c0y0ta

My understanding is here in BC I can get gas with low or no ethanol but only at a higher octane rating. I thought I read high octane is bad for 22re's also. Does someone understand this enough to say which would be worse for a '94? (I don't really know enough to adjust my timing easily if you have to do that for higher octane, and besides my crankshaft/timing dot has some kind of wobble going on I will have to get to.)

91_TOYOTA_4x4

Ethanol is just a cheap addative somewhat. As far as i know with an N/A vehical its fine but watch out with a turbo engine. With my mr2 i only run chevron 94 because its 94 and has no ethanol. Husky sells 94 but it has ethanol so i dont use it. But anyway in a 22re regular old 87 is perfect! Dont need 89, 91, or 94. Makes no difference and no power increase. Do you know how that all works or should i explain? Lol

And whats with you loose crank? Sure your timing chains isnt loose and clanking around? Oh and wuddup B.C.

c0y0ta

I am hearing it is an alcohol that eats away seals in earlier vehicles besides causing no end of trouble with lawnmowers?

I will report when I get a realllllly long weekend following a realllllly big paycheck! Suspecting harmonic balancer, there's an oil leak and a whine in there at low rpm/idle/shutoff. Think I'm also supposed to check the distributor too.

Hella lotta clouds, fo' shore! Cheers!

91_TOYOTA_4x4

Hmm never had a problem with any "seals" yet? I dont think its any better for it but its not that bad at such a low amount atleast. Its just a cheap way to up the octaine as far as i know. And the only way to avoid it would be 94 chevron only which is way higher octaine than a 22re needs lol you might be able to turn the timing to make it run nice but honestly for the 20 cents more in gas just use 87 and save the extra dollars in case of a random "seal" going lol.

Sounds fishy lol pray sometjings not screweD! Binding belt? Bad idler bearing? Many things to check

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

They use to say that using synthetic oil would blow your headgasket also. Ethanol will not blow seals, I have known guys that run E-85 which is 85% ethanol and they have not blown seals in their cars. You do not need to adjust your timing to switch between normal fuel with 10% ethanol and fuel with no ethanol or really for fuel with a little higher octane. Personally, I just run 87 with the 10% ethanol, its cheap, my truck runs fine on it, hasn't blown any seals just gets a little worse gas mileage with the ethanol blend in it.

TNRabbit

Ethanol DOES play h#ll with small engines. I have to clean out the float bowl on all mine every spring. It somehow leaves a gel-like goo in the bottom of the bowl. Happens with every one I have. I just started using a Marine version of Sta-Bil that's supposed to counteract the effects of ethanol, so I'm anxious to see if it makes things different next spring~

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

The stuff you are seeing in the float bowl is a byproduct of ethanol which is alcohol, all alcohol naturally will absorb water, so the ethanol blended fuel has an expiration date because of this. If you leave ethanol blended fuel out in the open, let it sit for more than 90 days or have a tank that already has some moisture in it, you will get water in the fuel and it will separate and you will get the gel stuff.

I am not saying that ethanol is a good product, I believe it is a way for the oil companies to "water down our liquor" sort of speak, while feeding us a bunch of BS stories to make us think they are doing us a favor, all the while they charge the same amount for a gallon of fuel although they are selling us 9/10 of a gallon.

combatcarl

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating#section_1
A lot of that is stuff we already know, but it does cover some of your question. I just fixed a mower Carb that had sat for two seasons, it was full of the jelatinous goop, as was the tank. Putting 99% isopropyl alcohol in it or cleaning it with it dissolves that goop better than carb cleaner.

abecedarian

Ethanol is a alcohol. It brings some oxygen with it (as part of its molecule) to help burn in the engine.

It's bad for some vehicles as some have hoses and fuel piping that the ethanol acts like a solvent on, and corrodes.

On most later vehicles, as in post 95, there shouldn't be much of a problem with corrosion.

On the other hand, high octane fuel isn't going to hurt your Toy. Octane is a measure of how the fuel resists preignition. High octane fuel is more difficult to ignite.
For reality's sake, pump octane ratings are usually based on two values: Research and Motor Octane. Pump octane is usually (R+M)/2. I'll let you Google what that means.

For comparison- nitro-methane dragsters have a fuel with an octane rating of less than 70. If the octane rating were higher, the fuel wouldn't ignite and burn fast enough to produce the horsepower they have.