Rifle cleaning

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Can't you buy non ethanol gas there? Available here. Higher cost but it's here.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
That is why when you go to the "gas" station you are buying "motor fuel", as gasoline no longer exists.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The county I live in is the size of Connecticut with 1/4 million population. One station will sell you non-ethanol for a $2 per gallon premium.
 

Ian

Notorious member
One of my good friends from college went on to be a lab supervisor for a major refinery. His particular lab does exactly one thing: Take toxic industrial chemical waste samples and convert them to the bare minimum for "motor fuel", prove it in eight different test engines complete with their 49-state Federal emission systems, and return cost estimates for the process of each sample to the customers. Once contracts are made, the plant then accepts and treats mass quantities of the waste to the same spec and dumps it into the pipelines for distribution to a gas station near the Texas Gulf coast. I am in direct line with every drop they produce. When I burn "mid-west" fuel in Colorado and NM, my mileage in now three different vehicles goes up an average 15-20% depending on altitude. The crude refined on the coast is mostly used for plastics and chemicals, motor fuel is very low-priority and so the smallest fraction which can't be used for anything else is made into "gasoline". In the mid-west there are few chemical plants, so the opposite takes place and as much of the crude as possible is made into and sold for motor fuel. Gasoline ends up "fat" in other words, lots more BTUs per gallon and more fractions on each side of center are included. Same with jet fuel and the various grades of diesel fuel.

Here's a trick to make your own gas: Get your "10% ethanol" motor fuel (may have a LOT more than 10% in it, BTW....), mix in about 15% distilled water and shake it up really well or agitate it for a while with a bubble stone. Let it sit calm overnight so it will separate and then soutirage the fuel off the water/ethanol mixture. Save the middle fraction of the remaining, clear, diluted alcohol mix (make certain no fuel is in it), add blue food coloring, and dispose of it in your windshield washer fluid tank or use if for de-icing the walk in winter.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Yes, no-ethanol gas is available, and I have switched entirely to it with stabil for all the two stroke motors; chains saws, weed whacker, leaf
blowers. Any 4 stroke that gets very little use; pressure washer, snow blower, golf cart, generators, motorcycles, also get pure gas with stabil
only - now.

The heavy use machines which burn large quantities of fuel in the summer - lawn tractor and zero turn, get normal ethanol mix
until Sept when I switch all fuel cans over to ethanol-free, and put stabil in the fuel cans as soon as they get home from the station. I am hoping
to be done rebuilding carbs. Just because I can do it, doesn't mean I really enjoy it. But it took me a few years to sort it all out, plus many
were machines I bought used, inop due to carb crap, very cheap or from my father's estate - sitting for 6-8 years.

Here no ethanol is about 60 cents a gallon more. In GA near the coast, hard to find, and over 1.00 per gallon more. Desperately needed there
due to very high humidity, the fuel is regularly wrecking (especially older) outboard motors.

Ian, no doubt some fuel has better energy content. My newer Accord has the gas mileage
monitor system, and I play a game with it when not in a hurry. In winter through about end of
April, best tank average around here for me is about 36.8 mpg, very best individual leg
maybe 38-39 mpg. A week ago I filled up and that same route got me 42 mpg first time
out. This AM drove about an hour and a quarter to a customer site, lucked out with my
traffic time allowance, so slowed to 60 mph cruise to hit arrival schedule. I got 45.2 mpg
on that run. THAT is higher energy fuel for sure!

The instrumention makes it a fun game to play if I am not in a hurry. If cruising a long
way, will run as fast as I can so fuel mileage drops, of course.


Bill