Posted by Daryl in Oz [162.158.3.163] on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 18:23:11 :
In Reply to: New Report on Ethanol and Fuel Quality posted by Don in Missouri [172.68.58.155] on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 11:39:15 :
We have ethanol as an option here in Australia, but I believe most folks use straight gas that is available in 3 octane levels. In my experience it seems to go off after about 3 months. When you try to start an engine with aged gas in it you get symptoms like the electrical side of the engine is bad. I first became aware of it with one of our farm vehicles that hadn't been used for some time, but was running fine when last used. I checked it had plenty of gas at the carb but would only pop and sputter and wouldn't run. I checked the points, leads etc, eventually putting in new leads, new points, replaced coil with a known good one, condenser still no good. In desperation I dumped a little new gas in the carb and it fired straight up, then ran like crap. It only had a 1/4 tank, so I added 5 gallons of new gas and after the new stuff circulated it ran as good as ever. Lesson learned, results tried and proved with other engines.