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Too Much Alcohol
My very expensive Stihl “climbers” chainsaw won’t start. I yanked on it
till my arm hurt and then threw it in the back of the truck. I toss in
(the also expensive) back-pack blower that won’t start either. I go to
the repair place. The guy in the back, behind the grease-stained counter
has a grizzled look to him. He’s about 5’2”, 200 pounds, no hair to
speak of and chewing an old, unlit cigar. He looks at me and my handful
of machines and says, “What’s the matter, you can’t start em?”
I take this the wrong way and respond, “I’ve been starting these things for years. It ain’t me. It’s the damn machines!”
He eyes me and says, “Your problem is alcohol”.
Being pissed to begin with as a result of the sore arm, busted machines
and wasted time this took me over the top and I snapped back, “My drinking has nothing do with the fucking machines!”
He takes a second, grins, and comes back with, “No, I meant the alcohol in the gas. That’s why the motors won’t start. I see a dozen just like em every week”.
So I shuffle and back-peddle a bit and listen while this guy explains to
me that when alcohol exceeds 10% of regular gas it dissolves plastic
engine parts. Things like fuel-lines or float gaskets in the carburetor.
When the mixture is too rich the engine burns hot and wears out the
rings. He explains that the legal limit is 10% but that all the fuel
distributors cheat and mix in some extra alcohol so they can make a
buck. When the mix gets to 15% it’s toxic for two cycle engines. And
that is what killed my machines. He pulls off the gas line and shows me
that it has deteriorated to the point where it has fused shut.
Armed with this new found underground information I go online to see if
anyone else knows about this. Sure enough, it is all over the web. But
what gave me a laugh was this article today: (Bloomberg link)
Carmakers, Engine Makers Challenge Rule Allowing 15% Ethanol in Gas
The premature introduction of mid-level ethanol blends (as a general purpose fuel) could result in unintended adverse impacts on the 250 million Americans who own and operate over 400 million motor vehicles, motorcycles, lawnmowers, chainsaws, recreational boats, ATVs, etc.
The EPA granted a request from ethanol producers, including Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co., to increase concentrations of the corn-based fuel additive in gasoline
This bit spells out the problem with alcohol and gas. The EPA has now
proposed that all gas contain 15%. They want the subsidies for ethanol
to be expanded. Along the way they are going to shorten the life of all
the engines we use. Progress? Stupidity??
I’m thinking to myself that if the guy behind the greasy counter knows
this, why don’t the bright folks in D.C.? Or do they know it and
understand it, but they are doing it anyway because they have an axe to
grind? Either way, it’s a sorry state of affairs.
By the way, the repairs cost me 175 bucks.
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Please provide us with the ability to separate Government and Agribusiness. I can't see but one entity.
Bribery, collusion and corruption rules
Relax and buy some compact flouresents while you are waiting for your engines to be repaired. You are saving the planet buying all this new stuff.
Kind of like the endless procession of digital media.
I'm looking forward to replacing my entire A/V library with a brain-insertable chip that will hold every format ever devised and spending the rest of my life blissed-out in some human storage container, oblivious to the wasteland outside of it's plastic walls.
Or perhaps selecting some class of human worth saving, placing them on a large spaceship, affording them every automated service. In the mean time, allow a single tiny little robot to clean up the world. After a bunch of years, send back some space probes to see if life has started back up again.
I love that freakin' movie...+1
Ahhhh. So we're going back to the wasteful consumptive model - make stuff that people buy that breaks so they have to buy more. We'll get that economy flowing again. More engines, more landfill full. Charming.
It's all in the warranty!...the day after the warranty expires, the machine expires...they've had engineers and lawyers go over all this stuff with a fine tooth comb...just before the warranty ran out on the comb...LOL.
Good one!
Bruce Krasting + a great title = A Must Read!
+1
...fooled me into thinking I was going to find a new gimlet recipe. :-(
My old, reliable Stihl saw recently decided to stop running too. I should have known it was the frigging government's fault!
I've kept my 2-strokes (cheap Ryobi ones at that) running by keeping Sta-bil and SeaFoam mixed with the gas. One did have the fuel lines eaten after about 5 years. It's in a landfill leaking oil now. Thanks ADM.
Okay... what is "SeaFoam" (I know about the ocean... ) Have Sta-bil in there, now. Never heard of "SeaFoam".
its a solvent blend, lots of folks swear by it, run a search over at bobistheoilguy.com
Sta-bil works wonders.
so does a tablespoon of sugar and some dish soap. ;)
Actually I put Sta-bil in my generator and it works perfectly.
"so does a tablespoon of sugar and some dish soap. ;)"
You do realize some urban cowboy will try that don't you?...LOL.
Your a bad, baaad man ;-)
Stabil & cheap throw aways for me and for a long time now...once you couldn't find nothing but unleaded gasoline it was all down hill.
