spacemule
The Peanut Gallery
The real question is, did the op stop after three engines because he figured he needed to figure out what the hell he was doing, or because he ran out of working motors to fry. :hmm3grin2orange:
Heh who knows I just hope he figured out his own way to conquer the ethanol issue or found some non-eth gas to run. If he didn't then I'd hate to see that repair bill.
I really hope that the government craps enough cash into cellulose ethanol to get it going HOT. Then they can offer a rebate or something to trade cars in for Ethanol optimized vehicles that can run 100% ethanol. Then we can keep the rest of our dino juice for small engines, do similar rebates and conversions, or do what germany does and run white gas in our saws.
Sadly other great ideas like hempoline, hemp clothing, a decent tax system, and trimming the fat out of our government haven't made it yet. I am glad to hear previous posters say that gas with ethanol can be used in small engines, though I'm not terribly convinced since E10 labeling isn't well regulated and despite this "Federal Mandate that all gas must have Ethanol in it" I have indeed seen gas stations that don't explicitly stock ethanol gas. Even with the 10% Label on the pump.
There are a few good ways to see if your gas has ethanol in it by drawing a line on a jar and filling it with water up to the line and then filling with water up to the line. Afterwards you can dump the gas to be tested into it and shake up the jar. once the fuel and "water" separates if there's more "water" than there was before then you've confirmed the presence of ethanol. They do make special little test tubes to tell you exactly how much there is.
If you've filled up at the same gas station using the same regular / premium since before 1994 and you've not noticed any performance changes, especially if you're using the same vehicle , then you're likely not using ethanol gas. I usually get 4 1/2 trips to and from my college campus, without going anywhere else, on the normal gas I buy. This is in a 94F150. When I fill up using the "Premium" gas of the exact same price as normal gas which I do know has ethanol I only get 3 trips flat. Not an exact science but I've noticed it's not variable, I use cruise at 65.
If someone could tell me some tricks of using ethanol fuel in chainsaws I'd be grateful, because unfortunately it doesn't seem like ethanol use as a fuel is going away and the EPA sure is stepping it up.
I just registered to post to this. Do not under any circumstances run gas with ethanol in it on the older Stihls. I did that once with my 026 and after 5 minutes (I was REALLY new to chainsaws back then) it quit from being so hot. You might get away with Eth in newer saws such as the 170 (I haven't tried it but I own one.) I'm no expert on the subject but it's always seemed like eth just destroys the older saws from what I have read. Also I've used both the silver and orange and the only real difference you'll see is an extended warranty on new gear when you buy it through your dealer and it's a little nicer on the plant life (like if you dump it on some grass on accident) other than that it runs just as good as the orange stuff. Both oils say they pack fuel stabilizers and they have to because my grandfather left a lot of his stuff laying around before I took over and believe it or not that stuff was still good. I personally recommend adding 1oz of Stabil to all of your 1gal batches as it'll help prevent eth problems and has some carb cleaning properties it's also relatively cheap compared to what eth can do to small engines. I seriously hope whoever wins the next election kicks the EPA in the head because so far all they've managed to do is ruin thousands of perfectly fine chainsaws, cars, etc. If you're wondering about using lower octane non eth gas go ahead we've been using 82 oct eth free from Caseys (They ship their gas from Illinois I think.) and our equipment has ran well. There is always the option of using the high oct stuff right from stihl for like.. 7.99 a bottle.
tl;dr version
Ethanol bad for older stihl saws
Silver/Orange oil more or less the same
Stabil is gewd stuff.
Lower oct without eth is better than higher oct with
So you've been running it in your saws with no changes?
Hmm that's pretty confidence boosting. I got a question though, would switching to a higher octane cause a saw to run hotter before being adjusted? I run 82 OCT and I switched to the 92 OCT because I too as the op said heard it was better for 2strokes.
Hmm I really just dunno I don't think octane would affect running temperature, but I do know eth makes engines run leaner because of the oxygen ethanol introduces. Ethanol also varies between fillups at the pump so adjusting the carb has to be done pretty often. Do you adjust the carb often Gas? I'd like to switch to gas I know is E10 just so I'll be on the up and up and know how it works. I don't have to adjust my carburetor much.
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