As a mechanic I remember when the fuel changed over, the biggest problem I had was the cleaning of the fuel system by the ethanol plugging up the filters as stated above. Most of the time in the FI engines the filter plugged because they are more aggressive filters to protect the injectors. In carbureted engines the filters tend to be more like screens and pass some of the contaminates which gums up the works. Also as stated above once the tank and lines are clean the problem goes away.
What I found beneficial was a step up on the jetting helped with cold weather lean condition which happens because carbs are only controlled by air velocity and ethanol runs slightly lean, unlike FI which monitors exhaust O2 levels and corrects it by adding more fuel.
Now the engine are designed for it so that went away. Us old hot rodders generally know how to tune the old stuff so we go by how it runs or dyno it somewhere
I have personally had no problem with fuel over the winter on anything I stored inside, My mowers are outside under a cover and I typically have to drain the carb every spring. But I live in mild weather area so my conditions are nothing like the rest of the world. Sta-Bil is a fine product that works as advertised.
I pretty much gave up on trying to deal with ethanol by additives because I tend to be lazy.
The biggest drawback has been on the much older engines that don't have hard valve seats and acquire valve recession into the head I have pulled old heads with the valve almost a 1/8 inch lower that took up the play in the lifter and burned the valve. The newer engines all have hard seats in them and many are aluminum so there isn't any choice but to use them.
What I found beneficial was a step up on the jetting helped with cold weather lean condition which happens because carbs are only controlled by air velocity and ethanol runs slightly lean, unlike FI which monitors exhaust O2 levels and corrects it by adding more fuel.
Now the engine are designed for it so that went away. Us old hot rodders generally know how to tune the old stuff so we go by how it runs or dyno it somewhere
I have personally had no problem with fuel over the winter on anything I stored inside, My mowers are outside under a cover and I typically have to drain the carb every spring. But I live in mild weather area so my conditions are nothing like the rest of the world. Sta-Bil is a fine product that works as advertised.
I pretty much gave up on trying to deal with ethanol by additives because I tend to be lazy.
The biggest drawback has been on the much older engines that don't have hard valve seats and acquire valve recession into the head I have pulled old heads with the valve almost a 1/8 inch lower that took up the play in the lifter and burned the valve. The newer engines all have hard seats in them and many are aluminum so there isn't any choice but to use them.
