Ethanol

[AdeScrivs]

I would have thought that the sensible option would be to do a bit of local research and find a filling station near home that sells 97 or 99 octane fuel. This only has 5% ethanol at worst and if you are lucky as I am, in some areas no ethanol added at all.
Another bonus for me is that I only live 1/4 mile away from Vital Equipment, they stock ethanol free racing fuel in various octane ratings.
Expensive, but ideal for parade, racing or track bikes. I intend to use it in the sprint bikes this season.

[Trev Sellars]

Just out of curiosity, is Avgas any better that the E5 &E10 fuel types?
AVGAS UL91 – Colourless and unleaded piston engine fuel that’s safer for the environment, AVGAS UL91 is designed for sports and general aviation aircraft.

· AVGAS 100LL – A high-quality, low-lead piston engine aviation fuel used for more taxing flying, such as aerobatics.

[nevhunter]

Methanol and ethanol will both attract and absorb water. That could be an issue. Nev

[Trev Sellars]

That is a pain, so I suppose the only way to ensure less damage, is to run E5 and drain out bike after each run.
I am sure, I read somewhere that by adding water to the E5-E10 petrol in a spare container, the ethanol and Methanol with be attracted to the water if left to stand for a while. The water with methanol and ethanol can then be drained off.
Youtube have details on this process

[nevhunter]

Don't add water . It's just creating another problem. I think THAT test is done after doing a drain to see if ethanol is in the fuel and roughly what amount.. I think it's the absorbed water that does most of the damage.. With alcohol fueled speedway bikes the tank and carburetter are drained after use. Nev

[KenS]

In researching the long-term storage of petrol-ethanol mixtures, the effects of Ethanol in historic/antique vehicles, and my personal experience of using 100% methanol in my drag racing Rotary engines and its corrosiveness, I have now decided to play it safe and use Avgas 100ll as my fuel. Since my petrol tank is in good condition and does not have a liner of any kind, using Avgas will not corrode the tank, or any of the carb/tap components, it will make the engine run a bit cooler, and the soon to be 7.5:1 compression ratio would work better as well. The cost here in Texas currently is $4.38/US gallon or $1.15/liter and at a $1.2 exchange rate to the British pound, that's 0.97 pound per liter. I'm willing to pay that for better performance and piece of mind that my metal tank won't corrode, plus the Avgas 100ll will last longer.

[ian williams]

Just out of curiosity, is Avgas any better that the E5 &E10 fuel types?
AVGAS UL91 – Colourless and unleaded piston engine fuel that’s safer for the environment, AVGAS UL91 is designed for sports and general aviation aircraft.

· AVGAS 100LL – A high-quality, low-lead piston engine aviation fuel used for more taxing flying, such as aerobatics.

hi Trev;
the 100LL is ethanol free and has shelf life of many years , it is preferred by most light aircraft owners , it is extremely good in old motorbikes and cars and for racing , i use it in my bikes , my boss owns an airfield where i am working at present and so i can get myself avgas when i want it .
the UL91 is lower octane and we dont sell that much of it because the pilots prefer the 100LL .

i also use shell v-max or esso e5 97ron and i put STABIL fuel stabiliser in it to see how that goes for me .

some people use ASPEN fuel , which has long shelf life but it not cheap .

i did have problems last year after winter layup and using ordinary petrol from the pumps in my NH and i had a greenish powdery deposit layer form on all the insides of my amal carb which i had to clean off .
my plastic "stayup" float also swelled a bit and touched the side of carb float bowl but luckily my mate works for amal and showed me that they machine a relief into one of the screw bosses on new carbs to stop the float from sticking , my carb didnt have the relief in it .
i didnt maching my carb though and instead found a brass float and put that in which had more clearance than the plastic float .
the greenish deposits did take some cleaning off , i am not quite sure what caused it though but i do know i had been using and left some pump fuel in there for the winter .

i have avgas mix plus some stabil in there at present so when i get chance i will check it out and see if i am having same issue this time round .

looks like it may be the case of draining tank out for winter or whipping carb off when the weather imporves and giving it a clean and check over before i run bike again on the roads next year .

i did have some of those fuel catalyst pellets in my tanks but i dont think they stopped the fuel going off nor did they stop the deposits forming on the parts inside the carb , although my mates father did work on seafires in the navy and said they did indeed fit that kind of product into the fuel lines of spitfires and seafires in an attempt to raise the octane level , i dont think theres any real data on whether they did anything or worked though .
cheers
ian

[Ivor Collins]

It’s particularly frustrating when, in the spring, one finds the sump full of fuel (not Arrow) and trace it back to the Viton seals in both the carburettors and vacuum operated fuel tap having failed simultaneously due to the current adulterated fuel.
End of season draindown and a regular check on seal integrity is the lesson learnt here but not really where I want to be.

It makes me wonder what material is now being used in current vehicles fuel systems or are they all destined for periodic completer overhauls

[Richard B]

I have coated my Arrow tank with Flowliner one of several products on the market. Afterwards it occurred to me perhaps this wasn’t necessary bearing in mind the oil in fuel may protect the steel tank?

[JohnnyBeckett]

hi i use sta-bil in my E5 or E10 petrol it helps to stops the water getting in the petrol i have used it in all my engines that run on petrol for years