How to Remove Methanol from Gasoline
Feb 12, 2023 12:13:06 #
There's seldom a good reason to do this, but here's one way you can remove ethanol from gasoline. I got this from a small-engine repair guy on YouTube - Steve's Small Engine Saloon.
Pour water into the gas. How much water is uncertain. Using a glass container would be helpful. Shake it up - a lot. The water and ethanol will combine, leaving a visible layer of gasoline on the surface. You can pour it into another container or syphon it off. Better yet, use a container with a drain at the bottom and drain off the water.
Some people prefer to use ethanol-free gas in small engines. They can buy it in many gas stations, but they like doing extra work. I've used regular gas in everything for years with no problems. Stewart's high-octane gas contains no ethanol.
Aside from the extra time and work involved, doing this increases the price per gallon of your fuel, and it decreases the octane.
More "pure gas." https://www.pure-gas.org/
Pour water into the gas. How much water is uncertain. Using a glass container would be helpful. Shake it up - a lot. The water and ethanol will combine, leaving a visible layer of gasoline on the surface. You can pour it into another container or syphon it off. Better yet, use a container with a drain at the bottom and drain off the water.
Some people prefer to use ethanol-free gas in small engines. They can buy it in many gas stations, but they like doing extra work. I've used regular gas in everything for years with no problems. Stewart's high-octane gas contains no ethanol.
Aside from the extra time and work involved, doing this increases the price per gallon of your fuel, and it decreases the octane.
More "pure gas." https://www.pure-gas.org/
Feb 12, 2023 12:16:45 #
That remind me of opening a little valve at the bottom of the Huey helicopter and drain a bit of fuel (JP-4 at the time) to check for water. If there is water it would be there. It's part of my preflight check.
Feb 12, 2023 12:30:37 #
jerryc41 wrote:
There's seldom a good reason to do this, but here'... (show quote)
It all depends on the plastic parts in the fuel system such as fuel lines, floats in the carb, etc. some are only mildly affected by enthanol, while others are slowly corroded, leaving plastic in the solution of gas/ethanol which can clog small jets and dystrophy the lines, etc. I’ve run pure ethanol in racing engines. It has less energy per gallon so larger carb jets are required, but the latent heat of vaporization is higher, cooling the vaporized fuel and producing greater power but with higher fuel consumption. It’s also higher octane than straight gasoline, allowing a higher compression ratio. In the end, it’s worth about a 15% power increase. A downside of ethanol powered race carts is that if the fuel catches fire, its blue flame is very hard to see - just the heat waves rising from the cart.
On principal, I run ethanol free gas (which is easily available where I live) in all my small engines, since some are quite old.
Feb 12, 2023 13:36:00 #
BebuLamar wrote:
That remind me of opening a little valve at the bottom of the Huey helicopter and drain a bit of fuel (JP-4 at the time) to check for water. If there is water it would be there. It's part of my preflight check.
Air compressors have that drain valve, too. A failure of a compressor isn't as serious as the failure of a helicopter engine, though.
Feb 12, 2023 13:47:54 #
BebuLamar wrote:
That remind me of opening a little valve at the bottom of the Huey helicopter and drain a bit of fuel (JP-4 at the time) to check for water. If there is water it would be there. It's part of my preflight check.
It was part of my preflight check on a Piper Cherokee around 1970.
Feb 12, 2023 13:49:34 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Air compressors have that drain valve, too. A failure of a compressor isn't as serious as the failure of a helicopter engine, though.
A failure of a compressor can throw shrapnel around your shop. To be more precise, it's not usually the failure of the compressor, but the storage tank.
Feb 12, 2023 13:55:41 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Air compressors have that drain valve, too. A failure of a compressor isn't as serious as the failure of a helicopter engine, though.
They can probably still autorotate and land..
Google "air compressor explosion"
Feb 12, 2023 14:33:56 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
A failure of a compressor can throw shrapnel around your shop. To be more precise, it's not usually the failure of the compressor, but the storage tank.
Yes, I realized that after I posted it. Still, there are more plane crashes than compressor explosions. I keep mine drained. I have a quick-release drain on it.
Feb 12, 2023 15:20:01 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Air compressors have that drain valve, too. A failure of a compressor isn't as serious as the failure of a helicopter engine, though.
Diesel locomotives also have a valve on each cylinder to drain any water that may have accumulated in them. Trying to start a diesel locomotive engine without first purging any water from the cylinders may result in bent or broken connecting rods or cracked pistons.
Feb 12, 2023 15:40:26 #
Muddyvalley wrote:
They can probably still autorotate and land...
Every helicopter can land.
Landing safely is a whole nother thing.
Feb 12, 2023 17:06:31 #
Muddyvalley wrote:
They can probably still autorotate and land..
Google "air compressor explosion"
Google "air compressor explosion"
Back then we praticed autorotation often but never did have to do one for real.
Feb 13, 2023 06:08:02 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Air compressors have that drain valve, too. A failure of a compressor isn't as serious as the failure of a helicopter engine, though.
Read look at this posted Oct 2021
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-716151-1.html
Feb 13, 2023 07:36:45 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
It was part of my preflight check on a Piper Cherokee around 1970.
Ditto for the C-172 and Piper Saratoga
Feb 13, 2023 09:02:32 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
Every helicopter can land.
Landing safely is a whole nother thing.
Landing safely is a whole nother thing.
auto rotating is nothing more than a semi-controlled CRASH that you walk away from most of the time.
Feb 13, 2023 10:14:09 #
TriX wrote:
It all depends on the plastic parts in the fuel sy... (show quote)
Same here, I use Rec 90 in all my small gas engines
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