whitewolfowner

You are dead wrong. Ethanol is deadly to engines and their moving parts; just ask any engineer who knows the truth about it. It has no lubricating effects to it like gasoline does and wears the parts severely. It actually has the opposite effect on them and acts the opposite way. That's why gas that has ethanol in it reduces your gas mileage by up to 20% or more depending on the engine and can more than cut the life of an engine in half. Talk to the experts that race cars for a living and they will talk to you all day long on how bad ethanol is for engines.

Jim Bob

This is certainly the conventional wisdom from all reputable sources. That poster is either dumb, lucky or both.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I did ask an engineer, my brother was a chemical engineer that worked at Gulf Research Lab and knows everything about it. He said the refineries add stuff to the gas to provide the needed lubrication, so you are dead wrong, assuming you are running standard gas with 10% or less alcohol added. We are not talking about 85% gasohol in engines not designed for that.

Moreover, our combined experience absolutely proves what he says is correct. We have 60 years of gas engines running right now and NO precautions such as adding stabilizer or draining gas in winter have been taken, and zero ill effects. As far as the "experts" that race cars, my brother was not only a chemical engineer that worked in a research lab in one of the biggest oil companies on earth, he also owned and raced a Double A Fuel dragster in his youth, among other race cars. He knows all about this crap. If you read my first post on this you will see we have been running all sorts of engines for many years w/o any additives or draining gas in winter, and no problems at all, none, nada, zero.

Those of you who have been adding stabilizers, draining gas and so on prove nothing, other than you have spent time, effort and money to end up in the same place if you didn't do any of that.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Must be dumb, cause I'm not that lucky. Besides, the number of engines owned and running with no problems, and the length of time running w/o this crap, combined with the experience of a chemical engineer that worked in a research lab dedicated to exactly this sort of thing would lead any sane person to attribute this to anything but luck or stupidity. I could be lying I guess, not sure why anyone (other than stabilizer salesmen) would bother to make all this up just to trick a few photographer friends.

What percentage of folks put additives in their gas for cars, lawn equipment and so on? I suspect it is low, really, really low. Conventional wisdom, if my guess is correct, would be no additives are needed. I suspect the "conventional wisdom" is not what you think, and all your "reputable sources" are much less reputable than you think.

You can wring your hands and run out and buy a case of stabilizer, add it to all your fuel, drain your gas for the winter, do what ever you want. You will be either dumb, or lucky, same as the millions and millions that don't, with no problems.