Corrosive E10, just think how those white plastic gas tanks get that iron staining brown over time. And those flakes of stuff in filters and carbs in supposedly filtered fuels. Gas station piping is not stainless steel.
E10 in Garden Tractor?
- Thread starter viscous
- Start date
This topic came up in a lawn care group on Facebook yesterday. Some of the claims made in the comments were outrageous. Evidently, ethanol will corrode plastic fuel cells/tanks regardless if it absorbs water or not. If that was the case, how has any plastic fuel cell in all of these cars made in the past 30 years ever survived? How has any plastic whiskey bottle survived? Heavy aromatics like toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene are more corrosive to polyethylene than ethanol, and they make up ~40% of E10 pump fuel, even more in non-ethanol fuel.
I don't doubt that ethanol can have separation issues when it absorbs too much water. That is proven to happen with science. Not everyone will see this occur depending on your climate, how well your fuel system is sealed from the elements, and how you use your equipment. When people make outrageously bogus claims though, stuff that flies in the face of even basic 5th grade science, it makes you question the credibility of other claims. Is this person actually stating what he saw happen, and conducted A-B-A testing to validate the claim, or is he just throwing flack at something because he doesn't like it for whatever reason or just repeating whatever nonsense he read somewhere. Unfortunately, with topics like this, there's more myths than facts floating around.
I don't doubt that ethanol can have separation issues when it absorbs too much water. That is proven to happen with science. Not everyone will see this occur depending on your climate, how well your fuel system is sealed from the elements, and how you use your equipment. When people make outrageously bogus claims though, stuff that flies in the face of even basic 5th grade science, it makes you question the credibility of other claims. Is this person actually stating what he saw happen, and conducted A-B-A testing to validate the claim, or is he just throwing flack at something because he doesn't like it for whatever reason or just repeating whatever nonsense he read somewhere. Unfortunately, with topics like this, there's more myths than facts floating around.
A few years ago I got a used power washer with a 5 HP Honda engine. It wasn't ran for 2-3 years by the previous owner. I just added some fresh gas to the old gas (both were E10) and it fired up with no issues and ran fine.
Thanks. Would like to avoid these types of problems. Was planning to use E10 based on other responses, but now I'm not so sure.
His problem was because John Deere use materials that couldn't even take E10.
Why not try to contact the manufacturer of your garden tractor and ask them if it can take E10. Like I mentioned earlier, I've been using E10 for over 20 years in a 1987 model year Craftsman lawn mower and no matetials have ever deteriorated in the fuel system. Still runs good, and only gets oil, air filter and a spark plug when it needs them.
So in the Grand scheme of things how much money will you really save overall for me in a year it’s a few dollars but not worth the hassle of using E10.
I just make sure when the end of mowing season is approaching that I give it a dose of stabilizer before it gets put away. I do use E0 in my two stroke engines but the rider goes thru enough fuel it’s just too costly to use it all season.
My old antiques get e10/15 start of season through August, cool weather and I burn out the ethanol and use e0 in prep for winter
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