The Yamaha Road Star Warrior Forum

Monstrddg:

As far as the comments about it causing seals to go bad I can only ASSUME the people that may or may not have ever run ethanol in their bike know what their talking about because I’ve run almost 40000 miles on it and have no leaks that I’m aware of.

I have not personally seen it is a car.  I have just been told this by local car dealers and mechanics. We have started to see a problem with small engines though. such as lawn mowers. At least that is what the mechanics are blaming it on.

baclay9:

At least that is what the mechanics are blaming it on.

Gotcha. This part I believe.

I will add that my lawn mower runs like crap on e85 and the computer in my wifes old car had a hissy fit until it was out of the tank...

swisswarrior:

The_Bear:

Ethanaol is the WORST thing to happen to the internal combustion engine, since OPEC, EPA and Ralph Nader combined.  The crooked congressman that forced that one up our rectums should all be taken out and drowned in the reflecting pool, together will their entire families. 

When I have more time, I'll let you know how I really feel. 

hmmmmmm do i detect a hint of anger??????lol

You noticed.

The big problem with the crap, is storage.  And especially with carbureted motors.  The winter before last, my wife’s bike was stored with Stabil in the fuel.  We later found out this will take care of the “varnishing” problem.  But not the ethanol break down.

In the spring, we found that the alcohol had separated, attracted water, and rotted out the needles/jets in the carburetors.  The bike had  a vacuum petcock and fuel was feed into the motor.  Down into the crank case and eventually into the clutch.

She had to have the carbs rebuilt, and the clutch plates replaced.  (Not cheap)

We have learned that Stabil or Seafoam is great for gasoline, but doesn’t help the ethanol.   On the advice of a local Dept of Public works we use an additional additive.  They had experienced problems with generator motors getting messed up.

Also, We now run all the bikes every week, during the winter.

Granted, this is an extreme case, but this junk got forced into systems not set up or tolerant of it's properties.  And the stuff it is made from had other important uses, etc.  We can go on and on. 

 Back when I raced a blown alcohol motor, I had to drain the fuel and actually run gasoline throught the engine to keep the parts from carroding before storage.. Alcohol will draw moisture from the atmosphere. You will get a hard white  film on all parts if left for a period of time after the alcohole evaporates. It is really bad news on engine parts.

Monstrddg:

baclay9:

At least that is what the mechanics are blaming it on.

Gotcha. This part I believe.

I will add that my lawn mower runs like crap on e85 and the computer in my wifes old car had a hissy fit until it was out of the tank...

well let's see , i am a mechanic and you damn right i blame it . we have tons and TONS of running issues because of ethanol. also you stated that you have had a low end stumble running E85----well exactly right, if you go to E85 you have to run a different map--that's how flexfuel vehicles do it. go get some regular gas now and i bet your warrior won't run as good unless you change the map. i guess what i am saying a warrior will run normal on 10% ethanol but NOT on E85 without changing anything and you WILL loose hp because as you stated it is higher octane(cooler slower burn), again with original map.

mostly though we see problems with engines that have been sitting awhile and we run into 2 issues.

1----phase seperation  gas and alcohol seperate and cannot be remixed---result will not run right

2----as someone has stated , alcohol attracts moisture like you wouldn't believe, so we get alot of H20 in the fuel.

i actually took a jar and put some fuel in it and i could watch the moisture being drawn into the jar---was pretty wild.

As far as seals go , no it won't affect them , it won't even affect newer fuel lines . only pretty old fuel systems and old fuel pumps and possibly old fuel tanks and i mean old . like 80's somewhere in that range.

The_Bear:

The big problem with the crap, is storage.  And especially with carbureted motors.  The winter before last, my wife’s bike was stored with Stabil in the fuel.  We later found out this will take care of the “varnishing” problem.  But not the ethanol break down.

well they do have some stabilizer now that is specially formulated for ethanol fuel and it will work for a few months but NOT longer then that. also it depends on how old or bad the fuel was from whatever station you got gas at.

we are messing with a boat right now that got gas last week and already the fuel has seperated. so we think it bad right out of the station.

you are right though , storage is the BIG problem. Stabilizer helps but it's not a guarantee.

You lose gas mileage because E85 (or similar blends) create less energy, in effect less capacity for HP.  With a 4 or 6 or 8 cylinder its less noticible.  When there's just two cylinders in the V2 configuration you'll notice the power loss if you happen to run 100% gas then E85, like on a long ride.  Its less HP and less mileage.  Its the reduction of energy that causes pinging in some cases in warmer weather states.  At least thats how it feels to me having been in hot medium and cold climates.

swisswarrior:

actually 10% ethanol won't cause anything to run worse , it will run the same but you WILL loose some gasmileage.

I tried it recently (10 percent) noticed a drop in fuel mileage but not in power.  I figure before I put it up for the winter I will put in a tank of 91 octane and run it through.