Re: Ethanol vs premium

[bill-m]

I did a lot of soul searching on this gas matter and have settled on a formula that works for me. I do not use premium gas because it has many undesirable additives and I do not use ethanol gasoline either. I go to the airport and buy 100 low lead aviation gas which does burn cooler and does not have all the additives of automobile fuel. I mix the 100LL gas in a ratio of 3.5 gallons with 1 gallon of Coleman fuel to get an octane of 89-92 or there abouts. If you google white gas Coleman fuel will come up. I called Coleman to determine the exact octane of their fuel and they said it was between 50-55 octane. Now the avgas is 100 octane all day long and has to be certified but the Coleman fuel doesn’t have to keep a plane in the air so the manufacturing tolerances aren’t so exact. This is why the octane on the mix can very by 5 octane. If I want to very the octane up or down all I have to do is change the ratio with the understanding that it can still very 5 octane. I also use Stabil or SeaFoam in all my small motor gas. I was told a long time ago that running a motor dry still left a small amount of gas in the carb which could eventually gum up. I put stabilizer in my gas can before I fill it up at the pump. I have stabilizer in everything all the time. I leave my mowers set for 6 months in winter and my snow blower set for 6 months in summer and everything fires up just like they are supposed to when it’s time to bring them out of hibernation. It may cost a little more but my 1949 Mercury Super 5 is very happy!