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Featured Ethanol Free 90 octane fuel

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Ronald Doles, Dec 12, 2019.

  1. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Any sources on that. I don't doubt you, it is just all the ones I've never come across something covering such differences between RFG and non-RFG.
     
  2. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Too many misconceptions in these two pages -- as well as real truth -- for me to tackle them...

    But, no ethanol is best for small engines, one reason is they "run cooler" -- with ethanol newer engines are equipped with sensors to adjust the air/fuel ratio automatically. Small engines usually are not equipped to do this, resulting in a "leaner" burn that may increase engine temperatures and/or reduce engine power. A simple adjustment to the fuel system to "richen" the mixture can often fix this problem.

    But, since there are a few other issues, not worth messing with the mix for me. I never leave gas in a fuel tank longer than a month without stabilizer -- even ethanol-free.

    BTW, no corn primo gas goes for about a dollar more a gallon than corn "likker" regular gasoline in Oregon. In IOWA, IIRC, 15 percent ethanol is widely available and cheap.
     
    #22 cyberpriusII, Dec 13, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2019
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  3. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    We could all get over this discussion and have nothing more needed to learn if someone gave everyone in this thread an electric car... :)
     
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  4. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    I 'taint using no sissy electrik chainsaw.
     
  5. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Actual lean mixtures run cooler. Engines are tuned to run slightly rich under high loads though. This is because the fuel and air aren't completely mixed in the real world at stoichiometry, so some of each doesn't get burned, which is where NOx comes from. So a little extra fuel means all the oxygen gets burned with the fuel, which means max power, less NOx, and the extra bit provides cooling for protection from knock.

    The lean mix runs hot myth comes from people leaning out the mix from slightly rich to stoich, which does run hotter than the starting point. Once you go past that to an actual lean mix, temperatures drop again, along with NOx.
    Technically, Running Lean Won't Make Your Engine Overheat

    The stoich for E10 to gasoline is 14.08 to 14.7. e85fuel [ECMTuning - wiki]
    Loss of power on a tiny two stroke is probably a bigger concern than heat.
     
  6. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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  7. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I agree in general that chainsaws are for sissy losers... I use a hand saw almost exclusively... Finest saw on the market is this one... At times I've cut through a 10 inch thick log or branch in only a few minutes. Of course it took a long time to get the technique and build up enough muscle and endurance to use the saw for this purpose regularly. Best part of it all is I get my cardio in with fresh air and no poisonous engine exhaust fouling my lungs and I can still hear the birds which I like singing with while I work! :) I also never cut down trees because on a planet with a carbon absorption / oxygen production problem that's like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

    Thought I must admit my wood chipper is gas powered. But I do have an electric motor for it, just haven't finished that project yet.

    I've also cut through a 4 foot diameter log more than 1/2 way with a double bladed axe before, but that a different story. Let's just say the logging company in Oregon wasn't so happy to have the best logs on their log deck destroyed by a bunch of protesters. But that's what you get for destroying our forest and then leaving us unattended all Summer because the cops didn't have enough funding to clear us out. And then once the courts caught up to the situation the loggers had their whole timber sale canceled on 'em. We mostly won! They lost! Long live the trees!

    s-l500.jpg
     
    #27 PriusCamper, Dec 13, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2019
  8. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    An important thing they left out is that ethanol can't be used in fiberglass fuel tanks, like some boats have.
     
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  9. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    How long did it take to work up to cutting a dozen such trees to fireplace or furnace length?

    Though I should add that when dad was still cutting furnace wood, most of the trees he used were not that small.
    Dad's place has enough timber that natural tree mortality is way more than enough to supply wood heat for a single old inefficient house. No active carbon absorption / oxygen production factories artificially terminated for home heating reasons, as there is plenty of partially pre-cured wood still on the stump. (Fencepost making was a different story.) Though Tochatihu might mourn the loss of some habitat for subsequent cellulose-consuming life forms.

    Though thankfully for home air quality reasons, that furnace was replaced with a heat pump when he was no longer sufficiently able-bodied to feed it.
    I hope that if you camped out, that you left a clean and tidy campsite. Unlike the trashy dump left by an Earth First! group back in my native area.
     
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  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Took way less time then you going into town to buy gas, mix the oil and sharpen the teeth... Which doesn't count for the shortening of your lifespan from breathing polluted air and not getting enough cardio to keep your body healthy.

    Most people don't realize that dead and dying trees are essential to sustaining long term soil & forest health. It's not only a bank account that guarantees topsoil production for many decades to come, but have you ever tried to keep a fire going with rotten wood? The fungus and bacteria that makes that wood rotten, not only absorbs carbon, but it absorbs water, which makes it the essential ingredient to the most fireproof vegetation type, which is an old growth thick bark forest with minimal ladder fuels, which in the PNW is up to 1/3 standing dead trees and downed logs.

