I HATE ETHANOL / drain your fuel tanks (long)

[toomanytoys2]

Been awhile since I have been here, all of my different toys have been keeping me busy. Recently, it has been fuel related. Did I mention that I HATE fuels with ethanol in it.

This problem actually started before last Easter, when we were getting ready to go to the desert. I had allowed fuel to sit in the carb of my HH, so when I pulled it out to check it over, the carb was shot. Being in a hurry, I bought a carb of the bay that would get to my house in a couple of days. Got the carb, installed it and was good to go. Having fun at the desert, but on the end of the trip, the HH seemed to be running out of gas. the HH would just start to bog down then die. I could crank the starter for awhile, then it would fire up and go for awhile (rinse & repeat). Finally, it wouldn't turn over, even with a jump, so I thought that I toasted the starter from all the cranking. Towed it back to camp, and then home for repairs.

When I got home, I pulled the starter off and hooked it to a battery - it worked. Pulled off the engine side cover and tried to turn the crank, no go. What I thought was a fuel issue, was the engine siezing up. Then it dawned on me, when I swapped the carb, I forgot to swap the jets . I was running lean the whole time. So engine rebuild time. Rebuilt the engine, but it I could only get two starts out of the battery. If I jumped it would start fine. However, I had other projects so I ran the carb dry and parked it for about a month.

Got some free time so was going to try to figure out the problem. Now it would start at all, even with a jump. I pulled off the fuel line (manual petcock) and no fuel would flow. Pulled of the petcock and opeded it up. the rubber "gasket" was a distorted mess. Made a temporary gasket out of plain rubber, and got the fuel flowing, still wouldn't start. Pulled the carb and opened it - It was a corroded mess inside, the needle and seat were actually corroded together. Into the berrymans it went for a couple of days. Cleaned up the carb, and threw in a new needle, and with a jump got it started, now to fix the reason why the starter only worked twice.

Charged the battery and tried it on my quad and it worked fine. Thought, the new engine was too tight, so pulled the cover off again and turned the crank - nope. Scratching my head, I threw an Amp meter on the starter - It was pulling 60 amps when trying to start. I had fried the starter when the engine was seizing. Put on a new starter, and almost home.

The problem was, why did the carb get all corroded. I know that I ran the engine until the gas was gone. Then it dawned on me. The ethanol in the fuel ate the gasket enough to allow gas to flow into the carb, and it continued to eat the gasket, it eventually sealed it off.

So even though I have to take the hit for a seized motor (jets), it all started because of the ethanol in our fuel. Twice, it has messed up carburaton on the HH. But since that time, it has taken out 3 more petcocks (my generator, and 2 dirt bikes).

So if you know that your buggy is going to sit for awhile, at a minimum, put in fuel stabilizer. Better yet, drain your fuel tanks. As far as the petcocks, having to buy four, would be way to much money. What I have now done to all of my toys is to buy sheets of Viton off of the bay, open up the petcocks, and copy the gaskets using the viton. Viton is impervious to ethanol, so at least I am good to go there. If anyone wants a tutorial on how to due it, I have one more to go and can make a how to.