interesting observation on mineral spirits and gas

been getting a lil rain lately, and decided to mow yesterday after work. ladt week was the first mow of the year since we are just now getting rain... I didn't weed-eat last week.. but it needed it now.

pulled the wee eater out. it's one of those non mix units. I drain it every year as the year before I didn't and the gas ate up the new yellow ethanol resistant hoses on it.

anywho.. it's usually a bear to start the first time of the year... just prefacing that for ya.

i had just a lil gas in the can left.. not enough to mow and weed eat. ( not old gas.. but some I bought a month ago for some tractor pasture dragging ) so i searched around for something suitable to empty the pint or so of gas into, and spied a 1g mineral spirits jug. It was in my 'oil drain' jug pile.. though suprisingly had maybee 3-4 oz MS left in it.

went ahead and dumped in the gas.. hit town with a couple gas cans to get ready for the season.

came back. gassed the mower and mowed. after mowing got ready to fight the weed eater.. fueled it with that pint of gas fromt he mineral spirits bottle. deffinately had a mineral spirits smell to it.

gave the primer bulb a 10 pump like the instructions said and i'll be darned if it did not start right up.

thing ran great. better than normal I'd say, for the first few minutes. IE. after a first of season start it wanted to idle for a minute or 2 before I could start cutting with her.

she didn't need the idle this time.. was ready to go.

I'll have to remember to check that again next year when I start her.. if she sputters.. I might add some MS in there...

anyway.

not a scientific expirement.. just an observation..

On a recent trip to Nebraska,I decided to fill up with 89 octane since it was 20 cents cheaper,I lost 6 miles to the gallon! Went from 28 down to 22,refueled with 87 without the ethanol and mileage went back to 28.just another observation.Your MS probably has a better flash point than regular gas.

probably...

I've heard that ethanol has about 2/3rds the energy of the same liquid equivalent of gasoline. That might explain the difference you saw. I assume that NE blends to at least E10 as they do here in MN.

Colin, MN

Interesting tip. Thank you!

Colin

not sure it's a tip or not just something I observed. the last few years.. my weedeater is always sluggish on it's first startup after winter slumber.. not this time. was ready for business immediatly. only diffrence is the mineral spirits inthe fuel....

i'll deffinately be trying it again..