Fuel for small engines

Mike (WA) · Mar 24, 2012

Many have said use non- ethanol gas for small engines. And many have said use premium, not "regular".

Soooo, I can get non-ethanol regular, or I can get premium with 10% ethanol. I'm leaning toward the premium, so they run cooler. Have been running ethanol gas in them for years, with no apparent ill effects.

What say you?

Zachary Hoyt · Mar 24, 2012

I have been running 87 with 10% ethanol in everything except the chain saw which gets 89 with 10% and have had no problems from it yet.
Zach

bill mart · Mar 24, 2012

One of the indian reservations around here sells premium alcohol free unleaded and thats what I use (as well as adding seafoam and stabil).That being said if I was you I would use whatever ethanol free fuel you can get.We have been using unleaded for a long time,seems the troubles have started when the ethanol was added. Premium does seem to store longer.Bill

ldj · Mar 24, 2012

Do not run premium. Regular is all you need and has more power and starts easier than premium. Premium is for anti knock. If you don't have ignition knock you are wasting money and performance, although the performance loss might be so little you would probably have to have a test stand to tell. That is my opinion and everybody has one.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2012

Same here. And some pretty old engines too. Just a bunch of hype from the pro oil/anti anything alternative crowd if you ask me.

ldj · Mar 24, 2012

(quoted from post at 12:08:57 03/24/12) Same here. And some pretty old engines too. Just a bunch of hype from the pro oil/anti anything alternative crowd if you ask me.

I am pro oil/anti anything alternative UNLESS that alternative works as good and is competitive in price as oil. Ethanol doesn't fit that. Here they are about to spend mega bucks to put NG refueling stations between 3 major cities. Do you know anyone who uses NG? I don't. What a money pit. If there was any remote possible of enough NG being used there would be plenty of private investors standing in line to invest. But, no it is such a foolish idea that my tax money is to be used. I would be all for it if private investors were doing it.

Dean · Mar 24, 2012

There is no need to use premium fuel in your small engines especially since you can buy regular fuel without ethanol, and doing so will not make your engines run cooler.

I avoid ethanol like the plague for anything but doing so is becomming more difficult and will remain so until sanity returns.

Dean

MarkB_MI · Mar 24, 2012

Some of the confusion arises because many power equipment manufacturers specify "minimum 92 octane" or something like that. But that's actually 92 Research Octane Number, which works out to 87 pump number. In other words regular gas. That said, it never hurts to have too much octane, but it really doesn't matter much for most small engines.

As for ethanol content, you're going to get ethanol in your gas whether you want it or not. I would not take a gas station's word on whether or not their gas has ethanol; testing it yourself is the only way to know. If it's important to you, test it, otherwise don't worry about it.

Gchase24 · Mar 24, 2012

I agree. Don't listen to the hype. I use regular in everything that uses gasoline.Remember when the switched to unleaded ? It was suppose to ruin the valves stems and seats on all of the older engines. I have yet to see a older engine torn down that was supposed to run leaded gas with any valve promlems. My 1972 farmall cub is a perfect example.Ethanol may ruin rubber hoses or gaskets this I have seen.

Sprint 6 · Mar 24, 2012

I have my JD 108 converted to run E85, runs great and the exhaust smell is non-existant. Ethanol will not hurt anything at all, I did nothing but adjust the carb. The oil also stays much cleaner. Don"t believe the hype, ethanol will not hurt anything. It cracks me up when people go out of their way to pay more for non-ethanol fuel and then put additives in that are mostly alcohol.

JimEvans · Mar 24, 2012

I built up a pickup with heads on it from a mid 60s 327. I had to pull the heads after 20,000 miles on it because the exhaust valves sank over 1/8" into the head. All new hardened valve seats made for unleaded gas solved that problem. So I have personally seen damage from unleaded gas.

