E15 Ethanol

The EPA approved E15 last year. The news story began with E15 ethanol finally being offered at some stations in Minnesota and for 10 to 15 cents less than E10.

The real story was about the sticker on the gas pumps that most people probably won't read anyway. The sticker says that it is not recommended in motorcycles, small gasoline engines and cars produced before 2001.

My 2 cycle tools (weedwacker, leafblower, etc) used to be pretty reliable on gasoline but with E10, they have been a problem.  

A multi brand motorcycle dealer in town only guarantees a carburetor rebuild for two weeks. They claim that if you let a motorcycle sit just two weeks with E10 in the tank, the fuel can go bad and gum up passages in the carburetors again.

It is only going to get worse as E15 becomes the new standard.

I would be willing to pay a premium for straight gasoline if just one pump at a gas station was reserved for that fuel. The only location to sell straight gasoline in my area is a boat dock about 5 miles away and that is selling for $4 per gallon. That would work for my lawn tools but I can't search for a boat dock when we are riding our scooters.

Move to Canada  
Our regular gas is E10, our premium is ethanol free, and our mid grade is a blend of the two, so about 5%.

I have found that my scooter runs fine on E-10(aside from less mpg) when I am out riding. I put pure gas in my car and the scooters that I don't ride every day. We are lucky to have pure gas readily available around here and I use it anytime I know I will not be riding every day. Regular E-10 is $3.05 and Regular pure gas runs over $4 a gallon. I can get regular, midgrade and premium pure gas if I go to the distributor. I haven't went to the distributor lately so I don't know the prices of the midgrade and premium. If I can use E-10 I will as long as I know I will be riding long enough to run it thru.

Be careful if you are not familiar with the gas pump.If it says 85 octane it is going to be 10% Ethanol even though it may not say so. One of the first things you may notice on your small engines (weed whackers etc) is hard starting if they have not been run for a while. Then you will notice the fuel lines will start to deteriorate. Visit your local hobby shop and by some fuel line that can handle the alcohol.Always use the higher octane fuel when you put them in storage. Howard

The problem, as I understand it, is that the original rules dictated the amount of ethanol that had to be sold. Increased mileage fuel vehicles and lower driving amounts decreased the amount of ethanol needed so the "targeted amount " would not be met unless they increased the percentage per gallon. Another case of "big brother" taking care of us. I'm not a politician, but I still might be wrong.  

E10 did a good job of gumming up the carburetor on my lawn mower.
My suspicion is it also was the reason my intake manifold gaskets failed on my Buick V6