NEW! STA-BIL® Ethanol Treatment.

[blaine]

STA-BIL Ethanol Treatment helps remove water, protects against corrosion, and cleans fuel injectors, carburetors, and intake valves to keep the fuel system free of gum and varnish and deposits. Perfect for use in your everyday driving vehicle, such as your car, truck, SUV or mini-van, and also great for your small gasoline powered equipment -- lawnmowers, chainsaws, weed wackers, snow blowers, snowmobiles, etc. Recommended to be used at every fill up to keep your vehicle and equipment running smoothly year-round.


:2tup:

[jonathan180iq]

These have been popping up all over the place. I had a guy at Wal-Mart swear up and down that this additives were necessary for proper running of my new chainsaw...

Uh, I've never had a problem before. Why start paying for stuff now.

I don't think there is any question that I'm one of the people that prefer straight gasoline to e10/ethanol blends. But I really don't see the point in using these "ethanol stabilizers. If you don't run an engine for so long that you need these types of things, then you aren't using it the vehicle/device/equipment enough. (granted, not using a mower in the winter is a little different.)

[Gz Rider]

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[mole2]

Originally Posted by jonathan180iq

These have been popping up all over the place. I had a guy at Wal-Mart swear up and down that this additives were necessary for proper running of my new chainsaw...

Uh, I've never had a problem before. Why start paying for stuff now.

I don't think there is any question that I'm one of the people that prefer straight gasoline to e10/ethanol blends. But I really don't see the point in using these "ethanol stabilizers. If you don't run an engine for so long that you need these types of things, then you aren't using it the vehicle/device/equipment enough. (granted, not using a mower in the winter is a little different.)

I guess you've never had to store your equipment for an extended period of time such as winter. Do you buy your fuel and store some as in a 5 gallon can that takes you a month or more to use? I stabilize all my fuel except for my everyday car. I would fill my boat up at the end of the season (so no condensation forms) and stabilize it. I don't need 85 gallons of phase separated fuel. I add stabil every time I fill my bike up. You never know what may happen that you can't ride for an extended period of time. In reference to my boat, I had one year where I hurt my back and couldn't take the pain of the deck movement. That fuel went from September of 2005 to April of 2007 since the boat wasn't used and it was just fine. Stabil cleans so it will keep the jets clean and prevent gum buildup in the float chamber. It will keep fuel injectors clean. I don't leave home without it. :biggrin:

[birdmove]

Well, I used Stabil in a Craftsman riding lawn mower and a brand new Kymco People 150. It doesn't say it's a special ethanol formulae, but in the description on the back says it'll stabilize gas with ethanol in it for 12 months. I had problems with both the above engines. The mower was due to the tip of the needle valve coming off, so I'll give that one the benefit of the dought. The tip was made of "Viton" (whatever that is). This caused the crankcase, combustion chamber etc to fill with gasoline. I tore it down and fixed it.
The scooter, after storage, started but would run for 30 seconds and die, and wouldn't take throttle. I believed the pilot jet had plugged. I tore this down and fixed it by using guitar strings (high E and B strings) to push through the tiny orifices, and blowing out with compressed air. Afterwards both units run fine.
The problem is that the ethanol makes this modern crap they sell as gasoline break down much faster than non-ethanol gas. Stabil used to work on non-eth gas quite well. I hear this over and over again. Ethanol is causing all sorts of carb and fuel pump problems. I should be fine from here out on my stuff because we now live full time at our place and will be running our stuff on a regular basis.

But these days people are having plugged carb jets from way less sitting that 10-20+ years ago. I've been riding since about 1962 and, yeah, jets would get plugged occasionally. But almost always the bike had sat for often years. And I've fixed them when they were so bad that the deposits in the carb and jets looked like that blueish califlower you get on car battery cables that have been leaking acid for years.

From what I know about ethanol it's a scam anyway. You have 10% ethanol-so you should be using 90% of the gas you'd use without ethanol--right? But the ethanol/gas mix produces less horsepower, so you have to use more throttle to compensate and get the same results. So-are we really using less gas by cutting it with ethanol?? I dought it.
The car/motorcycle/lawn mower/boat, etc repair shops love the crap. They are repairing carbs and making good money doing it. And it's not like it's difficult work or hard to diagnose. I new my riding mower was a needle valve and/or seat problem. I knew my Kymco People 150 was a plugged pilot jet.

I guess the answer is 1. don't figure on any gas stabilizer working any more, and 2. if you store your gas engine powered gizmo make sure the gas tank and float bowl are empty. So-what do we do with all the gas we have to drain from our stuff?

jon

[Water Warrior 2]

This year when the bikes are parked for the winter I will be adding fuel stabilizer and filling the tanks with Chevron 94 octane with no added ethanol. Seems like a good preventative measure.
Never had problems in the past with seasonal engines but then there wasn't much ethanol in the past.

[birdmove]

I hadn't had the problem either, but then, the last two winters I rode straight through, so the bikes never sat for long. That was in western Wa. State. I won't be storing my motorcycles in our new home either. Year round riding will be a cinch .

Jon

[jonathan180iq]

Originally Posted by mole2

I guess you've never had to store your equipment for an extended period of time such as winter. Do you buy your fuel and store some as in a 5 gallon can that takes you a month or more to use? I stabilize all my fuel except for my everyday car. I would fill my boat up at the end of the season (so no condensation forms) and stabilize it. I don't need 85 gallons of phase separated fuel. I add stabil every time I fill my bike up. You never know what may happen that you can't ride for an extended period of time. In reference to my boat, I had one year where I hurt my back and couldn't take the pain of the deck movement. That fuel went from September of 2005 to April of 2007 since the boat wasn't used and it was just fine. Stabil cleans so it will keep the jets clean and prevent gum buildup in the float chamber. It will keep fuel injectors clean. I don't leave home without it. :biggrin:

Well, like I said, a lawnmower is different but I don't have any boats and I use my car of my bike often enough year-round that I have never had to bother with Sta-bil or anything like that. Even in my lawnmowers, I prep them for winter with an oil change a gas fill-up and a good bath. Even then, they don't sit THAT long, since I'll use them to mulch leaves or whatever in the downtime.

That being said, is an ethanol specific Sta-bil even necessary since just about 100% of the gas that everyone has been using for the last 10 years or so is an ethanol blend and regular sta-bil seem to be working well for everyone?

[Gz Rider]

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[jonathan180iq]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

This year when the bikes are parked for the winter I will be adding fuel stabilizer and filling the tanks with Chevron 94 octane with no added ethanol. Seems like a good preventative measure.
Never had problems in the past with seasonal engines but then there wasn't much ethanol in the past.

Be sure that you're getting the fuel you think you are getting.
A lot of gas stations around here started advertising non-ethanol fuel simply because their supplier was Chevron.
If you check out Chevron's "Fuel School" web pages, you'll see that they make oxygenated fuel using Ethanol just like everyone else...

http://www.chevron.com/products/tips/fu ... =15&cID=21

And since you are in the GWN, I figured this applied to you and the other Canucks more than most.