Fuel, fuel and more fuel

[Mark_Skyland]

Check your fuel.

 

Most of the machines that come into the workshop have a lot of water in the fuel, woodchip, sawdust bits of old rubber and other contaminants. Its worth dumping your fuel tank into a clean plastic jug, they only cost a pound or two from the supermarket and checking it out. It should be clear, now it may be blue red, yellow etc depending on the colour of your two stroke oil but it shouldn't be cloudy, if it is its got water in it. Let it settle and you will see a bubble of water at the bottom, you can just pour off the decent fuel and bin the dirty fuel. Pour the clean fuel back into the tank, swill it about and dump it into the jug again. Do this a couple of times to clean the tank out. Make sure you do this with the fuel can, jerry can that you store your fuel in when its getting time to refill it.

 

I have seen machines that have around 15-20% of water in the fuel tank, its a lot more common now with the increase of ethanol in pump fuel. Using super unleaded helps solve the issue but its still worth doing from time to time.

 

 

[Stubby]

6 hours ago, Mark_Skyland said:

 

 

I have seen machines that have around 15-20% of water in the fuel tank, its a lot more common now with the increase of ethanol in pump fuel. Using super unleaded helps solve the issue but its still worth doing from time to time.

 

 

Or an alkylate fuel .

[Muddy42]

Good advice.  I tend to just dump the fuel or mix it with mystery oils for starting bonfires.  The chances are if its been there long enough to attract water, its stale.  Wasting a small amount of fuel is better than big repair bills.  Also keep your machines inside where the air is drier.

 

I exclusively use Alkyate for infrequently used machines and the others get drained, ran dry, fuel tanks left open for a few days then ran on Alkyate before winter storage. Running them for a while in mid winter is a good idea too.

 

Its ironic that petrol survives for millions of years underground and humans manage to add stuff to it that renders it useless after a few months!

[GarethM]

1 hour ago, Muddy42 said:

exclusively use Alkyate

Its ironic that petrol survives for millions of years underground and humans manage to add stuff to it that renders it useless after a few months!

Petrol isn't really oil, it's a fraction product.

 

Bit like icing as part of one of those bake a cake boxes.

[Muddy42]

8 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Petrol isn't really oil, it's a fraction product.

 

Bit like icing as part of one of those bake a cake boxes.

 

Agreed.  Also I understand it petrol going bad has many reasons. Ethanol attracts water.  Evaporation and oxidization can leave behind relatively more of the additives and the heavier hydrocarbons, so the average composition changes. So humans are only partly to blame, but I still wish it didn't have ethanol in!

[GarethM]

Yeap, ethanol has been a complete con.

 

Reduced MPG, meaning you burn more and wasting corn to brew it.

 

If the idea of brewing it from waste crops had worked or a bacteria like they do for insulin that would be fine. But surprisingly it's not!.

[Muddy42]

14 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Yeap, ethanol has been a complete con.

 

Reduced MPG, meaning you burn more and wasting corn to brew it.

 

If the idea of brewing it from waste crops had worked or a bacteria like they do for insulin that would be fine. But surprisingly it's not!.

 

and burning diesel to grow/transport/process the corn.

 

[GarethM]

30 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

and burning diesel to grow/transport/process the corn.

That's kinda irrelevant if you're going to eat to stuff instead 🙂

[Con]

Good advice Thanks. I've always used super unleaded since they increased the ethanol. 

Bit of a tangent. Fueled up the transit the other day (diesel). Not at my usual petrol station.  It was low on fuel. Immediately after we left the petrol station engine started pinking/knocking. Maybe coincidence.  It idles, runs, a bit of loss of power. Googled it. Plenty of suggestions that it could be fuel pump solenoid. I'm not convinced.  Changed fuel filter, didn't do anything. Before I go for solenoid, any other suggestions?  Thanks

[Mark_Skyland]

14 hours ago, Stubby said:

Or an alkylate fuel .

Your right, it is another option but most pro users wont go for alkylate fuel.