Thread: E10 Unleaded and small motors

I should have probably been more specific earlier, it's the older gear that suffers, personally I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, unless what they are using has been specified to be ethanol compatible, too much risk IMO, and performance is noticibly impaired over 95 or 98 RON.

Most of the small stuff isn't up to standards, this is why it suffers, and a lot of gear was made over 10 years ago.

That being said, when I used to run the CB250 (1980) in my buggy, all the brand new lines went hard and cracked (in 2010) it also stuffed the carby-to-block adapters which were brand new at the time ($50 each x2), so they got replaced again and it has only run on 98 since then, with no further issues. I built the whole thing and the only thing we did was run E10 in it, all the damage occurred over 1 weekend.

Damage was:
- Cracked carburettor adaptors x2 (rubber went brittle and broke off the metal)
- Fuel tap seal dissolved (fuel ran out of the tank while it was parked!)
- Fuel line went hard and cracked at the bend, spraying fuel on the motor)

The fuel line was replaced with another bit from the same roll and still remains soft since we stopped using E10.

It also causes no end of problems if rubber perishes and breaks up, causing blockage after blockage, we only just got one of the veteran cars sorted after the neoprene seal in the petrol cap dissolved into the tank (everything else is copper/brass or steel in the system).

Personally unless you KNOW your junk can run ethanol I wouldn't take the risk to save 3 cents per litre.

I wasn't scared off it by talk, it was by experience, we ran it in a BA Falcon all the time.

Cheers
Will

Originally Posted by MR LR jnr.

........Damage was:
- Cracked carburettor adaptors x2 (rubber went brittle and broke off the metal)
- Fuel tap seal dissolved (fuel ran out of the tank while it was parked!)
- Fuel line went hard and cracked at the bend, spraying fuel on the motor........

Identical issues on our two quad bikes. Happened within a couple of weeks of each other, even though they were bought 3 months apart. It started as just a faint smell of petrol, and ended up with half a tank of fuel spraying all over my son's legs, and the engine whilst he was riding it. Had a look at my daughter's quad not long after to see the same pipes go.

I bought a Honda edger (wiper snipper) 10 years ago. In the first 8 years of it's life I never changed the oil and always used E10.

After 8 years the carbie kit needed to be replaced ($20 in parts). Did the oil at the same time (just laziness on my part for not doing it prior)

Guess what she's still going on E10 and start first every time.

Personally I think Hondas are great motors and E10 works just dandy.

The crap about E10 is just that....crap. I have seen and read enough of the pros and cons but I know what works and E10 is doing it for me.

Also use it in the V8 (D2a) and no problems (better than the premium at the premium price).

Regards
Andrew

P.S. Do whatever floats your boat, look like I'm out on my own with this opinion.

Looks like a 50/50 choice to me.

I have to go out of my way to purchase it, so probably will not bother.
If I calculate in the extra travel distance and time to get it - it's not worth the savings. If it was availabe where I regularly purchase my fuel I would probably give it a go.

Bacicat what brand is your mower?

I'm seeing a pattern... the old stuff and the chinese/cheap stuff (little bro had a thumper dirt bike) seems to not take well to it. Yet anyone with newish/quality stuff says it seems ok.

My Range Rover pings with anything less than 98 so I just use that in everything petrol now.

I guess it needs to be on a case by case basis.

Will

The older rubber parts will perish over time,and the fuel pump in older series Landrovers will die,as they have rubber diaphragms in their AC pumps,the later type of rubber known as Neoprene is OK with Ethanol,this causes a lot of problems with the restored car owner,and a lot of them are using the 98 RON stuff, and cutting it with Kero for the very low compression motors,but Series vehicles will take it OK with no problems if one uses something like Wynns Valveguard.

Originally Posted by MR LR jnr.

Bacicat what brand is your mower?

I'm seeing a pattern... the old stuff and the chinese/cheap stuff (little bro had a thumper dirt bike) seems to not take well to it. Yet anyone with newish/quality stuff says it seems ok.

My Range Rover pings with anything less than 98 so I just use that in everything petrol now.

I guess it needs to be on a case by case basis.

Will

Mower is a Honda. You get what you pay for.. You could be right about it affecting cheaper stuff - I don't have any. Edit - sorry, that sounded snobbish - didn't mean it to come across like that, I just believe in saving up and buying a better quality product and having it last me longer.

The old Rangie runs great on the E10 by the way, better than it does on normal 95. As it drinks rather a lot of the stuff, I don't put 98 in it, it is a weekender so only gets the E10 treatment.

Originally Posted by bacicat

Mower is a Honda. You get what you pay for.. You could be right about it affecting cheaper stuff - I don't have any. Edit - sorry, that sounded snobbish - didn't mean it to come across like that, I just believe in saving up and buying a better quality product and having it last me longer.

The old Rangie runs great on the E10 by the way, better than it does on normal 95. As it drinks rather a lot of the stuff, I don't put 98 in it, it is a weekender so only gets the E10 treatment.

Might need to retard my RR a bit lol... $1.76 isn't very nice...

Yeah I'm thinking avoid it with anything cheap or old is a good rule.

Will