I don't get it. Going to 10.1% means what exactly?

Since one of the local fuel stations put E30 and E85 on their main pumps year round a few years ago I have been running E30 or higher blends in everything I've got that isn't propane or diesel powered.

Vehicles, tractors, lawn mowers, chainsaws, string trimmers, generators, go cart and whatever else has an engine on it gets E30 or higher around here.

"Going to 10.1% means what exactly?"

The illusion of doing something, without really doing anything? ;-)

"Vehicles, tractors, lawn mowers, chainsaws, string trimmers, generators, go cart and whatever else has an engine on it gets E30 or higher around here."

How are the fuel lines & pumps holding out? I've heard that since higher Ethanol blends can retain more water than straight gasoline, and since the pH of the blend changes as more Ethanol is added, that the higher blends would mess up the fuel lines of equipment not designed for it. How long have you been running your gear on E30?

With you being an 'early adopter' of higher E-blends, you can provide us with a lot of useful insight. Does MPG drop as sharply as people say it will with higher E-blends? Do higher E-blends cause trouble when starting cars in freezing weather? (I almost said 'cold' weather, but in Florida, a 'terribly cold' day is 'sweater weather' to a Minnasoatan.)

They are holding up just as well/poorly as my Dads and Brothers equipment that they refuse to ever use any ethanol fuels in. I do as many fuel line replacements and carburetor cleanouts for them as I ever have for myself so I have very strong reasons to believe it's not the ethanol in the fuels that's eating stuff up and making rotten gasoline varnish jell in everything now.

I've been running E30+ blends for more years than I can recall exactly now so at least 5+ since the stuff became a local year round fuel choice at the pumps.

As for my equipment the only mods I have done is on the engines that have the newer fixed jet type carburetors. I typically have to drill them out a few thousands of and inch so they are not running so lean ( aka choke half on to run sort of most of the time) due to the emission compliance specs and crap they are built to now.

At the moment the only fuel line, O ring and gasket material that I have found that seems to hold up with the new fuel blends is the Fluoroelastomer based stuff.

Everything else, except for the old rubber stuff from 30+ years ago, seems to either dry up and crumble, dissolve or swell up after a year or to any types of fuels now.

Every piece of gasoline powered equipment I own has had to have the carburetor re-built and/or replaced the fuel lines thanks to ethanol in the fuel. It is very corrosive to fuel systems. If you are using a piece of equipment every day as in a business, you will probably wear out the tool before the ethanol problems rear their ugly head. For homeowners, ethanol fuel is a nightmare, plain and simple.

I am now buying ethanol-free fuel at a Southern States in Staunton, VA when we go out there to visit friends and family.

I've done enough testing now to have other suspicions as to what is the main problem. Ethanol does make some of the cheaper rubber fuel lines and components dissolve or swell but even when exposed to non ethanol gasoline they still do the same thing too.

What I have found interesting is that with one experiment that I did was I took two identical glass pickle jars and filled one with E85 and the other with regular non ethanol gasoline let them sit in the sun and evaporate the E85 gar only had a fine film of fuel varnish goo in the bottom but the non ethanol one had a thick sticky layer of it just like the stuff that you find plugging up fuel lines and carburetors.

If you or anyone else does not believe me these are easy test to do yourself. Fill up a few glass jars with ethanol and non ethanol fuels and either put some of your fuel lines in them and set them out in the sun with the lids on or just let them evaporate.

Regardless of which jar the fuel lines and stuff are in they both will at some point breakdown/swell or whatever. The ethanol blended one may do it quicker but the same actions will still happen in the non ethanol one too plus leave a load of goo behind as well.

I've seen the varnish from gasoline. In fact, traditional spar varnish (not the polyurethanes) is in essence produced from gasoline. When you let the E85 evaporate, the ethanol all disappears so I would expect you to have about 15% of the solids as compared to evaporating straight gasoline.

I think the difference may be that when the gasoline doesn't evaporate relatively quickly like it would in the sun, the ethanol picks up a good deal of moisture and produces a clear goo about the consistency of grease.

If you really want good fuel that has excellent shelf life for power equipment, find a source of 100LL avgas. That's the way to go if you can find it. Just don't put it into any road vehicles as it will poison your cat (sorry Del) and your O2 sensors. One of my co-workers gets his at a general aviation airport where you can just walk up to a pump and put in your credit card.

Cheers!