Best Fuel Preservative for Pure Gas ???

I wonder why Echo says this:

Purchase only recommended fuel

Use 89 Octane R+M/2 (mid grade or higher) gasoline known to be good quality and containing no more than 10% ethanol. Gas with NO ETHANOL is ideal.

Lynnmor wrote:
I wonder why Echo says this:

Purchase only recommended fuel

Use 89 Octane R+M/2 (mid grade or higher) gasoline known to be good quality and containing no more than 10% ethanol. Gas with NO ETHANOL is ideal.

No idea. I don't own anything from Echo. All mine say 87 octane and 10% E is OK.

Is that a 2 stroke manual you're quoting?

My take on a few of the posts.

On non ethanol gasoline you should not need a stabilizer. Although I would try to use it up within two years as a precaution.

Ethanol in gasoline is a bad thing for storage. Some of you have stories about using no Stabil and after a winter of storage your equipment runs fine. I believe you, but I think that's because the carburetor jets of the equipment are large enough to not be plugged by gumming over winter. But the small carburetor jets like in a Honda are susceptible to gumming and clogging over winter. Hence the need for a stabilizer or float bowl draining.

Running premium in an engine that is not designed for premium is actually a negative. I would never run 100LL (low lead) in my Honda. Nor would I go out of my way to run premium fuel in my Honda. Premium won't hurt the Honda, but it will make less power.

jkwilson wrote:
Premium gas doesn’t increase fuel mileage. Octane isn’t a measure of energy content, it’s a component that reduces the premature ignition of the fuel/air mixture from engine compression

The issue with the octanes of fuels (premium 93 vs regular 87) is the burn rate. The lower the octane the faster the burn. Also the higher the compression of the cylinder the faster the burn.

If you have a high compression engine (faster burn rate) and you fuel it with regular 87 octane fuel (also faster burn rate) you get detonation and eventually damage. On the flip side of this is the part that catches people.

If you take an engine that is designed for regular unleaded and you fill it with premium fuel (it costs more therefore it must be better) you get less, not more power. Will you notice the power difference seat of the pants? Probably not. But you might also subconsciously be pressing a tiny bit harder on the accelerator pedal to maintain your normal driving speed and therefore using more fuel. Unless.....

You have a high mileage engine with a lot of carbon buildup in the cylinders. In this situation the carbon buildup might raise the compression high enough that you start to get detonation (remember the high compression and low octane regular fuel combination above) In this case you can run premium, a higher octane fuel (lower burn rate) to stop the detonation. You're not really getting more power in this scenario. What you are getting is your normal power back.

markchengr wrote:
Your math is off. At one half of one percent you will have 6.4 ounces of water in 80 gallons.

80 (gallons) divided by 100 (one percent, or 0.01) is 0.8 (gallons).

One half of one percent (or 0.005) would be 0.4 gallons.

There is 128 ounces in a gallon.

Therefore 0.4 of 128 (ounces) is 51.2 (ounces).


Or if you look at it another way, 80 gallons is 10,240 ounces. One percent would be (10,240 / 100) 102.4 ounces. Half of that (one half of one percent) would be 51.2 ounces.


Can you explain my error please?

JaxDad wrote:

markchengr wrote:
Your math is off. At one half of one percent you will have 6.4 ounces of water in 80 gallons.

80 (gallons) divided by 100 (one percent, or 0.01) is 0.8 (gallons).

One half of one percent (or 0.005) would be 0.4 gallons.

There is 128 ounces in a gallon.

Therefore 0.4 of 128 (ounces) is 51.2 (ounces).


Or if you look at it another way, 80 gallons is 10,240 ounces. One percent would be (10,240 / 100) 102.4 ounces. Half of that (one half of one percent) would be 51.2 ounces.


Can you explain my error please?

No error, assuming percentage is by volume, not weight.

1/2 of 1% is 0.01*0.5= 0.005

0.005*80 is 0.4

0.4*128=51.2oz

Expressed another way, 1% of 80 gallons is 0.8 gallons

Half of 0.8 gallons is 0.4 gallons.

0.4 gallons is 51.2oz

drsteve wrote:
Same here. I use 10% ethanol regular pump gas and no stabilizers, and I never have an issue. Been doing it this way for many years.
Every piece of power equipment produced in the last 10-15 years is ethanol ready.

When it comes to lawn mowers, string trimmers, power washers, etc. there is no advantage to premium fuel, non ethanol gas, or stabilizers, in my experience.

You have been lucky. I was lucky for many years, until I wasn't. Finally, over a period of 2 or 3 years my lawn equipment got to running worse and worse. It even got to where I had to use ether (starter fluid) sprayed into the carburetor to start some of them. Then I discovered Seafoam. After using Seafoam at double the recommended concentration for one season, my engine troubles were gone. I started using Seafoam in every drop of lawn equipment gasoline. It was sometime after that I started using ethanol free gasoline in my lawn equipment.

I hope your luck holds.

Yes and I will back that up, Seafoam and end of problems for many yrs now.