Today's gasoline

IndianaTom · Dec 21, 2014

This past week I had both a carb on a 4020 and a carb on a Deere riding mower get clogged due to dirty gas.Neither engine would run until the carbs were cleaned. Whats the deal with dirty gas? The mower's source is Marathon and the 4020 is Countymark. Deere did the mower and I did the 4020. The carb I did was just plain dirty on the inside. Is todays gas so dirty that the filters on mower and 4020 is inadequate?

Alan K · Dec 21, 2014

Could be just a happening. I don't doubt with the price as cheap as it is refining might be a little on the cheap side as well. I know I don't get the mileage on 3 different vehicles that I did a few years ago.

Steve@Advance · Dec 21, 2014

I would hesitate to blame today's gas in general. Most likely it was either a coincidence, or there was some form of contamination of that particular source of fuel. Might check your container to see if there is anything unusual laying on the bottom.

Usually the contamination occurs at the point of sale. A good preventive measure is not to buy gas when the gas truck is making a delivery. If there is water or contamination in the tank it will be stirred up by the fuel going in.

Also if the tanks or lines have been repaired, the system is new or just reopened, beware! Even if they are having a "grand opening sale" you will be part of the "flushing of the lines" process!

retired farmer · Dec 22, 2014

Don't you have filters on your farm tanks?

UncleTom · Dec 22, 2014

Steve said it right with don't buy gas when tanker is unloading it. Me and my brother did that once in the winter time. We bought gas when the tanker was unloading. Barely made it home. I thought the fuel pump was going out. I drained 5 gallons of water out of the truck we were driving.

MarkB_MI · Dec 22, 2014

I guess I don't know what "just plain dirty" means. Are you saying it had actual dirt (sand) in it? The filter should have stopped any sort of sediment from reaching the carb. If it's not sand, then it was probably residue from old, evaporated gas.

Here's a possible cause: About October or November, fuel distributors in most parts of the country switch to fuel formulated for winter. This gas is more volatile than the summer mix and contains a lot of aromatics. Maybe when the winter mix hit your carburetors it dissolved crud that was already there, gumming up the carburetor passageways. That would explain why both engines acted up at the same time with fresh fuel from different distributors.

buickanddeere · Dec 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 23:34:48 12/21/14) This past week I had both a carb on a 4020 and a carb on a Deere riding mower get clogged due to dirty gas.Neither engine would run until the carbs were cleaned. Whats the deal with dirty gas? The mower's source is Marathon and the 4020 is Countymark. Deere did the mower and I did the 4020. The carb I did was just plain dirty on the inside. Is todays gas so dirty that the filters on mower and 4020 is inadequate?

It's not dirty 2014 gasoline. Something has lifted 42 plus years of accumulated ick and filth from the fuel system from the tractor. Or from your supply tank.

Dick2 · Dec 22, 2014

Went to an elevator fire once. Due to water shortage they had gasoline tankers bring in water. Except the driver didn't drain the gasoline from the hose so the first thing to hit the fire was about 20 gallons of gasoline!

Didn't really matter as they couldn't get the fire out anyway; everything burned to the ground.

Richard G. · Dec 22, 2014

Last week my wife stopped at a BP and started getting gas in her Grand Cherokee. The pump quit pumping after about 15 gallons. Would not pump more. She looked around and most of the pumps had bags over the nozzles. The Jeep started acting up soon as she left to come home. Still acting up.
Going to go back to station that has non ethanol this week. That is what she usually buys anyway.
Had to be water or dirty gas.
Richard in NW SC

WGM · Dec 22, 2014

Ethanol has nothing to do with your gasoline problems.

showcrop · Dec 22, 2014

I don't believe in dirty gas except for what I introduce myself. for instance the spouts of gas cans get dust in them between uses. The cap gets crud on it during fueling. I don't believe in the tanker stirring up crud on the bottom of the tank when delivering. Their whole process is just to tight compared to home or farm to get anything on the bottom of the tank to start with. Stop and take a look sometime. From my fifty years on the road I have fueled literally hundreds of times while deliveries were taking place. have you forgotten about those huge filters that were on the side of the pumps until they put them inside the housing twenty years ago? I do know that evaporation and varnish does happen though. That is what I believe causes most of the "dirt" inside a carburetor.

Richard G. · Dec 22, 2014

Every time for the past couple of years that she had to buy fuel with ethanol in it, the Jeep would skip and hesitate. Does not do that when running non ethanol.
My insurance agent drove from upper SC to southern FL and used non ethanol one way and gas with ethanol the other. Same route. Kept up with mileage and it turned out he saved money buying the more expensive non ethanol. Mileage was that much better with non ethanol.
Richard in NW SC

Geo-TH,In · Dec 22, 2014

"I don't believe in dirty gas except for what I
introduce myself." I think you are right. My
funnel has a screen. I couldn't believe how much
crap come out of my gas cans. Looks like dirt and
grass.