Mighty fine piece of investigative reporting there, Bruce. Must be time to go long Black & Decker. EPA is another useless POS bureaucracy with it's head up its arse.
Shit Bruce the EPA will probably have eliminated 2-cycle engines from the marketplace before gasohol has a chance to do much damage to them.
4-stroke outboards are definitely much better machines than the older 2-strokes from just 10-15 years ago. I know the dirt-bike guys are trying to hold onto their 2-strokes because the acceleration is so much better with all that stop-and-go. My guess is smaller power tool engines won't perform the same as 4-stroke versions but I really don't know (but I do know that they'll be more expensive). The beauty of something like a chain-saw is that it's designed to be able to be fixed by a Frenchman in the woods with no tools...it's so simple. If all gas engines become like car engines - locked behind plastic cases with computer chips all over the place - I'll go crazy.
Ethanol also separates from the gas after a couple of months. Few mistakes hurt like putting away your boat for the winter with 50, 100, 500 gallons of soon to be useless (and then expensive to throw away) gas. Actually the alcohol may separate and break down somehow. Whatever it does it ruins the gas.
Another little known secret is MPG tests/ratings for cars are conducted with pure gasoline. Since you can't get pure stuff "your millage may vary" means it will always be worse.
Add to that the fact the corn-ethanol delivers about 800% less bang for the buck than sugar-ethanol and you have one class A government boondoggle.
They can blend 15% water to gasoline and your engine will run just the same but with 15% less MPG, and, of course, no extra profit for the additive.
I can tell that you've never had water in your gasoline.
Maybe this is why AZO keeps going up?
AZO=cash for clunkers+more people keeping there cars for longer.
*hic*
I thought only those dirty Mexicans used those things. Stop bothering me with these vagaries!
It's the little people who have the problems with lawn mowers, leaf blowers and chainsaws. They by their very nature are little people with little influence. Big people make the ethanol and suck up the subsidies. Big people have big influence with the Congressional Critters.
No contest.
On its face this is sound thinking. However, it fails to take into account more sinister possibilities, such as economic sabotage. Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, spent his final years in prison, where he extensively critiqued Lenin's revolution and determined that it was doomed if it maintained advancement along the lines advocated by Marx and Lenin. Gramsci argued that the leaders and planners of the revolution must proceed utilizing any and all means and advocated what he termed a "long march through the institutions."
Kremlin planners understood that the forces of communism were much too weak, the capitalists too strong, to enter into direct conflict in the 1950's, when the chairman of the KGB, General Shelepin, was tasked with formulating a long-range plan designed to weaken the U.S. and strengthen the communists. Shelepin recognized Gramsci's wisdom and incorporated it into Soviet long-range planning, calculating that after a period of several decades of subversion and infiltration, the cumulative effect of the implementation of minor (and major) policy mistakes by covertly-influenced decision makers in the U.S. would pay great dividends.
The effects of such EPA policies as are being discussed, viewed in isolation and without knowledge of the existence of a long-range Soviet plan, are imperceptible as being part of a long-range policy designed to weaken the U.S. Such policies are not seen for what they are; rather, they are thought of as the result of undue influence of corporations on government policy, and public sentiment is steered in this direction to the benefit of communist planners and operators. Success in masking the sinister intent of communist-influenced U.S. policies is routine owing to the comprehensiveness and long-range nature of Gramsci-based planning. Never does it occur to the analyst to question whether sabotage, let alone communist/Kremlin-directed sabotage plays a part in such policies as are being discussed. By now the knee-jerk reaction as well as the measured analysis places the blame for such wrong-headed government regulation at the feet of unduly influential capitalist corporations.
Heed the words of Yuri Bezmenov:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpODYhnPEo
And Jeff Nyquist of FinancialSense.com, leading you out of the wilderness, if only you will follow:
http://thefinalphaseforum.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=44
Ahh, CD, you get what I mean by big men and small men, or big people and small people...of course, I never thought you didn't :)
I'm in touch with my feminine side. Or maybe I should say that I'm touching something of mine. :>)
Your clitoris?
you would think that when the Billionaires' yacht's fiberglass fuel tanks get eaten away by ethanol, there might be some discussion on Capitol Hill, but no.
Take your gasoline with ethanol, add about 20% water. Stir, and wait. The alcohol/water slime will sink to the bottom and you can siphon good gasoline off the top. Dump the taililngs in the street or donate to your city's sewage system.
Sweet! Added bonus: selling juice to the winos.
Ethanol ruined my 17' "yacht".
Billionaire's yachts no....the "little" guy yes, and this has been known about for years.
The residue of the eaten away tanks kills the gas engines...there are a lot of sub-30ft boats that are unsaleable now...repower costs more than the boat is worth.
btw, yacht loans ended up in one of the Maiden Lanes...
The larger yachts usd diesel.