Fuel 101: Not all fuel is created equal

As the weather warms up and the long hibernation of winter leaves northern Utah, its time to start getting ready for the up and coming riding season. For most, that means going out to your garage and trying to fire up your ATV, UTV or dirt bike. I say trying because for many with older carbureted machines, the odds of this starting or running correctly is low. You maybe wondering why? The main cause: The wrong fuel was left in the tank 3-6 months ago when the machine was parked for season.

Back in my day, our fuel came from dead dinosaurs, not corn.

Lets be honest, the fuels that we run in all of our engines just plain sucks. A couple decades ago, someone had the bright idea that we could make ethanol from corn and use it as an additive. In this case, this additive dilutes the gas, while still giving it ability to detonate when its sprayed into your engine. And while this fuel may work for modern vehicles such as cars and trucks, it has a tendency to wreak havoc on our powersports equipment. To understand why, we need to understand a couple terms:

• Hygroscopic: This simply means the ability of a substance to absorb moisture from the air. Ethanol in fuel is hygroscopic. Fuels such as E10 or E85 are hygroscopic and readily attracts and absorbs moisture (aka water) from the air. So while you are sitting nice and dry in your house, remember that the E85 fuel in your tank is trying to sabotage you. As time goes by (as it does in the cold months), the ethanol keeps on keeping on absorbing water and that leads to Phase Separation

• Phase Separation: When ethanol absorbs enough water, it will start to separate out from the gasoline. As water is heavier than gas, it sinks to the bottom of the tank.

So with some basics about how ethanol works, lets understand the impacts of it as it sits in your tank for months. Ethanol fuel can have several impacts on powersports fuel systems. Here are the main effects:

1. Moisture Absorption – We learned that ethanol is hygroscopic, and that it loves to absorb water from the air. This can lead to phase separation in fuel, where water and ethanol settle at the bottom of the fuel tank, causing poor engine performance and potential damage.

2. Corrosion – Ethanol can be corrosive to certain metals (such as aluminum, brass, and zinc) and rubber components found in carburetors, leading to premature wear and failure.

3. Deposits and Clogging – Ethanol can dissolve old varnish and debris in the fuel system, which may clog small carburetor jets and passages, leading to rough idling, stalling, or poor acceleration.

4. Lean Running Condition – Ethanol contains oxygen, which can make the air-fuel mixture leaner than intended. This can cause engines to run hotter, potentially leading to overheating or engine damage if not properly tuned.

5. Fuel Deterioration – Ethanol-blended fuels have a shorter shelf life because they absorb water and oxidize more quickly, forming gum and varnish that can clog carburetors and fuel lines.

Gelling due to ethanol removing varnish

This time of year, most of the machines coming to us are due to ethanol based fuels sitting long periods of time. With shorter shelf life, ethanol fuels should be used quickly. These fuels can start to degrade within 1-3 months. Keep in mind, its not just degrading in your tank, its degrading throughout your whole fuel system: fuel lines, rails, injectors and carburetors. Since alcohol is such a great cleaner, ethanol will start to take the natural varnish that gasoline behinds through normal use. This varnish is particularly present in carburetors. When the varnish comes off, it tends to turn into a sticky and gummy residue. this gets pulled into the jets, causes the float and needle to get stuck. When this happens, whatever you do:

DO NOT TOSS YOUR FACTORY CARBURETOR OUT AND INSTALL A CHEAP CHINESE ONE.

How to avoid this problem

As I come off my soap box of the problems of ethanol, there are ways to minimize your ride exposure to ethanol issues. Here they are:

1. Don't use ethanol fuel: Plain and simple. Splurge and spend the extra 30-60 cents a gallon. Your machine will thank you. There are plenty of places to get non ethanol fuel here in Utah. For example, most Maverik Adventure Stores have non ethanol gas. Its usually has a blue handle. Not sure where to look for non-ethanol fuel. Try here. If you run a high performance machine and need higher octane fuel, VP fuels has you covered.

2. If you have to use it: If you are going to use ethanol based fuel, then have a plan to use it all. Time is your enemy here. As the end of the season approaches, run it out and replace it with non ethanol gas (If possible) . Fill it all the way. Less air space means less surface are exposed to air. If the season is ending then lets talk winterizing.

3. Winterize your machine: As the weather gets cold and you are not going to use it anymore, you should winterize it. This process involves adding a fuel stabilizer, regardless if its Ethanol or non Ethanol based fuel. Make sure and top off the tank. The less surface area of the tank exposed to air reduces moisture build up. Finally, run the engine. you want to make sure the treated fuel is ran through the whole system, not just the tank.

Well.... this was advice I needed last October, now what?

If you are experiencing issues such as hard starts, machine only running with the choke on, not running at all or the fuel smells stale; dont beat yourself up. It happens. If your machine is carbureted and its the original carburetor, again, dont throw it away for a cheap fix. There is a reason that carburetor is on your machine and if you think that $40 special from Amazon will fix your problem, think again. See our post about Carburetors

Knowledge is power and you will know how to combat it this year! If your machine is not running or running poorly, give us a call or schedule an appointment to have it fixed.