ethanol gas

Sleufoot

Member
Location
Moorhead, Mn.
I am pretty sure this topic has been broached before but are there any reasons why a person should not run an ethanol blend in
their old 2 cylinder tractors. I currently use only premium gas but was wondering if it really matters. Tom in Mn.
 
Ethanol is all I use and have had no issues. Small engines are a different story. Mostly with fuel lines.
 
I use ethanol in my old tractors. I just open the carb drain after shutting off the fuel as part of the shut-off procedure. That way no ethanol stays in the carb to gum things up.
 
Be aware that ethanol gas can have have a reaction to some gas tank coatings. If you don't have a tank coating you should be fine..
 
That's all I've ever used in our Farmall C, but I put a quart of diesel in every tank of gas, hopefully to reduce corrosion in the tank. And, it lowers the octane, old tractors don't need 87 octane! I don't drain the carb, I just shut off the fuel valve and let it run out, been working fine for 13 years.
 
Going to gas with ethanol will clean out old varnish and other deposits. I don't know that it mattered, but when the changeover from gas having some ethanol seemed inevitable, I started with regular and ethanol 1/2 and 1/2 in the hope of not knocking any big hunks loose all at once. Then increased proportiion of gas with ethanol with no problems. I'm told that a) ethanol use can initially plug up carbs in their mysterious passages from alll the stuff that has collected that it knocks loose and b) if you don't get away with it, after a rebuild from a knowledgibe carb expert all the stuff will be gone and you'll have no further problems.

If you can see stuff in the gas I'd sure try to get out all I could on general principles. Wasting gas doing it would be cheap insurance in any event. Good luck.
 
If it wasn't for ethanol I wouldn't be as busy as I am in the shop, from messed up carbs to ruined fuel tanks. I use the drained ethanol to clean buckets, wash dirty parts or start the brush pile fire, ONLY THINGS ITS GOOD FOR. As long as they keep making and selling it I have job security.
 
I use it in all of mine with no issues. Gas tanks are clean with no gunk build up. Some sit for a year before they get ran and still start and run on the stuff just fine. Never have drained the carbs. Don't think it has been proven that ethanol effects cast iron.
 
Even in the days of no ethanol leaded gas fuel systems were a constant maintenance issue. Corrosion, gummed up parts, and crumbling plastic and rubber are nothing new. Old gas is old gas. I use ethanol fuel in everything I have with serious problems.
 
Here we go...My all fuel B I run e85. Makes the exhaust smell like grandmas baking bread and gives it a little more power to run the belly mower. It got to be 1.89 when gas was approaching 4 bucks. It doesnt like cold weather as much it gets below 50 and starting is difficult but doable I started it at 10 degrees to put inside after Christmas lights. I figure if I fix my fuel line to the little tank I can start it like they used to with gas and kerosene to switch at startup when Cold. And yes the coffee table crew is pretty sure its going to wreck the seals in a 1938 carb with all Copper lines and cause catastrophic damage. Mine does not have the 3 way valve with cork o ring but I would like to add it back in the future for the above mentioned switching. Anybody ever replaced that cork ring with a Viton flat o ring?
 
If you're directly or indirectly making money off of it, then it's the most wonderful thing ever. Other than that, not so much.
 
I never use ethanol gas in my tractors and mowers or anything other than my car and pick up. It seems if the tractors sit for more than a year it leaves a yellow film and powder in the carburetor and fuel tank. I know its a little more expensive to use off-road gas but I dont have the issues with the carburetors with that fuel. ive had nothing but bad luck with ethanol. I have run ethanol in my Farmall C that I mow with. Non-oxygenated gas is a little more expensive but I figure it saves a lot of headaches in the long run. Dale
 
There will be arguments back and forth on using ethanol gas. I'll just suggest that if you want to continue running ethanol gas just make sure you treat it heavily with Startron (found at Tractor Supply, Walmart,and a few other places.) I have a 60 that i run ethanol in...but i don't run it a lot. Being the ethanol fuel may sit for fairly long periods of time i make sure to keep Startron in it heavily. I haven't had any issues due to using it. Don't trust any other stabilizer. I've put Startron to the test in many different ways at various times...& it does the job 100%. Just my suggestion.
Arnie
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Whether or not to use ethanol is about as hotly debated as what oil should you be using, and in both cases, it is largely a matter of opinion and personal preference. If you are using the tractor fairly regularly, you will not notice any issues as you are going through the gas fairly quickly. Issues begin to appear if the gas sits in the carb and tank for an extended time. Now let's be clear on one thing, while ethanol will evaporate and leave behind a residue, so will regular gas, ethanol just does so a little more quickly because of the lower evaporation point of alcohol as opposed to gas. So the biggest concern with ethanol, as is with regular gas, is leaving it for an extended period. As most gas tanks on our old tractor are not airtight, the fuel can evaporate. But with ethanol, you can have fuel left in your tank, and although it may not smell bad like regular gas is known to do, it can be absolutely useless. The ethanol can all evaporate out of the fuel and if you drain it into a can, you could drop a farmer's match into it and the fuel would snuff it out when it sunk into it.

Now there will be those who tell you that ethanol will destroy rubber O-rings and other rubber components in a carburetor, but that is open to disagreement, but a single barrel DLTX carb found on letter series John Deere has machine fit metal parts, so that isn't much of a concern. The two barrel ones found on the following two cylinder number series may be the same, but I haven't torn into them enough to know for sure.

So running your tractor on ethanol will not hurt it, you just have to be contentious about draining out the fuel when it is not in use for some time, just a little more so when you use ethanol. And of course, additives like Sta-bil or Sea Foam help address that issue as well as does running the carb out of fuel and opening the bowl drain as well as draining the tank.
 

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