I am the same way, I own a few different pieces of equipment, ranging in age from the 1960s to fairly new. I only use the zero turn mower weekly, but even with that I'll turn the valve off on the fuel on my way back to the shed. By the time I park it inside, it usually sputters and runs out of fuel a few seconds later.
Leaving fuel in machines over winter isn't always a death sentence, but there may still be varnish in the carbs even though they run fine. 2-strokes I find store a little bit better just because the oil keeps the aluminum carburetor parts from corroding. If they sit too long though (1 year+) the fuel evaporates and you are left with some nice sludge in the carb.
I was actually surprised by how well they faired with the small amount left over the winter, although as I said the carbs were dry as was my habit.
Of course this is 32:1 gas, and I normally use the Lawn-Boy branded TC-W3. I know it has stabilizers in it, but I'd guess most other 2 cycle oils do as well.
Pre-child(when I had more time) I was super picky about the Lawn Boys in particular, mostly because they don't make them anymore. I'd often mix up a small amount of 8:1, put maybe 4 oz. in each mower, and start and let them run until they ran completely dry. I don't know if there's any merit to doing that, but my thought was that I'd get plenty of extra oil coating the moving parts for winter storage. I'd then start them back up at 32:1 in the spring(usually would pop the mufflers off and give them at least a quick clean first-I'd often find the 8:1 would leave almost an oil film that would let the carbon just wipe off) and they'd smoke more than usual for a couple of minutes and then settle right down.
I'm not trying to hijack my own thread, but does anyone here have a "Flex Fuel" vehicle? And if so, what kind of mileage are you getting on it with E-85, compared to E-10 or E0?
I'm a few years out of date, but my mom and my grandfather had 5 Town Cars between them over the years, and all but one was FF.
I took my mom's '09 Town Car on a trip at one point, and over ~1000 miles had 4 back to back tanks of E85 and the rest was E10(87).
Checking back on some notes, I averaged 18-20mpg on E85(interstate driving) and 24-26 on E10. I think these numbers are pretty typical for this vehicle. I remember it ran GREAT once it had adjusted to E85, and E10 almost felt like a downgrade. Still, though, at the time the price difference wasn't enough to justify the MPG loss. Knowing those numbers, I could calculate when it did make since.
Something else too-from what I remember(and I haven't run an FFV in years-the Ford counterpart to my MKZ was always FF but the MKZ isn't) E85 can be anywhere from 51-85% ethanol. I also seem to remember that winter blends tend to be closer to 51% as ethanol actually has a somewhat counter-intuitive effect on the volatility(I'm feeling a Raoult's law exam problem on the subject the next time I teach Gen Chem II, as the vapor pressure should be relatively straight forward to calculate) while summer blends tend to be closer to the 85% maximum.