    You can literally go into one of these forests at the driest time of the year and hack into a giant log and squeeze a cup of water out of the pulp inside it....

    Most people incorrectly think dead trees are a fire hazard, but truth is that's only for the first few years before the wood rots, then all that wet rotten wood becomes a wildfire fighter!

    Most flammable thing in a forest is the oils in the green leaves and other fine fuels from brushy vegetation that logging creates. And 10 times more flammable than all of that are houses, because when you trap oxygen inside a house, it doesn't matter how fireproof that house is, that fire is going to get the oxygen inside of that house for itself one way or another. All it needs is a tiny hole and some wind and that house will blow up like a bomb!

    Been studying fire ecology for 30 years! Over 400K miles keeping an eye on my favorite forests in CA, OR, and WA.
     
    #30 PriusCamper, Dec 13, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2019
  11. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Don't waste any trips to town just to buy fuel. Agricultural supply outlets deliver it in bulk for other operations, putting it close at hand to the woodlot.
    He did split the wood by hand, after further curing, lots of exercise in that. Actually a lot of skill in where to set the wedges too.
    Which was acknowledged in a part you cut out. And why it is nice to have a woodlot far larger than needed to supply the desired fuel and fenceposts. The majority gets left in place for the natural cycles.
    But those are really bad for chimneys, creating a lot of creosote buildup. And poor volumetric energy density for handling and storage.
    So what to you recommend for fire resistant dwellings?
     
    #31 fuzzy1, Dec 14, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2019
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  12. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I can't smell stink bugs either lol love those flat large flee looking insects, except when that are eating the old cedar shingles on the garage roof.

    I don't know what it is yet ( I'm well aware it could be something others haven't noticed yet in my area or is only my imagination working overtime ) but whatever it is, it's not the smell (to me anyways) of normal gasoline. I smell it about half the time I stop to gas up.

    I have not had home heating oil delivered for about 20 years now, But that is the distinct smell I get and have been getting for about 2 years now iirc. It's not as potent as when filling a homes oil tank but it definitely overpowers the regular gasoline smell I'm used to.

    And the smell is coming from the pumps nozzle.
     
    #32 vvillovv, Dec 14, 2019
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  13. dubit

    dubit Senior Member

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    I'd have to pass PC as I have no place to charge it. Just like millions of other people just like myself. I guess that's another discussion people here at Prius Chat could move on with if they could only realize a fully electric vehicle for everyone just isn't feasible as of yet.
     
  14. Ronald Doles

    Ronald Doles Active Member

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    The problem with making a simple adjustment on small engines is that they all have tamper proof caps or recessed adjusting screws requiring a special tool to make the adjustments. My weedeater has recessed screws that are some sort of spline that requires a special tool.

    On my Honda Shadow which was very cold blooded, I drilled a small hole into the recessed tamper proof caps and then started a screw into that hole. I could then put pliers on the head of the screw and pull out that cap. Turns out that the mixture jets are too small (lean) which means that the adjustment screw has very little range and is not very effective because on these carburetors, the idle jet determines the idle and low speed fuel allotment.

    The idle air screw adjusts the balance from idle mix to off-idle mix so by enrichening the idle, you lean the off-idle creating a stumble. If you go the other way and lean the idle mix, you cause an unstable idle speed.

    You have to disassemble the carburetor and put in larger idle jets to solve this problem and probably a different needle and main jet to solve the "cold blooded" lean condition above idle which is not so simple.
     
    #34 Ronald Doles, Dec 14, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2019
  15. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Hmm. our Stihls, Husquavarna and even the old Shindiawa we found in a roadside ditch, all adjust with a scrench, which comes with the tool. All are standard screwdriver/wrench combo, except for the pole saw, which has a torx head instead of a flat.

    Maybe the difference between consumer vs pro models? No matter, they are all tempermental little beasts. ;)
     
  16. BurkPhoto@aol.com

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    I have a 2008 Toro mower. B&S engine has NEVER been serviced — I just change the plug once a year, the oil at 25 hour intervals, and the air filter at 50 hour intervals. Most important — I add 1/2 ounce Sta-Bil to every gallon of gas. At season end, I put a 1/2 ounce of Sta-Bil in the mower tank and fill it with gas.

    It still starts on the first or second pull.


    — Bill Burkholder
     
  17. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    If it was actually too high sulfur in the gas, I think something would have broke by now. IIRC, it was sulfur that broke a coworkers fuel gauge. The only fuel with a notable amount of sulfur is kerosene. It might be from an additive.
    Score!
     
  18. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

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    I've noticed that diesel fuel smells better than gas. Years ago, that used to be quite the opposite. ULSD.

    Electric is still the best. :D
     
  19. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol... Yeah, I guess plugging a power cord into a standard wall outlet, or 220v dryer outlet isn't possible if you still live in a cave....
     
  20. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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