My low compression Evo runs just fine on 87 octane 10% ethanol blend. Down here we don't have a choice, the 10% blend is required by the EPA.

MikeyB

 

I usually run chevron 94 but the other day I had no choice but to fill up at a Mohawk and used their ethanol blend 94. My ride ran like a bag of sh*t. it's been 2 full tanks of the chevron stuff later and it's only just now starting to run like a champ.

 

I run regular 87 with no problems. I have a buddy back in Iowa that runs 85 w/ ethonol and has never had a problem.

 

What are you riding? 883sonly call for 87.My 1200 manual says to burn 91 or better.

 

Coming out of the NWT in Canada... buddies that run the bulk plants...fuel storage facilities have said that gasoline in whatever blend deteriorate 45 days after be made. If one thinks that gas shipments to the communities hapen only twice a year I can imagine how crappy the gas really is. He says they use stabilizers but only like a couple onces per 100,000 liters. I always run premium in all my vehciles chainsaws quads etc. Something that was pointed out to me is that because of the high prices of fuels these days the premium stuff aint selling and there fore one is getting old fuels. Make sense?

 

All gas today only has a shelf life of about 30 days, then loses it's octain. I have found that if it's kept in a closed container it will last almost indefinately. I have 5 year old gas for my weed eater thats still good. Ethenol actually is an octain booster which is great for racing engines, high compression etc. The only way it can hurt an engine is that the more ethenol % in the gas, the richer the system whether carb or some efi systems need to be. 10% should not even be noticable in most cases. Leaded gas was way worse on engines than any of the modern fuels. Less carbon, less oil contamination make for longer lasting engines. I don't give a rat's about ethenol either way but it's here to stay for a while and we will all be burning it in our bikes soon. I'm already using it in my 07fxstc and it's fine at 10%. Many dealers will tell you to avoid it, but I bet MoCo has already designed for it. If not, they are in the stone age.
Ron