Ethanol-free gas still needed?

What's the current thinking on e-free gas for small engines? I use e-free for every small engine, including my eXmark mower, but wondering if that is needed if you go through the gasoline pretty quickly and are using it often, not allowing it to sit in the mower long. Towards season's end, you could convert to e-free? What do you think.

A shade tree mechanic told my brother to just buy regular gas (not e-free) and put an additive in it. I forget which one.

I guess the main reason for this is that we don't have e-free gasoline in this town, have to get it elsewhere and, occasionally, I run out and just wondering about this.

 

Had carb trouble with my wood splitter and walk behind mower using e10 with seafoam. Mechanic kept telling me to switch to efree and I did after replacing the carb on my splitter. Splitter is used at least once a week year round.
Since switching to ethanol free about 3 years ago I have not had a problem with either. I use efree in my saws, blower and weed eater too.
That reminds that the weed eater was a mfer to start until I switched to efree. Ffs sometimes I skipped weed eating, or gave up the fight.
If I had to drive a long ways to get efree I’d reconsider, but it’s under 2 mi from my house.

 

There is a YouTube channel called Terral fixed all. He did a year long experiment with multiple fuel additives with 87 octane E-10 gas. For a control he used to the 87, 91 E-10 and VP racing 94 small engine fuel without additives. The only engine that didn't have a trashed carburetor was the VP racing fuel. He didn't test E-free pump because it's not available everywhere.
Myself, I use only VP 94 or Sunoco optima 95 small engine fuels in my ported saws and E-free pump gas in the rest. Mowers and all. I never have a carburetor issue.

 

I despise ethanol. See far too many issues with my neighbors stuff.
I'm E free and running some stuff for 30 plus years with no issues.

 

I've gotten some trimmers I was going to use for my oil tests that ethanol had almost eaten through the crank case from setting. Full of these off-white granuals. Brake cleaner removes it but didn't disolve it. Basically washed it out. Nasty stuff. Even newer mowers we have that say 10 percent ethanol is ok I still won't run corn squeezins in.

 

This is what I do-FWIW. I burn 7-8 gallons of gas in my mowers weekly during the season. I run just regular pump gas in those. Around Oct.1, I add Stabil blue to the gas and store them for the winter full of gas.
My small Honda generator, pressure washer, push mower, ATV, and everything 2 stroke gets e-free with Sea-foam.
I haven't had any trouble with gas, carbs, etc. in 15 years or so. YMMV!

 

I run 87 lemonade in my mower since it gets used weekly.
Anything else gets "E"-free gas. since they might sit for a while between use.

Like Will mentioned above , when you store them fill the tanks, this prevents having a large airspace in the tank and this air has moisture. Alcohol and moisture don't play nice.
When I store I do NOT shut the fuel valves off. If you shut the fuel off over time some gas evaporates from the carb bowl , and can dry up and cause corrosion. By leaving the fuel on the bowl will not dryout and stay full of fuel during storage.

 

In the cutting months I use regular pump fuel in my commercial mower. In the fall I run the tank nearly dry and fill it with E-free for the final fall cleanup, which is normally in mid November. All the handheld equipment gets E-free 100% of the time. So far no fuel related problems.

From my own knowledge additives are pretty much pointless. Run the equipment dry in the fall if you don't have E-free fuel available. That's the best alternative, unless you want to spend the coin on some canned fuel.

 

I've had a couple of bad experiences with premixed 2cycle fuel. Even seen a couple of small engine repair youtubes ( Chicanic, Steve's Small engine saloon) say don't use it.

 

I mix my own with the 4 cycle variety.

Odd about Steve's small engine saloon. One of his vids he praises canned fuel and if ethanol free pump isn't available to use the canned for storage after draining or running dry of the ethanol fuel.

 

For the past 12 years of heating with wood (and beyond that with my weedeater), I've only used pump 87 w/ eth. I use a good oil and occasionally run everything. I have yet to have one issue using 10%eth fuel. I keep all my saws in my temp regulated basement, which IMO makes a difference. My other ope gets a treatment every fall (2 rider mowers, a Wheel Horse, push mower, tiller, 2 weedeaters, leaf blower, splitter....). The push mower and splitter now have on/off valves for gas and they get turned off and run dry after each use.

I've also worked @ motorcycle shop for a couple years and have seen absolute horror shows. While I don't doubt it can do much harm, I feel you have to be negligent for it to happen. An ounce of prevention is all it takes in my experience. IF you plan to leave something sit for long periods of time, this is where I see justification for eth-free. I'm just not in that boat.

 

I buy the local grocery store gas 93/91 about every 3 months due to "fuel perks"
I fill up 3 5/6 gallon cans and dose all those with star tron. I than fill my 2 gallon can from those cans and dose that with MMO.
I have yet to ever have any issues with any of my OPE yet.. chainsaws can and have sat for over a year with this fuel mix and they start up and run.
Of course 2 cycle fuel gets a quality oil which has stabilizers in it also. My one truck will sit for 9 months at a time and I'll fill that tank up, dose it with star tron
and forget about it till the weather gets nice. It starts and runs with no fuel related issues.
If you can get e-free easy, do it, if not no biggie. as The wood wolverine said, ounce of prevention per gallon

 

I beg to differ here...leaving the fuel on does not guarantee that the bowl will stay fuel...I can't tell you how many carbs I've had apart where the float was stuck in the "off" (or bowl full) position, bowl dry and crusty, even though the gas was left on. Also, OPE and motorcycles will often drip fuel from the bowl vent/overflow if left parked with fuel left on...wasteful at least, and depending on the storage area, a major fire hazard. Over time that dripping fuel can ruin paint and plastic sometimes too...seen some really nice old bikes with painted engines where the paint was all bubbled up from drippy carbs (and junk overflow hoses)

 

I use E free in my saws and snowblower.

Regular gas in my lawnmower. No other gas powered tools.

Everything that's seasonal, I let run dry before storage.

No issues with that practice. I'll stick with it.

 

Some fuel bowls don't run completely dry because of the shape. They need drained. Some need the bowl removed. Another option, if running corn gas, is to start them up every couple weeks in the off season. That's what I used to do until E-free was available. Back then though that was only a generator, snowblower, one push mower, one rider and one saw. Not that big of a deal but not that long ago I was up to 30 saws and that would have become a job lol.

 

4 strokes are a lot more tolerant than 2 strokes.
Tightly sealed storage cans are needed with ethanol. The very nature of e gas makes it a good desiccant. Anything that breaths with temperature changes including float bowls will take on moisture. The temperature controlled environment like The Wood Wolverine uses prevents breathing.

 

I run 90E free now because I can get it at the local station now. But ran 87 with E for as long as it's been mixed that before the E free was available. Never an issue, only difference I noticed was the saws needed leaned out a bit and my bike gets a few extra miles per tank on the E free stuff.

 

With the canned fuel I buy the straight fuel and mix my own oil 99% of the time, this is with Tru-Fuel. I have used plenty of the 40:1 premix too, upon inspection everything looks nice and coated with plenty of oil. With Tru-Fuel I would not hesitate to use the premix. I have no experience with other brands. I also don't put my faith in any YouTuber, though I do like Steve.

 

On a side note, in four cycle equipment running a little two cycle mix through the system the last run of the year doesn't hurt anything, a bit of oil coating everyt is not a bad idea IMHO.