Ethanol gasoline

[johnfellows]

Hey guys couldn't find anything on here about this so thought I would ask. I live in Minnesota and unfortunately because of the damn corn subsidies, most of our gas is mixed with ethanol. It's a 10% blend where I live. I've heard that ethanol does not go well with carburetors. I recently filled up my tank with some more expensive high octane non oxygenated 100% gas and I'm not sure if I'm imagining it but the bike seems to be running better. Is it a waste of money? or do these bikes not handle ethanol gas very well either?

[TomcatMJ]

At my FZR 400 a high Octane Gas (usually i use Aral Ultimate with 102 Octane here in Germany) lets the Motor turn much smoother than pure 95 Octane or even 98 Octane (but this might also be only recognizable due to the higher revs than with a 1000)... but with E10 Gas (Ethanol 10% Mixup, mostly 95 Octane) i recognized some waste inside the Carbs which would cause clogging if not removed soon at the end of the Season...and additional Ethanol is hydrophil (=its dragging some water out of the enviromental air during time) ,so it might cause the Tank getting a bit rusty if the Bike will stand around for some weeks with a not completely full or not completely empty not so well sealed Tank...

Edit: Hm, perhaps i should buy an airplane in order to get some airplane kerosine with 150 Octane for my Bike

[djalbin]

Most states in the U.S. are blending 10% ethanol in the gas. Ethanol is not good for engines that are not designed for it but as long as they keep it at 10% or less you're OK. Just don't go for the E85 fuel with 85% ethanol. The other thing you can do is only buy gas at the retailers who are on the Top Tier gasoline list.

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers/
.

['87 750 RT]

ethanol is at 15% here in Michigan; why not switch to viton carb seals to cure all.shipping time is about 2 weeks.http://litetek.co/Carb_Kit_Yamaha_FZR1000_87-88.html