Based on the information provided by this web page… http://www…0_gas.html I am wondering if the advice tha is usually given to add stabilizer to gasoline when storing a vehicle for months at a time will prevent phase separation and possible damage to engine.?
I’m not too worried about what this site is stating. They are a company selling ethanol gas test kits and are trying to put the fear of ethanol into people.
I can only speak from personal experience with a snowblower, boat, and lawnmower. E10 has been the only gas available to us for many years. I use a stabilizer for the gas for the typical 6 months of non use. Snowblower and boat are 2 cycle with different oil mixes. I usually have some gas left at the end of the use and try to use all the old stuff up before buying new gas. Snowblower and boat are late 80’s and lawnmower is about 4 years old, the other was lawnmower at least 15 but broke something in the engine after hitting a tree stump. They all run fine. I do believe the performance with the machines might be a tad degraded with the old gas, but nothing that keeps them from working at a satisfactory level. No problems with other fear factors on that site.
Everything stated on that site is true. When E10 was mandated as motor fuel in Minnesota in 1992, we discovered the disadvantages of this fuel. A lot of states are just now having E10 gas being forced on the public as a motor fuel, and most have no idea of the problems E10 can cause. So the site gives excellent advice.
Tester
I continue to be surprised by how little people know and how quickly some dismiss the problems of E10 and the lack of any specific information out there to help figure this out …eg. my reason for posting the question in the first place.
I would take that site’s information with a lot of NaCl. They can’t even get the name of the stuff right. “Ethanol alcohol” is redundant – ethyl alcohol = ethanol. They say that lead was used to oxygenate gasoline – it was an octane booster. I didn’t even bother reading any further.
the question was not whether the web site has accurate information, which it does if one does research on ethanol-gasoline engine problems…but whether adding stabilizer will prevent phase separation as is advised when storing a vehicle for an extended period of time. There is no information available that says that stabilized gas will not undergo phase separation!
Have to love your handle (name) please refer to previous post for my experience that seems to indicate phase separation is not a problem in my experiences with Stabil and Sea Foam.
Sta-Bil and Seafoam are excellent fuel stabilizers for E10. That’s because they contain isoprophyl alcohol which doesn’t phase seperate out of gasoline.
Or should I have just said isoprophyl?
Tester
“Or should I have just said isoprophyl?”
No, you should have said isopropyl, unless there’s an alternate spelling I’m unaware of.
I sometimes do that to see what comes out of the woodwork.
Tester