Post by joeesquire on Feb 7, 2018 17:28:48 GMT -5
Hi Guys!
Sorry that I missed Mech's earlier posts, as I would have responded. I originally wrote in the 2 stroke section, but this is just as aplicable to any gas engine.
I found, when googling "de-ethanolization," some time back, an aviation enthusiast with the same problem, and was attempting a commercial offering of a water separation kit, that was really just a clear plastic container.
Here's how it works: You add 5 gallons or less of PREMIUM gasoline, then, like the bartender Moe, from the Simpsons, you add a gallon or more of fresh tap water. Inventor suggested adding a few drops of your favorite food coloring, but I don't bother. Then agitate vigorously; don't have to be excessive here; then let sit overnight. That's it!
The trick here is that water and alcohol are miscible, one into the other, and will sink to the bottom of the container, just like in your gas tank. The next morning, if you used the food coloring, you will see a pretty layer on the bottom, which will be your water/ethanol mix. On top is your pure, clean, STANDARD OCTANE gasoline. This is because the ethanol does raise the octane rating slightly, so now it is lowered a bit.
The aviation freak....ahh, enthusiast who demonstrated this, then poured from his device directly into his wing tank, and took off, doing a couple of victory rolls in his homebuilt. Those guys are generally pretty conservative, so if he feels safe enough to use this, you could feel pretty secure too.
After it sits overnight, you could either drain the water mix from the bottom, if you had a tap, or, like me, siphon the gas from the top. I think that this would be a good time to add fuel stabizer, if you are going to store it.
Anyhoo, that's all there is to it, and I must say that after trying this out on my 50cc 2 smoke, virtually ALL of the little running problems that I used to have disappeared! The spitting, stalling, flat spots. It was like the cartoon of the sod busting farmer, after he gets a shot of B-12 vitamin. Literally that big a change.
Of course, the gummint sez, it should be fine, just fine. We tested it in our fleet of 50,000 brand new vehicles that YOU paid for, and we never heard a complaint. Besides, here in the Peeples' Republik O' Kaiifornee, we gonna have ALL electrick veehickles in a couple of years. No electricity for them, though. So all this won't matter.
We're thinking of you all the time, like a big brother. We've got The Best Minds Working on this! Don't worry. Work! Consume! Breed! Pay your Taxes! Ahhh, this is getting silly.
Try this out, you won't be disappointed, unless your 440 MOPAR won'r run on regular. I really got interested just because I wanted to store 5 gallons or more for an extended period, without having to keep rotating stock.
I won't tell you what to do with the leftover, just DON'T try to drink it. The Feds used to add just a tiny amount of gasoline to alcohol, and then termed it legally "Denatured," to prevent it's use by the enemy...us. There were great stories from the torpedomen during the war who used to siphon off some of the pure alcohol from the torpedoes, which sometimes ran out of fuel before their target. That was, until the navy started adding adulterants into the alcohol, with some sickening results.
As I mentioned, the measuring isn't critical, and I originally used gallon glass pickle jars for my proof-of-concept testing. When you have siphoned/drained most of both liquids, I leave that little separating line of both fuel and water left over, not getting greedy. Just add more fresh to the leftover, water, too, and shake again. I had about 5 jars with lids, and had a fairly constant process at my leisure; siphoning good fuel into my large containers for storage. Easy Peasy! And fun! And if ya spill some of that leftover on concrete, it sure stinks like corn likker!
