Fuel additive/ethanol killer

[Deleted member 149229]

I know to most you either love additive or think it's snake oil. I have used StarTron the last 3-4 years in weedeaters, back pack leaf blowers, lawn tractor and now chainsaws. They recommend leaving treated fuel in the machine and I do that. A year later I fire up the leaf blower in 3 pulls. My buddy brought his dad's Pioneer to cut wood this year and it wouldn't stay running, dumped some of my StarTron tested gas in it and no trouble the rest of the day. I'm sold on the stuff.

 

[holeycow]

many years ago I was tearing carburetors down in most of my small engines after any of them sat unused for several months. Then I discovered Stabil. Problems solved. Now I fill everything to the brim and put a good dose of Stabil in the tanks. When spring comes along I just start them up and run them. I usually burn a half a tank and then top up with fresh fuel

I run non-ethanol premium in my small engines most of the time, except in times of necessity.

my F150 was running like rubbish recently. Bad stuttering, hesitation and no power. Check engine light flashing annoyingly, etc. I figured either ignition or fuel. Several bottles of "Gumout" later it is running nearly normally. I could determine a positive difference almost immediately after the first dose. I think a set of plugs will probably finish cleaning it up as I have 230000 km on the originals.

It's pretty sad that the fuel is so poor that these additional costs are necessary.

 

[LegDeLimber]

I know many of you folks get along fine with ethanol blends,
--- i sort of envy that---
but something about the corn-fuel in my area, just doesn't play very well with O P E.

I was averaging about one and a half summers out of my lawn & garden equipment, before having to replace:
fuel lines,
leaking/cracked petcocks,
gummed fuel filters,
rotted foam type air cleaner elements,
.....etc.

I found http://www.pure-gas.org/ and now can get non-E fuel.
Life got easier and cheaper!
Ethanol (and whatever else Meck county mandates blended into their fuel)
Was just killing me in costs of keeping things running.

The trip to next county for the fuel (& higher fuel price) is much cheaper than the ongoing repairs were.

I now put 2 heavy squeezes of the pink Sta-Bil fuel treatment in a five gallon jug and then fill it with non-e fuel.

Haven't had *ANY* fuel system issues, in several years now, following this regimen.

and Why do I do this??
Ehh, For some reason I just like mowers that always start on the first pull.

 

[Full Chisel]

Stabilizers are great and all but they don't remove ethanol from the fuel...the only surefire way to prevent issues with ethanol is to find E-free fuel or mix water with the fuel and decant the ethanol/water solution.

I do think Startron is a good product and I use it myself. But I'm careful to turn over my fuel supply within 60 days or so and use sealed cans because E10 is all that's available around here. Carb kits and fuel lines are cheap enough though...

 

[HarleyT]

"Ethanol Killer" was my nickname in college....

 

[Rockjock]

The over 150 mowers I have in the back for repair beg to differ with you. Startron, Stabil, pretty much any snake oil all fail. Those products keep me in business and shockingly enough not a 1 offers any sort of guarantee that they will work as intended. Is it so hard to just dump out the fuel and run the piece of equipment dry?

 

[James Miller]

We have one station local that does E free fuel and its garbage. I dont use any stabilizers but after 30 days my jeep gets any left over mix.

 

[Evan]

Why not just run 40:1 I run stihl synthetic at 40:1 in our 90r 4 stroke trimmer. It sat for 3 or 4 months over the winter I didn't drain it it had 87 ethonal in it mixed at 40:1.
My better half is a go better type I tell her I probly have to clean carb. She starts the damn thing with one pull after sitting all winter with fuel in tghe carb then she runs it for an hour wacking weeds..

I will never ever run 50:1 in anything in my mind that's epa trying to burn less oil. You may even break new equipment in at 32:1.

 

[edisto]

The over 150 mowers I have in the back for repair beg to differ with you. Startron, Stabil, pretty much any snake oil all fail. Those products keep me in business and shockingly enough not a 1 offers any sort of guarantee that they will work as intended. Is it so hard to just dump out the fuel and run the piece of equipment dry?

People are always bringing me their saws, trimmers, and mowers at work, and it is always a simple matter of cleaning the carb because they left fuel in it over winter (or longer).

I have a 5000 watt generator, a chipper, a trimmer and a couple of chainsaws that I picked up at our local thrift store for about $15 each (the generator was $30), and all ran fine after cleaning the carb. They just got stored with fuel in them, and were donated by the owners because they were "broke".

The only issue I have ever had with ethanol fuel is with water, so I use a little Sea Foam in the mix, and don't keep the fuel around for too long.

When the equipment gets put up, I dump the fuel, put in some Sea Foam, and turn the engine over a few times to get the Sea Foam into the carb.

 

[Rockjock]

Why not just run 40:1 I run stihl synthetic at 40:1 in our 90r 4 stroke trimmer. It sat for 3 or 4 months over the winter I didn't drain it it had 87 ethonal in it mixed at 40:1.
My better half is a go better type I tell her I probly have to clean carb. She starts the damn thing with one pull after sitting all winter with fuel in tghe carb then she runs it for an hour wacking weeds..

I will never ever run 50:1 in anything in my mind that's epa trying to burn less oil. You may even break new equipment in at 32:1.

The notion that 40:1 is more stable than 50:1 is sheer fallacy. I can also state that I have had thousands of 2 stroke pieces of equipment come in for service and been sold running 50:1 and not 1 has had a premature death due to that mix ratio. Old fuel yes, straight fuel of course, leaky seals, crushed or run over yes, yes and yes. I think we are here to share information not old wives tales.