Octane Rating

[flynrider]

The two big issues with ethanol are 1) vehicles that sit for long periods and 2) older vehicles with incompatible fuel system components.

Fortunately for me, my two bikes and truck all get enough use to get a new tank of gas at least once a month and the only vehicle old enough to have an incompatible fuel system is my plane, which isn't allowed to run anything with ethanol.

As such, even though ethanol fuel has been mandated in my area for many years, I haven't had any ethanol related issues. For those with old bikes or bikes that spend time in storage (like Jay Leno), this can be a real pain. The only real fix is to update older fuel systems and make sure to use an ethanol free fuel when the bike is going to sit. In most metro areas where ethanol is mandated by the EPA, you can by ethanol free specialty racing gas (with various octane ratings) from speed shops when you're going to store the bike.

This should be a wake up call to just how bad ethanol blended fuels really are.

This should be a wake up call to just how bad ethanol blended fuels really are.
The reason is pretty simple. Most of the General Aviation fleet was built in the 60s - 80s, before auto fuel was routinely tainted with alcohol. Certain fuel system components can react badly when exposed to it.

When they first started putting ethanol in the local gas, my '59 Cessna (which was running car gas) got a bad case of the melting carb floats. My '69 Mercury ragtop had a couple of rubber fuel lines swell up like Ball Park Franks.