Does anyone know of a gas station in southeastern MA that sells alcohol free gas at a reasonable price? I am aware of a Sunoco station in Abington that sells racing gas at around $80 a five gallon can. I would like to run my small motors on alcohol free gas. Thanks
lots of debate on this but what is the problem you are having
Alcohol free gasoline, at least for 2 stroke engines is available at Rural King, a chain farm store about a mile from my house. However, it is almost $5 a liter. I bought some for my two stroke roto-tiller that was very difficult to start. It did help. However, a squirt of carburetor cleaner in the air intake of the carburetor is also effective and didn’t cost as much.
Just a side note about Rural King: 5 years ago I went there to get an air filter and spark plug for my lawnmower. An animal rescue organization was there with 3 puppies. I had lost a dog 4 months earlier to kidney failure. I came home with my mower parts and a puppy. He is now 5 years old and a great companion.
For small 2 stroke equipment you can now buy special fuel just for these engines at Home Depot or Lowe’s
Do you have an airport near you that caters to small planes? 100 octane low-lead avgas can be had for $5 - 6. Cheaper than racing gas. Yes, there is lead in 100LL. But you have no cat to worry about.
If you’re in SEMA than Taunton airport would be one suggestion.
Try www.pure-gas.org; This site will tell you where to get ethanol-free gas in your area. I get mine from the local marina. Worth the drive to keep all my small engines running correctly.
Our local Mobil has the non-oxy gas for the premium pump. Its a little over $4 a gallon. That’s all I use in small engines plus the Briggs stabilizer and been happy ever since. The Minnesota Street Rod Association puts out a directory for all of Minnesota so you might want to check with the chapter in your state.
I know that alcohol free gasoline is better for small engines. However, I have two push mowers. One mower was made in 1988 and has a Tecumseh 4 stroke engine. The other was made in 1992 and has a Briggs and Stratton 4 stroke engine. Both engines have been run on the 10% ethanol with no problems. I did put a new short block on the newer mower due to oil consumption, but I use it a lot more than the older mower, I have a 2 stroke MTD snow blower and I have had no problems using gasoline that is 10% ethanol, The only engine that has given me fits is the 2 stroke engine on my Earthquake 2 stroke tiller. Sometimes it would start easily and other times it was hard to get it to fire up, A shot of carburetor spray into the air intake would help. However, it fires right off with the alcohol free mixed 2 stroke fuel. I have a small garden, so at $5 a liter, the cost of the fuel is insignificant. However, I don’t want to pay money for alcohol free gasoline for my lawnmower engines.
It’s not necessary that you run carb fed small motors on alcohol free gas all the time… It is necessary that alcohol free be the last gas it sees before long storage. The are additives at marine supplies stores that will control moisture accumulation during the season. At season end, either drain or use up the ethanol lased gas then add some alcohol free with marine grade stabile to finish the job. You need not nor should you drain the good stuff anfter running it a while, in order to keep seals moist.
One or two gallons should be enough for everything for one year. If you have two stroke machines which tend to be small, chainsaws and weed wackers, , I would premix with two stroke oil and stabile and run that exclusively on alcohol free. They use so little, it’s not a big deal and you can 't be sure of the last time you used before. storage. If you depend on a generator for outages which tends to sit or a while, use a lot of gas then sit some more, they can really be a pain. I suggest you to to propane. My house generator is propane, my small work generator is gas but has a drain in line to get rid of the ethanol gas at the end of use. We then run it a few minutes on Trufuel
Thank you all, I have had problems in the past with a carburetor on my snow blower and with a tiller after leaving stabilized 10% alcohol added gas for too long. I am currently running premium with stabilizer and carb cleaner in my small engines, they seem to run better on premium. Maybe my imagination. I do have a friend who has a hanger at the Lawrence airport, maybe I will hunt down some avgas. I did try pure gas.com, they list a station a few miles away who sells Sunoco in 5 gallon cans for about $80, too much for me. If the avgas is not available I will try buying a smaller quantity at the hardware store and use it before storage. Again, thanks.
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@Momini
Just a friendly reminder. Stabilizer does nothing for the ethanol moisture retention problem. Neither does the carb cleaner. You must remove the gas before long term storage. Even Marine grade Stabile expressly for ethanol does not do as well as removing gas and running ethanol free gas before storage. There are no short cuts !