(quoted from post at 12:41:24 03/24/12) I agree. Don't listen to the hype. I use regular in everything that uses gasoline.Remember when the switched to unleaded ? It was suppose to ruin the valves stems and seats on all of the older engines. I have yet to see a older engine torn down that was supposed to run leaded gas with any valve promlems. My 1972 farmall cub is a perfect example.Ethanol may ruin rubber hoses or gaskets this I have seen.

wisbaker · Mar 24, 2012

Around here Ethanol free means BP or Shell premium. Our local small engine distributor recommends ethanol free so I run Shell premium in my stuff, I only use about 15-20 gallons a year in the small stuff so the extra $.50 a gallon isn't going to break me.

bill mart · Mar 24, 2012

most additives contain isopropal alcohol not ethanol. ( IPA has been used as a additive for years). Bill

Geo-TH,In · Mar 24, 2012

Mike, I did a search using non-ethanol regular EPA. Below is what I found. I'm not a gas supplier. I've also heard that not only does the EPA require 10% ethanol in some places and uncle sam removed the $.50 per gallon they paid to have ethanol added to gas.

To the best of my knowledge, and I supply gasoline to retailers in Chicago, the entire Chicago area is an RFG zone. RFG is reformulated gasoline and has 10% ethanol as an oxygenate to comply with EPA Clean Air Act guidelines.

JDseller · Mar 24, 2012

I would be more concerned with the ethanol content than the premium or not. I know many on here run the ethanol with out problems. I also get many more small engines with fuel problems that run ethanol fuel. So those that use it are making me money.

On my own small engines I run non ethanol 92 octane fuel. I run Sea Foam in all of my 2 cycle stuff because I never know how long it might set between uses. Starting in Sept. I treat all of the engines with Sea Foam so I have them covered for winter storage whenever they are last used. I have very few fuel related problems.

When the ethanol fuel first came out I wanted to support it all I could. I used it in all of my stuff. I had problem after problem with fuel troubles/issues. So after having to spend a half day and the cost of a carb. kit on a chainsaw that ran perfect when stored, I called the kids and we emptied my ethanol gas into all of our cars. I refilled my tank with non-ethanol fuel and it has never been back on this farm.

brian brooks · Mar 25, 2012

dont know for 100% sure but i beleve the probs with the gas in most small engines is the can they come from. About 2 years ago my dad set a can of gas in a plastic red 5 gallon in the garage on the floor in the sun.A few hours later you pick up the can and the floor is wet from condensation,now when you get to the bottom of the can theres water.He has always put his cans on a board unless they are the metal ones with a ring to keep them off the floor.The plastic ones sit on the floor,no lip on them.Now that i do that i have not had any problems ,just started the mower that sat all winter with the same gas in it with 2 pulls ,no stabil or any additives just the cheapest gas i can get.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 25, 2012

Seafoam is a mix of alcohol,naptha and mineral oil.Stabil is 95% naptha.You are adding things you are trying to avoid when you buy gas.

buickanddeere · Mar 25, 2012

100LL here for limited use seasonal engines. No additives as they are not required.

buickanddeere · Mar 25, 2012

Your application is a four stroke. It's alcohol in two stroke applications that cause problems.

buickanddeere · Mar 25, 2012

Small high output air cooled engines run hot. Heat contributes to knock/detonation which goes unheard over the exhaust noise.
Small engines can also run lean due to carb adjustments, dirty jets or failing crankcase seals on some two strokes.
Lean mixtures contribute to detonation.
Idling and/or mixing too much lube oil or using a high ash lube oil. Contributes to combustion chamber deposits which can glow and pre-ignite the air/fuel mixture.
So for the pennies a day difference to operate a small engine on premium or 100LL. It's cheap insurance.
b.t.s. how many times has somebody had a two stroke engine apart with a hole melted in the piston and thought poor lubrication? Not so, that is detonation damage.
Detonation can also crush ring lands and break rings which cause cylinder wall scoring. Once again it wasn't a lube problem, it was detonation.
Too much lube oil also makes the engine prone to detonation.

MichiganMH · Mar 25, 2012

I run regular 87 in all my small engines, 2 stroke and 4 stroke. I agree with the others that running premium is a waste unless you have an engine designed for it. I just run some seafoam thorough a couple of times a season.

Jon Hagen · Mar 25, 2012

The only small engine where I have a problem with the local 87 octane regular is in a little 2 cycle genset. It says in it,s OP manual to use premium gas of atleast 90 octane. It will detonate on 87 octane gas, especially if I get the oil mix a bit strong which lowers the octane even more.
I hate to keep seperate fuel for that little engine, so I keep a bottle of 104+ brand octane improver around to spike the 87 octane gas for that little generator.
The 104 additive seems to eliminate the detonation problem with 87 octane gas.

Fuel for small engines

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