Opinions?

[SirHansford]

So, I haven't owned a carbonated vehicle in many years and we all know that e10 and 15 is evil pushed upon us by big-brother.  So my question is this,  with regular becoming ever more rare to run across,  what is your idea on the best way to battle e10 since were all forced pretty much to use it?  Donkey shame!

[user11235813]

You might find this post useful, I put it up on the suzuki savage forum as it's straight out of the LS650 manual, so I presume it would be equally valid for the GS500 as they are both 30 year old bikes.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1472725476

[W201028]

I did some research on ethanol fuels back around 2010, around the time the last few stations in my area of Pennsylvania were switching to e10. I had an old Benz at the time that required 93 octane, and it ran alot better without any liquor in the tank. There local shell station was the last to switch, and I asked the owner why he had to do it, since for years he had proudly displayed a sign proclaiming "Ethanol free gas!". He told me he was forced to, that the company supplying the real gas could no longer provide it.

Looking around on the internet, I found some information about PA's corn fuel initiative and whatnot. This is from memory, but apparently there is only one supplier of gasoline that covers many of the counties in PA. I want to say Pennsylvania Petroleum. All these different gas stations that advertise their fuel as superior, but all the fuel comes from one tank so to speak. I do not know how the fuel companies that advertise corrosion inhibitors and other additives actually put them in their particular fuels, but this is probably covered in a fine print somewhere.

I always imagined a guy opening the tank lids around 2am and pouring a bottle of stabil in. Shell V-power!

[gregjet]

It's funny, after all this time defending alcohol fuels, to be back with a vehicle that actually does have a problem with it. Had fuel injection on my cars and bikes now for years which really isn't effected, but the real problem really does exist for carbed bikes.
The biggest problem is corrosion of the copper and zinc in the carbs and some fuel lines designed for petrol only react with the  ethanol.
Corrosion in a steel fuel tank is likely to be LESS with alcohol in it as the fuel absorbs the water from the air and stops it condensing on the inside of the tank where there is an air/water/carbon dioxide ( inter alia) reaction possible. It's how we used to fix water in the fuel from dodgey fuel ststions. Dump metho in the fuel and it absorbs the water and allows it to mix with the fuel and be burnt through the motor.
Do you not have access to non alcohol fuels at all?
Steel jets (available for straight alcohol fuelled bikes) can help but if you have a brass float you still have a problem. I have seen alcohol stablizers but that's a pretty expensive route to go.
At least here we still have a choice.

[qcbaker]

So, I haven't owned a carbonated vehicle in many years and we all know that e10 and 15 is evil pushed upon us by big-brother.  So my question is this,  with regular becoming ever more rare to run across,  what is your idea on the best way to battle e10 since were all forced pretty much to use it?  Donkey shame!

I dont think I've ever heard of a carbonated vehichle 

Pedantry aside, theres a gas station near me that claims to sell ethanol free gas, and I live in Central Pennsylvania. I haven't taken my bike there to get filled up yet, but the thought has crossed my mind. Would the only benefit be extended carb life, or would my fuel efficiency increase as well?

[Torstein]

Check out: http://www.pure-gas.org/ to find gas stations around you with good gas.

I had to put ethanol in my tank 1 time, and it caused issues. I will avoid it at all costs no matter what. Thankfully we have gas stations around here that have 91 octane, ethanol free that are pretty easy to find.

[W201028]

I suppose I shouldnt say all the stations switched to ethanol, there are still two places I know of around central PA that sell real gas. Hakes station in Dover sells it in all three grades last I checked, and in Newberrytown there is a sunnoco that sells 100 octane race gas. Luckily theres a short dirt track up the road that doesnt allow any alcohol fuels, so they cater to that. My KTM likes that stuff, as it was built to run on 95 octane which no one sells anymore.
There are probably more, and I have heard that you can get non ethanol and 100L at Capital City airport. But I never checked that out.

[RichDesmond]

I think the "problems" with E10 are vastly overblown. I lived in Albuquerque for many years and all gas in the area had ethanol in it. Didn't think anything about it, all my cars and bikes ran fine, year after year. Of course, there wasn't the internet around to tell me how horrible it was either....   

[Janx101]

Used e10 in my bike for close on 2 years (Aussie e10 so I think it's canola ethanol?) No real dramas engine wise unless I switched back and forth to regular fuel.

Did replace stiff fuel lines but they were 8 years old at the time! So hard to say if ethanol in particular did that.

Bike has been stored in garage for 2 years now and runs rough when I.do start it to let idle for a bit. But again what gs500 runs like a clock when extended storage is involved? ... could be dreaded ethanol deterioration or just normal gunk? ..

added no stabilisers to fuel before storage because at the time I didn't know it was gonna be this long! ...

When I do have money for tyres and rego again then I'll look into running issues and may indeed find 'bad' things happened. So it'll be a learning experience!

My missus car with a Toyota vvt 2.4litre 4 pot engine runs on '94 octane e10' ALL the time with no issues... and has done for 7 years! ... there's no particular sticker/manual book that says it's 'e10 rated' either?!

Fwiw I think that SOME vehicles will/do have issues with the fuel but.however 'evil and out to get us poor motorists' the fuel companies are.... their chemists/engineers/whatever aren't going to setup a fuel that will kill the vast majority of engines out there!... customer backlash would ruin the companies! ...

I may wear my tinfoil hat on a number of issues in modern society but killer fuel isn't one of them!

[mr72]

I think most of the complaints about fuel with ethanol mix are with carburetors, particularly those that are many years old, and mostly due to a) the dependence on carburetors of having perfectly clear and smooth tiny sized orifices and b) the use of materials, particularly rubber parts, that are incompatible with ethanol.

Nothing so bad about the fuel, it's just that it's not really compatible with old carburetors. It will mean you have to clean corrosion much more frequently and when you replace o-rings and other rubber parts, use a material that will work well with ethanol.