I was having a conversation with my longtime mechanic yesterday, and he was telling me about the upcoming changes in gasoline. Sometime in June, ethanol levels will be raised per new government standards. The new levels will be extremely destructive to carburators. I have been looking for another carbed bike and he told me that I'm asking for problems. He went on further to say that it's the government's way of getting the pre 1990 automobiles (carb) off the road and stimulate the economy with later model and brand new car purchases. Supposedly, any carb would suffer. Weed eaters, mowers,...and obviously carbed motorcycles too. To me it seems far fetched, but he's not the type of guy who's ever fed me any type of bull. I'm just concerned about staying away from a future "carbed" bike purchase. What do you guys think, anyone have any knowledge in this area?

 

Ethanol is a sham.
It's a backdoor way to the Kyoto Treaty.
The eco-****'s are poisoning the fuel supply to prematurely wear out internal combustion engines.

 

Yeah they're going to 15% ethanol blend but the pumps will be marked and it can only be used in vehicles manufactured after 2001. It's not for use in motorcycles. Pumps will also be installed to dispense different grades of ethanol fuel from the same pump.

 

For sometime now I have been buying avation gas (no ethanol and 100 octane) for my 2 cycle equipment. Its 6.50 a gallon but not going to have the crap they sell now seize up my two cycle engines.

 

Thats how unleaded gas got its start. Now do you see any leaded gas in your pump? Sorry to get political here, but thats how progressivism works. Nudge nudge nudge. step by step by step.

Sorry to jack the thread but................
Curious if youve tried running it in your bike and if you got any good results? You wouldnt be able to use your stock cat equipped exhaust(dont know if you have that or not) and youd need a tune I suppose, but Im curious if there are any performance and mileage improvements.

 

I run 10% ethanol in my 2000 fatboy all the time. Ethenol isn't destructive too any engine if its properly jetted. It takes about twice the alcohol as gasoline to achieve the same BTU. Ie if you were to run 100% alcohol you would need to jet big enough to flow twice the volume.

 

Just put some Star-Tron in every tank and ride on. http://www.starbrite.com/sproductdetail.cfm?ID=1537

 

This is what I heard also.

 

Even the E90 (10% Ethanol) is destructive to engines and not just carburetors either. It causes galvanic corrosion of aluminum and other metals and it is a strong solvent that works to degrade plastic and rubber parts (and many synthetic "rubber" materials). 10% was a figure chosen as "livable" by DOT, etc. because the likelihood is at that percentage your "car's" useful life will be over by the time the Ethanol erosion will become an issue. Also at that percentage the carb float (set for gasoline maybe) will not have to be replace with one that will set the correct float level for fuels of other densities.

Many of the gaskets and seals in a carb are dissolved by Ethanol... in fact, even Injectors have issues with this as they often contain seals that are attacked by Ethanol. Maybe this is the "planned obsolescence' factor? LOL

To run Ethanol you will need to convert your system to it completely to be sure you are not riding on the edge of some fail-issue that will arise. This is much easier to do on a motorcycle than it is on a car. All rubber hoses, aluminum tubing, etc. will need to be replace with Ethanol-friendly materials. The car racing industry know what works and what doesn't. If you have a carb it will need to be rebuilt with Ethanol-friendly gaskets and seals and the float itself replace with one designed for the density of the fuel you are going to be using.

If I had a readily available source of E100 (100% Ethanol) I would make the conversion and run it. It is a cleaner fuel than Gasoline... no carbon build-up, more power (more equivalent "Octane"... however... less fuel economy I am afraid. Ethanol (straight) burns at ratios of about 19:1 compared to Gasoline 14.7:1 (fuel to air by weight).

As a side note... thinking through my VRSC fuel system I am not even sure what the "plastic" tank is actually made of and it may not be able to handle a higher percentage of Ethanol. May have to go to Stainless Steel tanks, lines, etc. instead. Also the fuel pump itself may not be designed to handle Ethanol.

Anyway... hope I have given you some things to think about. Probably my main point is that ANY Ethanol is "bad" for vehicles not designed for it. Even 10% is compromising your fuel system and over time will damage it. When they increase that percentage that increases the problem and decreases mean-time-before-failure (make problems happen faster). Also an increase could make your carb malfunction right off... the first time you put the fuel in your bike cause the carb float won't be correct anymore and you will need to re-tune fuel-ratio or you will be leaning out your engine.

 

They make ethanol carbs for v8 engines.It just a matter of bigger jets and alcohol resistant gaskets.