Just found out that all the fuel in the pipeline into my area, Southeast Idaho, now has ethanol. How much does using the ethanol plug reduce performance? Is there something that can be done to return or replace the power loss?Not happy with my government! Taking a way choices. Thx.
Ethanol
- Thread starter dvader
- Start date
You can go to Sinclair and get NONETHANOL PREMIUM.
Somehow Sinclair is exempt from the Ethanol crap. The station in Rexburg has nonethanol, the Sinclair on Lindsay blvd in IF has signs saying that the Premium is nonethanol.
Not sure about Poky but I've heard of a couple places down there to.
Those places are going to get popular with the sledders.
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Somehow Sinclair is exempt from the Ethanol crap. The station in Rexburg has nonethanol, the Sinclair on Lindsay blvd in IF has signs saying that the Premium is nonethanol.
Not sure about Poky but I've heard of a couple places down there to.
Those places are going to get popular with the sledders.
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Thanks, but I live in Mackay. Both the stations in Mackay are Sinclair(each getting gas from different distributors) but they both told me that the pipe line into Poky from Salt Lake will now all have ethanol so the only way to get more is to have it shipped by truck from who knows where. Any other suggestions.
I never really noticed much power difference to be honest. It definitely runs a little cleaner on the non ethanol resistor though.
We have been in that Boat. since early last year.
Slp reccomended running LUCAS octane booster with Ethanol,
As it boosts Octane,And treats fuel for water.
If I could I would like to run the premium plug.
As it does make it run stronger....
Slp reccomended running LUCAS octane booster with Ethanol,
As it boosts Octane,And treats fuel for water.
If I could I would like to run the premium plug.
As it does make it run stronger....
T
TGitt
Well-known member
Just curious if anyone has tried running the Nom-Ethanol plug while running Ethanol gas. Every last gas Station in my town has now switched to ethanol gas and I'm furious. In my understanding the ethanol plug sort of "de-tunes" how your sled runs, and of course we all want our sleds to run worse!
I wouldnt recommend it. One of the big issues with ethanol is how distributors are blending. The biggest problem is some distributors dont exactly have a set method of blending the ethanol into the fuel. So in turn the customers (you and I) are seeing upwards to 20 or even 30% ethanol in our fuel. That can and will do damage if used frequently. And I wouldnt risk running the non ethanol resistor if you wasnt sure.
What I did was I went online to http://fueltestkit.com/ and got me an ethonol test kit to check how much ethanol was in the fuel in my area. I really recommend that site if anyone has some real questions on the fact. And if you generally just want to learn something. Kit was around $30 and comes with enough fluids to do hundreds of tests.
Also read the section about fuel additives. You'd be suprised that almost all fuel additives dont work or only increase .1 - .4 of one octane. Big waste of money if you ask me. Anyways my 2 cents
Oh and everyone should sign this! We need to get ethanol out of our fuel!
http://fueltestkit.com/fuel_choice_petition_2011.html
http://fueltestkit.com/fuel_choice_petition_2011.html
M
mnescape
Active member
I think you have a much better chance of getting away with this at elevation versus sea level.
I could be wrong, but that would be my guess.
Correct.
T
TGitt
Well-known member
So what you're saying is since I ride at 7000' to 10000'+ I could get away with running the non ethanol plug with ethanol gas? I know what the consequences are of running ethanol is and what it does to our engines, I guess I just don't see how a "plug" could protect out engines from not getting the proper lubrication, or help with watered down gas..
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With ethanol fuel you are replacing a certain % of fuel with a different alcohol and just like when you run premix gas with oil that is going to make the amount of fuel burned lower so leaner sled... Ethanol plug richens the sled to account for that. At high elevation sleds will run richer then sea level so odds are it will balance out in the end. As for water and fuel degradation issues with ethanol the plug is not going to fix those. Some sort of additive or stabilizer should be used anytime the sled sits for more then a week or so.
You are correct. But im not so sure about altitude being that much of a difference because all of our sleds compensate for that i believe. So saying its safer is kind of a gray area. And I would bet money that if it came down to a warrenty issue polaris would check your fuel and check the computer to see what resistor you was running on.
To educate a little bit: Why ethanol even exists in our fuel today is because each state has to meet a certain amount of credits for the clean air act.(or something like that.) So instead of investing fully on E-85 fuel and E-85 engines, local governments decided to put a certain amount of ethanol into our every day fuel to gain their credits. Thus why each state is different on weather or not they have ethanol or non-ethonol fuel.
Now how it works is distributors get the fuel from the refineries and they use the alcohol(ethanol) to rasie the AKI of the fuel. (octane rating) Why this is a problem is because alcohol is very attracted to water. When the two combine they mix very well. Now remember back to when I said they use the alcohol to raise the octane. When water is introduced something called phase seperation happens. Basically all the watery alchol mix is now at the bottom of the tank to be left unburnable and the rest is fuel that just got reduced down 3 or more octane points.
Remember back in the days when you would add some heat to the gas tank to help with the water issues? Well if your burning ethanol fuel then that is a no no. Adding more alcohol to the works is only going to reduce the amount of burnable fuel in your tank.
Thats when we move into sta bil. If your using ethonol fuel I would recommend using sta bil or something equivalent. Why? Well sta bil in no way increases your octane. What sta bil does is increase the btu's of the watery alcohol fuel mix you have to aid the engine in a complete burn. Basically it will run better. There isnt a set additive that works 100% because if there was im sure would here about it alot more. Some additives help in one spot but then take away from another.
Now I could go on for hours about this and the whole ethanol debate goes deep into political nonsence. If you want pm me and ill give you my number if you want to go deeper. What im trying to say is alcohol in our gas engines is bad. We all need to start fighting ethanol in our fuels because state governments are trying to increase the allowed 10% to 15-20% in some states.
Hope this helps
One more thing.... Need to be on the lookout for overblending of ethanol fuels. Like I mentioned earlier some gas stations around the U.S have been reported of having 15-30% ethanol. Why is that bad? Well for example: say the distributor gets a low grade fuel. Say it was around an 84 aki(octane). Now to compensate they add lets say 30% alcohol(ethanol) to bring it up to a 91. Now 30% alcohol alone can be very damaging for an engine that hasnt been built for it. Let alone when water is introduced into the fuel your 91 just got slapped down to the 84. Now that was just an example but its just something to be aware of.
S
Skeld
Well-known member
The Ethanol burns at a different A/F ratio then Gasoline, so it leans you out a bit when it's at 10%. My guess is the ethanol map is richer to compensate for this. High altitude might make it less important to use the ethanol resistor as at high altitude the motor has less compression and probably won't detonate as easily.
^^^yep, I ran with my ethanol plug for break in last year and then changed to the non-ethanol plug. I haven't changed it back since. I ride 9-12k though and seldom in that 9k range. Never had detonation or problem on my Pro. 1,200 miles.
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