What fuel are you running?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 3, 2015
Messages
668
Location
NC
Many agree that it's better to run ethanol free as in these small engines. What are you guys running? I mostly run regular gas but thinking to switch to ethanol free altogether now.
 
I use what ever gas . OPE doesn't care about the alcohol .Decades ago the alcohol ate the hosed and other "rubber" these days it seems fine. Though My vehicle get a 1 mpg increase with alcohol free gas.
 
I'd like to run TruFuel in everything, but my mower (2004 Troy Bilt B&S 6.25) runs strangely on it. I get a 'skip' every 10-15 seconds of mowing that disappears if I fill with 87 pump gas. Maybe it likes ethanol.

Trimmer gets TruFuel 40:1 and seems to like it.
 
I've only used 87 octane E10. I have tried other octanes(89, 91. 93 all E10) and can't tell the difference. Since E0 is hard to come by in my area and is only of the higher octane ratings(90, 91, 93-95), I haven't tried them yet.

The only people that I know having issues with E10 are those with older outboard motors with cork floats.

I personally never thought any of my OPE ever ran any better(or even as well) on E0, even before the E10 craze.
ATMOF, I think/believe that all of my OPE(as does the Firebird FORMULA in my sig) all run better now with E10...IDKY! This car is all original.

I keep thinking about using E0 for my new leaf blower(which in fact, allows for E10) but, time will tell.
My 23 yr old John Deere weed eater(purchased in late '95) has only ever been run on E10 and runs great without any repairs. Starts fine and runs fine and I've never had to replace the fuel lines or carb or anything.
 
91 E0 with a little fuel stabilizer in my OPE. Timmer and blower get a mix from a can, more expensive but takes me over a year to go through a gallon of mixed. Everything else gets 87E10 until winter, then the F150 and Focus get 87E0. Focus runs rough on 87 E10 in cold temps.
 
^^^ Hmmm, I don't even think there is 87 octane E0 in my area. As I stated before, all of the E0 in my area has an octane rating of 90 and above.
 
I only have one gasoline fueled vehicle, a 2015 non supercharged Corvette. 91 octane is recommended. While I can afford it, I never like giving the oil industry much more than I have to. In this area, there is a big spread between 89 octane mid grade and 91-93 octane. So I experimented with 89 octane, and the car runs fine. It is direct injected, so the fuel never is in the cylinder for a big compression stroke when pre-ignition occurs. Also, I do not run the car that hard, and during the hottest weather, go back to 93 octane.

As for ethanol, the pumps here say "up to 10% ethanol". That does not mean that all grades have 10%. Usually, the higher the pump octane, the lesser the ethanol. That is because the ethanol has a higher octane boost effect on the poorer octane naphtha in regular gasoline. Some stations in this area even advertise ethanol free premium, but the octane of that premium is usually 91, not the 93 at other stations not advertising ethanol free.
 
Was running premium E10 in everything until I found a source for E0.
Now it's a steady diet of E0 91 octane Shell with my usual dose of StarTron and Techron.
 
Ram/Subaru -- 87 octane 10% Ethanol (Turkey Hill)

Jetta -- 89 octane 10% Ethanol (Sunoco)

Acura -- 91 octane 10% Ethanol (Sunoco)
 
I have winter and summer seasonal equipment and it's all pretty old. I have always run E-10 of the cheapest variety in all my equipment. What I do at the end of the season is run that device completely out of gas until it stalls out. Then come the next season I fill it with fresh E-10 and fire it up. 0 issues. No carb rebuilds or varnish issues and I don't use Fuel Stabilizer either.

I usually get my Snowblower fired up in October to make sure the oil is clean and it's running well before the first snowfall rather than having to discover a problem when it's well below freezing with 2 feet of snow on the ground. By problems I don't mean fuel related, I mean spark plugs, air filter, mixture not set right etc.
grin2.gif
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top