable and would be worth a try for you.


Wow - that's pretty good! No option here. In fact our "premium" often has MORE EtOH. My premix stuff doesn't like it much....
 
Ethanol deposits, hey? [censored]. Ethanol is actually a fantastic solvent.

That may be true that your bike runs better without ethanol. By law the pumps should be labeled as containing it if they do. As posted, some places have ethanol free premium. You can also try gas stations near marinas, as most old outboards don't like ethanol as it dissolves coatings on cork floats.

Then again, it could be in your head. My area has had mandatory ethanol since 1996, and none of the horror stories that were being told during the change came true. And trust me, made up things like "ethanol deposits" were the tip of the iceburg at that time.
 
Then again, it could be in your head.

No, it couldn't be. I've talked to others at korider.com with the same or similar bike that have problems running ethanol, so I doubt it's in our heads.
 
Originally Posted By: o2man98
Up here most of the Premium 91/93 octane gas is ethanol free. The extra $.15 per gallon, compared to 87, in a motorcycle tank is hardly noticeable and would be worth a try for you.


I've never heard of ethanol free premium gas before. I don't think it's widely available here in East Tennessee.
 
Then again, it could be in your head.

It wasn't in me head that bike wasn't running very well. What the cause was is beyond me, but it's unusual for a nearly new bike to have this problem. In 26 years of riding, this seems like the first time it's happened.

There's a whitish residue on the inside of the fuel door that I thought had to do with ethanol. The carburetor could have had the same residue, and that could have very well been the reason why the bike wasn't running well last Spring.
 
Yep, I've heard from several of the small engine repair people around here that since the introduction of ethanol they've seen a lot of issues with fuel systems. I too was running some Lucas UCL in my vehicles and especially my Harley but last year I switched over to MMO and now mostly to TCW3 and have smoother running engines at less cost. I found that using half of the recommended dose for MMO works well for me and maintains my fuel mileage which is the same amount recommended for using TCW3 = 1 oz per 5 gallons. I particularly like it in my late Father's Chevy pickup and in my Harley due to them sitting for so long between rides.

My brother in law's father works on 4 wheelers and said that he'd started using/recommending the Stabil for ethanol fuel to see if that'd help ... I recommended that he try a little TCW3...
 
Please tell me what TCW3 stands for, and where to get it. I've heard about it many times here but offhand I haven't seen it in parts stores yet.

I got some MMO and added some to bike tank [about 1 oz to 3 gallons], and it seems to be doing OK on it. Am going to add 2 oz MMO to my car gas tank next fillup.
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TCW3 is the spec for oil mixed into gasoline for two cycle outboard motors. It's advantage is that it burns cleanly.

I don't think the problem is the ethanol leaving deposits, but maybe the ethanol is cleaning out something else, and that is the cause of the deposits. In any case, you'll be hard pressed to find gasoline without ethanol. Look at the stickers on the gas pumps, and if you find a gas that runs well, stick with it. Meanwhile, use Stabil or equal when you put the bike away for the winter, and find a top quality fuel system cleaner to use for at least the first few tanks in the spring, always following the dosage instructions.
 
Yep, what Ken2 and Pablo said...it's two stroke outboard engine oil that is usually mixed with gas for outboard engines to run on ... I buy the SuperTech brand at Wal*Mart ... TC-W3 is an ashless formulation so it doesn't leave deposits in your engine and people using it in the 1 oz to 5 gallon ratio report that it actually cleans the combustion chamber and valves over time.

I use it to lube the fuel system and help offset the drying effect of the ethanol and for that little extra bit of lubrication on those "dry" starts after the engine has been sitting for a several days or weeks since last being run. Many report improved gas mileage also ...

MMO is good to use too and some think it cleans even better ... I "think" TC-W3 contains some type of fuel preservative and this is one reason I've been using it over MMO...although, I have read that MMO helps preserve fuel as well ??? I try to keep both on hand and at present and will use the TC-W3 in fuel before the MMO ... I'm trying out each one to see which seems to help the most in each situation as far as ease of starting, gas mileage, etc. ... I believe that both are good ...
 
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Originally Posted By: Ken2
TCW3 is the spec for oil mixed into gasoline for two cycle outboard motors. It's advantage is that it burns cleanly.

I don't think the problem is the ethanol leaving deposits, but maybe the ethanol is cleaning out something else, and that is the cause of the deposits. In any case, you'll be hard pressed to find gasoline without ethanol. Look at the stickers on the gas pumps, and if you find a gas that runs well, stick with it. Meanwhile, use Stabil or equal when you put the bike away for the winter, and find a top quality fuel system cleaner to use for at least the first few tanks in the spring, always following the dosage instructions.


Sounds like a plan.

There are 3 or 4 gas stations in the are a that still sell only non ethanol gas, so it's still available here. Should I go for it or just use ethanol? I've asked these sellers a few times and it still has no ethanol.

If I swap brands I'd go with Shell.
 
I'm trying out each one to see which seems to help the most in each situation as far as ease of starting, gas mileage, etc. ... I believe that both are good ...


Thanks for this info.

I'm going to experiment with these.
 
If you can find quality non ethanol fuel, that is definetly what I'd use. Every station around here has ethanol except one and they're too far out of the way...but, I've heard that another station that is getting reopened in town is going to sell the non ethanol fuel and if that's true, that's what I'll be buying especially for my Harley and my truck that only gets run every once in a while ... I'll still add a little TC-W3 or MMO as well ...
 
Ethanol simply has less energy than gasoline, by either volume or weight.
Jetting that is correct for gas is not correct for ethanol and gas mixtures. It needs bigger jets.
But even if it did have the right jetting, there is less power available.
 
Originally Posted By: 1WildPig
If you can find quality non ethanol fuel, that is definetly what I'd use. Every station around here has ethanol except one and they're too far out of the way...but, I've heard that another station that is getting reopened in town is going to sell the non ethanol fuel and if that's true, that's what I'll be buying especially for my Harley and my truck that only gets run every once in a while ... I'll still add a little TC-W3 or MMO as well ...


Will continue to run non ethanol in my cycle.

Should I run non ethanol gas in my car as well? I was thinking of swapping the car fuel to Shell with Nitrogen.
 
Yep, NON Ethanol fuel is better all around...I don't know of anything that can be added to enthanol enriched fuel to make it perform as good as non ethanol fuel...I add the TC-W3 or MMO to help ward off the problems that enthanol fuel brings but that still won't make it produce as much power and fuel economy as non ethanol fuel will.

PS: The station opened and they have a sign out front that says NO ETHANOL ! Yep, that's where I'll be buying my gas...that is, if they can keep it in stock - they sold out the second day of business, of course, their opening price of $1.99 helped too, but then they sold out of reg unleaded again the day after the next shipment at their regular price of $2.36...oh well, I'll buy whatever they've got! They're only running their price about 2 to 5 cents a gallon higher than the cheapest ethanol fuel that's across the street...

If the Shell with nitrogen has no ethanol then go for it...but if it does, then I'd stick with the non ethanol fuel if I could get it...just add a little MMO or TC-W3 for more benefits than nitrogen would give...
 
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