People leave tractors outside in the rain and
wonder how water gets past the vent hole in the
tractor's gas cap.

Given enough time, everything we eat goes bad.
Leave gas in a tank and it will go bad too. Keep
your fuel fresh. I have a 1 year rule. I run the
tanks empty after they sit over the winter or
drain the fuel and fill with fresh.

I've never fuel/carb issues. Also put a shot of
sta-bil in tractors that aren't used over the
winter.

dej(Jed) · Dec 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 20:34:48 12/21/14) This past week I had both a carb on a 4020 and a carb on a Deere riding mower get clogged due to dirty gas.Neither engine would run until the carbs were cleaned. Whats the deal with dirty gas? The mower's source is Marathon and the 4020 is Countymark. Deere did the mower and I did the 4020. The carb I did was just plain dirty on the inside. Is todays gas so dirty that the filters on mower and 4020 is inadequate?

Stick a magnet in it and see if anything sticks to it. Probably just corroding tanks.

Mike M · Dec 22, 2014

There really never was a filter on the 4020's.If you have an original fuel lift pump they had a screen in them. Most have long been replaced with the newer style pump with no bowl or screen.
It should have a tank drain. I'd drain some off the bottom too.

Tx Jim · Dec 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:16:41 12/22/14) There really never was a filter on the 4020's.

4020 parts shows a filter kit.

Dean · Dec 22, 2014

How could you possibly know that, WGM.

Dean

IH2444 · Dec 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:28:09 12/22/14) Ethanol has nothing to do with your gasoline problems.

It does in carburators. Fuel injection no problem. Why I use StarTron in ALL my can gas and have no problems.

the tractor vet · Dec 22, 2014

I don't know how many carb.'s ya'll rebuild but sofar this year i am setting on 14 carb.'s . And i can tell ya that each and everyone with filter or no filter and just a screen they are all plum NASTY . Most are GREEN inside and the GREEN does not want to come out even after two to three days of soaking in the carb cleaner , you have to use a wire brush and GRIND IT OUT . And the carb cleaner i am using is not something that everybody has setting in there shop. It will take the hide off of you and give you a good chemical burn and it will not cut thru the GREEN . I have been rebuilding carb's for 52 years and just in the last say about ten years has this crud been showing up .

mkirsch · Dec 22, 2014

Don't know how sediment/crud/dirt in the gas is unique to "today's gasoline." I seem to remember a lot of fuel filter changes back in the 70's and 80's.

If anything it's way better now than then.

MarkB_MI · Dec 22, 2014

I enjoy posts like yours. They follow a standard format:

Ethanol bad.
Add Brand X snake oil to gas.
Now ethanol good.

Now I realize there was a guy who could change water to wine, but that's not enough to convince me that any of these products have any effect whatsoever on gasohol.

So what's in this Star Tron stuff, anyway? The MSDS says it's ">95" percent naptha, plus "<0.5" percent "proprietary organic compounds". OK, so we'll say 99.5 percent naptha and half a percent "proprietary". Must be pretty powerful stuff if they have to dilute it 200:1 with naptha to make it safe to handle. But what are these "proprietary organic compounds"? "Organic" just means carbon-based, which includes such things as fingernail clippings, pine tar and, uh, ethanol. Ah, but these are "enzymes"! Just like the stuff they put in laundry detergent to get out spaghetti sauce stains. Good stuff.

But maybe, just maybe, the enzymes in Star Tron break down ethanol just like the enzymes in your liver break down Old Grand Dad! Let's google that. It seems the enzymes your liver produces convert ethanol into acetaldehyde. And acetaldehyde is a precursor for acetic acid and acetate ester. Hmm. I'm not sure acetic acid and acetate are any better for my engine than ethanol.

But don't let me dissuade you from using your preferred snake oil. If the snake oil peddlers needed my business they'd all be bankrupt. Fortunately for them there are plenty of folks who will not only buy their products but swear by them.

sourgum · Dec 22, 2014

Our Cherokee runs on E-10 quite often, has 225K on it, engine has never missed a beat, it has fuel injection. Plastic bags on pumps would seem to indicate the filling station was near empty tanks and pumps drawing off bottom of storage tanks which could draw bottom sediments/dirt into pumps. If the gas pump quit that meant the tanks were empty.

DaninKansas · Dec 22, 2014

Agreed. Every tank we have is equipped with a filter, always been that way since the 1960s.

WGM · Dec 22, 2014

From experience.

showcrop · Dec 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 10:27:39 12/22/14) From experience.

how many chemists working in your laboratories to do the range and repetitions of analysis to insure that your documentation outweighs hundreds of other's eperience?

Today's gasoline

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