Ethanol in Gas and Engine Problems?

[Moveon]

I filled up my truck the other day and noticed the sticker on the gas pump only after I stated to pump the gas. The gas has 10% ethanol in it now.

I have read that ethanol can create problems with boat motors as it destroyed some of the plastic or rubber inside the engine.

I wonder if it will hurt my truck's engine parts?

I think I'll buy my gas at a different gas station from now on. I want 100 % gasoline not alcohol in my fuel.

[raporter]

I filled up my truck the other day and noticed the sticker on the gas pump only after I stated to pump the gas. The gas has 10% ethanol in it now.

I have read that ethanol can create problems with boat motors as it destroyed some of the plastic or rubber inside the engine.

I wonder if it will hurt my truck's engine parts?

I think I'll buy my gas at a different gas station from now on. I want 100 % gasoline not alcohol in my fuel.

100% gas is out there but can be hard to find. It really should not hurt your engine.
On some older outboards you need to change hoses as it will cause them to deteriorate.
Then be sure to use Sta-Bil and Seafoam in your fuel.

[Panfish Man]

I would think your truck would run it through before it had a chance to cause problems. Outboards, that store fuel for periods of time, are a different problem. I just have to have my carbs redone, you should have seen the pitting in the bowl, and the gaskets were being eaten alive. I run seafoam and stabil, and still had this nasty gas problem. As already mentioned, you can get 100% gasoline somewhere near you, it may be a little out of the way, but worth it in my opinion, espeacially in you outboard tank.

[Moveon]

This is the first time that I found ethanol in the gas where I live. Before all the gas stations were selling pure gasoline. Maybe I never noticed the stickers before but I would think I would see them as I use to buy gas here all the time at this particular gas station.

I'll add some stabil or Sea Foam to keep any water tied up.

My older gasoline boat engine won't be using this ethanol gas.

My truck's not wanting to start after it gets hot. It will turn over but won't fire. Do you think it's the gas causing this? It will finally start up after it sits for about 10 minutes. Perhaps it's getting flooded when I turn it off and thus won't restart somethimes. Other times is starts right up. When it's cold it starts fine. It runs great once it's started. It's an intermittant problem but it's getting so that I won't go anywhere without fearing that I will be stuck somewhere.

[peter]

Some mechanics I have talked to are recomending this for ethanol.

http://www.starbrite.com/sproductdetail.cfm?ID=1537

Might work for truck engine too.

the maring grade stabil (greenish blue) advertises ethanol cures. It cost more per bottle but you use a lot less so it is cheaper than the pink stabil.

[Embrey]

this has been happening for quite some time. your truck has other problems....

[lilmule]

Most get their gas from the cheapest source,and no supplier is the same limited to 10 percent currently it may have less in it than allowed.If one carried a tester and there is one available most come out at 6 or 7 percent.
Non eth stations are around,generally one pump per and at 89 oct,one nearby me is kirks trading post at Paris landing,another is in town of Paris and another in Dover ,several in clarksville,so if you are coming to barkley or ky lake in Tn your covered cost is 5 cents more per gal saw yesterday was 3.50.
Just about everything closes right after dark ,but everything also opens just after daylight.
Blue stable does help,I run it as well as use non eth.

[Hoosier Hunter]

Non-eth stations here...

http://pure-gas.org/

[TR21Bassin]

I've talked to a couple of mechanics about the 10% Ethanol and most newer vehicles, within 5 years old are designed for this. If you run straight gas you could cause problems because it runs at a higher temp.

Charlie

[stratosjoe]

called OMC about my old 1993 150 silver star they said Startron from walmart so I have been using it for the last 3 tanks smoked at first pretty good . seems to run smoother and start a little easier even though it has always started easy.

[Moveon]

this has been happening for quite some time. your truck has other problems....

Just looking at every possible cause of the truck not wanting to start after it's warmed up.

Choke, Carburator, Distrubutor, coils, fuel filter, air filter and type of gas.

I think it may be because of a fuel vapor lock not letting gas get up to the engine. I had this problem years ago with a Datson sports car that had trouble starting somethings in the hot summer months.

My truck will start up at first but after it's run a while and gets hot it won't start back up after sitting for a few minutes. After it sits for about 15 minutes and cools off it will restart again.

I changed out the two coils and replace the distributor cap. One of the coil wires had fused to the distributor cap and when I tried to pull it off the distributor cap broke. So I got a new distributor cap and replaced the broken one. I got two new wires that connect the two coils to the distributor cap. Replaced the inline fuel filter but still need to check the fuel pump which also has another filter inside it. Check the automatic choke this morning and found it was working ok.

Figured I'd ask about the gas and alcohol mix to see if that was part of the problem as this is an older model truck that was not designed to run on Alcohol based fuel. Just wondered it it was adding to my hard starting problems or not.



To the guy that posted the list of gas stations without alcohol:
Thanks for the link to the gas station list.

PS: I think I have some stabil that treats gas with alcohol in it. I'll just add some of that to the gas tank and see if that helps.

The trouble with alcohol or maybe the blessing of alcohol in gas is that alcohol will mix with water and gas won't. So if you get water in the gas tank or gas the alcohol may help clean the water out of the gas tank. Or not! It may attrack water instead. Not sure which happens.

[lovetofish]

I talked to the ev dealer and he said to use star-tron said you do not want to use any additive that contains alcohol