More on this new fuel

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ILLF8ED

ILLF8ED

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It's the end of the riding season and just completed the annual All British Ride yesterday, sponsored by the Northern California BSA Owners Club. Lots of Commandos, a few Vincents, Rudges....etc. About 150 Brit bikes total.

But let me get to the subject. I put the single 34mm Mikuni on the combat for this ride because the Amals are having some issues. The Mikuni runs pretty well at the start of the day. By the return home it's running irregularly in slow traffic off and on the throttle. On the road I filled up with Shell gas and it says on the pump "contains up to 10% ethanol". I keep thinking this stuff is dissolving my POR tank liner (steel tank) and clogging the carb jets - happens with the Amals too. Does the ethanol cause the uneven running on it's own or is it putting contaminants in my carbs? The stuff runs fine in my Acura.
 
I don't think it's the liner getting dissolved. You could check to see if it is getting soft, but from what I've read POR15 usually holds up ok.

More likely it's the fuel itself causing the poor low-speed running. Go buy some race fuel that is non-oxygenated (it will be sold as "not street legal") and try a tankful. See that recent thread about race fuel for all the details.

Debby
 
The stuff runs fine in my Acura

That has a computer contolling the ignition and fuel injection, its fed information from sensors, it will run any old rubbish which is why they get away with 10%, eventually once they go over the 10% even the Acura will protest and go into limp mode.
 
I believe most newer vehicles are made to run on lower octane or poor quality gas. I know my newer triumphs are made for mid grade and run fine on low grade gas, but my old bikes run worse on poor gas. My mower will run on the most foul gas imaginable just fine?
 
15% corn squeezings is on the way soon but they don't just put ethanol in the mix but others like methanol, both are corrosive to plain steel and Al plus regular rubber. Finding many online remarks on old bike and cars running bad on new fuel and need work to compensate. Moisture is definitely attracted more my new gasoline than old and can settle out in puddles.

Here's a quote from interesting site with video on corn crop crap.
What will happen to an older car fed this 15 percent alcohol concoction? If it’s still got its original fuel lines/internals, major refitting will probably be necessary not just to keep it running properly but to avoid potentially catastrophic problems such as engine fires resulting from highly combustible alcohol fuels leaching through hoses and seals not designed to tolerate it. At minimum, it will be necessary to re-tune the engine and its fuel system to accommodate the high-alcohol-content fuel. The carburetor will likely need to be torn down and rebuilt with alcohol-compatible internal parts, including floats and accelerator pumps/power pistons; they’ll need to be re-jetted and the mixture adjusted to compensate. All rubber fuel lines will need to be replaced with modern hoses rated to handle alcohol fuels. There could be problems with corrosion in hard steel fuel lines and gas tanks not designed to tolerate alcohol fuels, too.
Click to expand...
http://ericpetersautos.com/?p=322
 
debby said:
I don't think it's the liner getting dissolved. You could check to see if it is getting soft, but from what I've read POR15 usually holds up ok.

More likely it's the fuel itself causing the poor low-speed running. Go buy some race fuel that is non-oxygenated (it will be sold as "not street legal") and try a tankful. See that recent thread about race fuel for all the details.

Debby
Click to expand...

I have POR 15 in my Bultaco tanks and while I fully admit I'm not 100% confident in the installation (and installer, er, um, me) and I should also mention that POR 15 is not recommended for fiberglass... it hasn't held up well. :mrgreen:
 
A work mate had rough running issues on his Ford Focus (4 cylinder EFI) with a CHECK ENGINE warning lamp, turned out his spark plugs had crapped out because he put E10 petrol into it when it should use RON 95 no E. This weekend on the Commando (850 + Mikuni 34) I put in some fast miles starting out with Shell 98, that's about the best you can get in Australia, and later on BP 95 which was was OK, and then the last stop was BP 91 and I could definetly feel the rougher running. I have had low RON E10 and its rough, but not enough to stop the Norton but I would definety avoid it wherever possible.

Mick
 
Now that gas has jumped back up to over $3.00 bucks a gallon again all my bikes use the 87 grade. I'm not getting any of the hiccups some of you are. I just talked with a neighbor on a 78' triumph and he uses 100 octane at $5.50 a gal. from the local airport. I have tried it a time or two and I can't tell any difference seat of the pants wise. And as for using an octane boost or other snake oil additives, for my money I'm keeping it in my pocket for as long as I can. I'll need it for my next tank full ,,,,,,,,, 8)
Living here in the flat lands where corn is KING !

Tim_S
 
Do yourself a favor and before you try anything drastic, just try another brand of gas. I had this odd intermittent problem with my bike (750, VM34 Mikuni), where it would just run like crap and then sort itself out. Turns out these episodes always happened after filling up with Shell gas. For some reason my bike will run fine on everything but Shell. It's bad enough that I could tell you that it was Shell if it came from an un-marked gas can.
 
zotz said:
Do yourself a favor and before you try anything drastic, just try another brand of gas. I had this odd intermittent problem with my bike (750, VM34 Mikuni), where it would just run like crap and then sort itself out. Turns out these episodes always happened after filling up with Shell gas. For some reason my bike will run fine on everything but Shell. It's bad enough that I could tell you that it was Shell if it came from an un-marked gas can.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my experience. I put the 34mm Mikuni on my 750 the day before the ride just so I wouldn't have and carb problems. The first tank of gas was from Arco..no problem. The second and third tank were from Shell. On the return ride in stop and go traffic the slow running off and on the gas was jerky. I pulled the plugs yesterday. They have a shiny black build up on one side (only) of the electrode arm. Color is tan overall. Jets on both the Amals and Mikuni are clear, no obstructions.
 
We have had 10% ethanol in our gas here for ages (no MBTE for us) and my bikes run fine on it. The fuel does eat rubber parts in the petcocks 'tho.

Greg
 
I think it sucks. It may burn cleaner, but it burns faster- less mpg and you end up using more gas anyway.
 
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