Ethanol Gas Problems?

[CYBORG]

I like the way you think. And I seem to recall somrething from years ago amout injecting water into the mix for something. Might have been power, or cleaning, or somethng. It WAS more then a minute ago

[pidjones]

I'll find out next year, as both the '78 (with '75 engine and carbs)GL1000 and '72 Triumph were stored last Fall with carbs run dry and drained, GL tank topped off (with Stabilized 100% gas) and Triumph tank drained. I suffered a separated AC last August, and that's all I could do for them. Not comfortable riding with the lose shoulder joint. Prostate surgery early July, and scheduled repair of shoulder this week, so they will set like they are through another off-season. The Spyder (fuel injected with plastic tank) was run last with Stabilized 100% gas and will set as-is until it can next be ridden, which is expexted next Spring. We have a few carbureted outdoor power equipment engines, and when fuel is purchased for them I put manufacturer's recommended amount of Stabil in the cans before hauling them in (~3 miles here in the free state of Tennessee) and getting 4 x 5 gallons of regular 100% gas. Over the decade or so since restoring it, the GL1000 engine has only needed the seemingly extensive cranking to fill the float bowls, but once they fill it fires and runs fine. The bikes are stored in a dry, heated basement garage. I'm sure this is very helpful.

[Fred Camper]

Interesting approach about running reserve. Not sure there is enough mixing to get all the ethanol to the bottom but certainly most would drop I think. Also it ensures reserve is not plugged. I like it.

[Sidecar Bob]

Re "the seemingly extensive cranking to fill the float bowls", somewhere in his blog Randakk mentioned pre-filling dry carbs with 180ccc of fuel to make starting easy. If you do that it will start with as little cranking as if you ran it yesterday.
I even added a fitting between the fuel pump and the carbs so that I can use a 60cc syringe (3x) to fill them.
viewtopic.php?t=76815&start=60#p818990

[Rat]

Interesting approach about running reserve. Not sure there is enough mixing to get all the ethanol to the bottom but certainly most would drop I think. Also it ensures reserve is not plugged. I like it.

Occasionally during a ride I switch to 'reserve' for a few minutes, just to ensure it will work if I need it. I guess that might help keep the lower level of the tank circulating too

Gord

[dontwantapickle]

In hindsight,
While running on reserve, the bike did heat up very quickly.
Could it have been burning lean on the alcohol/water mixture ???

If so... as I suspect it was.
It's proof that some of that stuff is getting sucked out of the tank and consumed.

I haven't moved the bike or mixed up the gas since starting it yesterday. I'll go out later and fire it up again
and hopefully pull even more out of the tank.
(and pay a little more attention to the condition of the engine while it is running.)

[redglbx]

Don ,

On filling the bowls I have found that if the tank is over 1/2 or so full I just open the petcock and loosen the gas cap and just let it set like that for 15min-1/2hr and usually it will fire up fairly easily with minimal cranking.

Since I haven’t been able to ride for a while now I don’t remember if I put the petcock in reserve since it puts the pickups lower in the tank but it should help.

[dontwantapickle]

Testing Complete.
With the bike setting undisturbed and the gas/whatever mixture able to remain separated,
I started the bike while still on reserve.

It started easily and Idled OK although it was running rough enough to notice when paying attention.

It did warm up rather quickly.
When the fan came on, I switched the petcock off of reserve and continued to run the engine
to fill the bowls with the gas from the upper part of the tank.

I notice that the idle did become smoother and the rpms increased about 150 when the engine
was running on the "better" gas.

Not a scientific test at all, but it all indicates that there could very well be a benefit to doing this.

[redglbx]

Good job Don !

did testing similar to this while I was working were we would take samples of brake fluid in a beaker and let it set, you could watch the water separate from the b-fluid and see 2 very distinct layers , 1 of brake fluid and 1 of water at which point we would add some isopropyl alcohol to the beaker to verify the bottom layer was water.

It was interesting to watch the water just absorb the alcohol but the b-fluid would remain just floating on top with a very distinct separation line. This is the real problem with the ethanol in our fuels, it settles to the bottom of the tank and just absorbs water. Which really doesn’t run well in our bikes.

[ericheath]

Ten or more years ago some were suggesting to buy five gallons of ethanol and add 15% (?) water. Then you shook it up and let it settle. The 15% water content increased in time. You then siphoned off the top portion to get non-ethanol gasoline, the theory being the water and ethanol hooked together.

I have no idea as to whether the science is sound or not, but tried it a few times. I didn’t notice a difference in performance and I felt like it was a lot of work for little if any reward.