Gumout Q&A - Ethanol Fuels and Phase Separation

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wwillson

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Edit: The answers have been posted here: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ethanol-fuels-and-phase-separation/


All,

Gumout Performance Additives would like to thank you for the great interaction you had with us in our last Q&A sessions. Hopefully, we were able to provide valuable insights into our products and educate on fuel & oil additives in general.

In this next session, the focus will be on ethanol fuels and phase separation. There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to what exactly phase separation is and what it can do to a vehicle’s engine and fuel system especially in a humid or marine environment and when a vehicle is stored for an extended period of time.

So what is phase separation? In a nut shell, it’s when ethanol in gasoline attracts water either from the external environment, condensation inside the fuel tank or from within the fuel itself. They are attracted to each other due to their polarizing characteristics on a chemical level. Since ethanol is denser than fuel, it settles to the bottom of the tank; ethanol can then start to dislodge any varnish or other deposits where they mix in with the gasoline. These deposits then make their way through the fuel system which can cause issues such as premature fuel pump failure, hesitation, loss of acceleration and fuel economy. The water that was attracted to the ethanol at the bottom of the tank then goes to work on the metal surfaces causing rust and corrosion. In some extreme instances bacteria can grow which can cause gasoline quality problems

There are several other issues that ethanol and water can cause beyond what happens in the tank, such as rust and corrosion within the fuel system, clogged injectors and fuel filters, damage to plastic and rubber parts.

However, all of these issues can easily be addressed by using the right products and processes. If you are regularly running gasoline through your system and don’t operate the engine in a humid climate, aren’t storing the vehicle for an extended time or aren’t using the engine in a marine environment, you may not have any ethanol related issues to worry about; however, we’d like to open the topic up for discussion and share with you what we know so you can make an educated decision on how to manage this potential problem.

Beginning today, the thread will be open for question submissions until 9 p.m. ET on Sunday November 8th, at which time we will send them back to our full team of scientists, engineers and brand representatives to provide answers to as many of the questions as we can a few weeks later.

We are extremely excited to provide you with this service, but do have a few requests:

1. Please use this forum ONLY to submit questions. If you have previously posted questions on other areas of the site we will do our best to find them and provide answers, but your best bet is to repost the question in this thread.

2. Please understand that there will be some questions that we will not be able to answer. Some of our formulation information is proprietary, such as how much of a certain additive we put in our products, and can only provide feedback on our areas of expertise.

3. Please understand that we will not speculate on the products of our competitors, but we may be able provide you with ways to determine what they may have in their formulations. Not all products are created equal, so question claims and benefits and demand more information on what is in the product, what tests were used to determine efficacy and what were those results.

We look forward to your questions and thanks for your involvement!

The Gumout Team
 
Thank you for the Q&A

Living in South Florida (humid).
Fuel never falls below 1/2 tank on either vehicle.
Fill up to full every weekend.

Should there be a concern?
 
Brazillian flex fuels gasoline and alcohol with several content mixtures doesn't phase separate. Why would NA fuels do? What lacks on former fuels to phase separate, ketones?
 
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I had an issue recently where a gas station accidentally put diesel in the gasoline tanks underground. As a result I had to drain the fuel system in my vehicle and clean up the fuel system parts. After cleaning I fueled up with fresh gas and a bottle of your REGANE product.

Will GUMOUT products help remove diesel fuel residue from a gasoline tank/fuel lines?
 
What difference, if any, will I see by using your product in a frequently driven vehicle that uses E10 fuel?
About 500 miles a week, 75ish per day
 
Is there any truth to ethanol blended fuels being bad for 2 cycle and 4 cycle engines such as varnish and corrosion?

If true is there any GUMOUT product to prevent damage from ethanol blended fuels in such 2 and 4 cycle engines?
 
Doesn't water tend to get in fuel tanks with or without ethanol?

Adding a bit of ethanol or methanol to the fuel tank used to be a standard recommendation for getting rid of accumulated water, since the alcohol acts as a bridging solvent, putting the water in solution so its drawn into the engine and "burned".

Stops motorcycle tanks rusting out, which they tend to do along the bottom seam where the water collects.

Separate water seems likely to be just as, or more, damaging than water in solution.
 
I have a classic 60s muscle car with a carburetor that gets stored from November to April every year. It is in a dry garage. Do I have anything to worry about with regards to E-10 pump gas? If so, what products should I be using? Is it better to fill-up before the car goes into storage, or keep the tank close to empty and add fresh fuel in the spring? Any storage tips would be appreciated.
 
would using your products with E10 fuel be the equivalent of using ethanol free fuel?
 
I have converted my stock fuel system to an aftermarket one. The stock gas tank has been replaced by a fuel cell packed with anti-slosh foam and the cell is made out of plastic. The fuel lines are a rubber lined stainless steel braided line. The fuel pump is also an aftermarket unit that can cover the twin turbos thirst.My questions are as follows. Will pump gas cause any problems with the cell foam, the cell itself or the fuel line material over time with the current amount of gas/alcohol mix? I have run E85 before when the fuel system was stock but now can I run E85 again without worry? One last question. Can I use your products and other's like fuel system cleaners without worry. All this comes about from the fact that race fuel cells are made to work with race gas and over a short season not in a daily driver.
 
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Might be too late, but:

Is Gumout safe for yellow metals? I.E. Copper Fuel line?

and is Gumout safe for a diaphram style fuel pump with a neoprene diaphram?

Is there a gumout product specifically designed for cleaning out fuel lines/fuel tanks that have long since been "Dry" -- as in the issue is less because of gelled gasoline and more grease, dirt, oil possibly that have entered unsealed parts of the system over time?

Thank you
 
My vehicle is designed for E-85. Would there be any benefit to running a Gumout product, since my car is designed for E-85?
 
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