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E-10 fuel eats Shindaiwa fuel pick-up tubes

Started by jteneyck, June 05, 2010, 09:04:23 PM

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jteneyck

I doubt this is exclusive of Shindaiwa's so this might be of interest to a wider audience.  Anyway the molded rubber fuel pick-up tubes on my Shindaiwas don't seem to last more than a couple of years.  They get soft and collapse from exposure to alcohol in gas and then the saw either won't run or runs erratically.  The first couple of times this happened I thought it was a carb. problem; now I know to check the fuel pick-up first.  They aren't that expensive at around $8 each, but they are compared to the  $0.50 piece of yellow Tygon tubing on my Huskys which last years and years.  So after buying 2 of these tubes in the last month and having the third saw go down with the same problem, I decided to do a little experiment.  I clipped the tube off the old pick-up tube, leaving just the bushing portion that seals in the top of the tank.  I then ran a piece of Tygon tubing through the bushing- one end to the fuel filter, the other to the carb - the same arrangment as on my Huskys.  Works great so far.  If you're having problems with alcohol fuel eating up your molded rubber fuel tubes you might want to give this a try.  And if anyone has any solutions on how to stop this from happening to the rubber tubes I'd be interested to hear them.  Draining the tank doesn't seem to be enough for the Shindaiwa tubes. 

Rocky_J

Go to a marina and buy non ethanol gas for your saws. At least until the politicians come to their senses and abandon the ethanol boondoggle that they have forced upon us. It doesn't work. It does, however, put lots of money into pockets of a few select people who control the ethanol market.

ladylake

Good advice Rocky, I'm lucky I can still get 91 oct without ethocrap, the biggest fiasco since the Edsel.   Steve
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

Al_Smith

 With few exceptions I haven't experianced any problems with fuel lines because of ethanol .Now carb innards are a different story .

I have noticed though that in about the last several years portions of the carb rebuilt kits are using slightly different materials which I assume are more ethanol resistant .In addition many crank shaft seals,Stihl in praticular are using a different material . I only assume that possibley they might be using Viton instead of buna-n but really can't be sure,only an assumption .

For custom made lines I just use Tygon which works well .Some times though you have get a bit "creative " to get it to work .


Al_Smith

A little trick I forgot to mention on Tygon or any other plastic line .

This stuff isn't as limber as most OEM lines and as such might not flex enough to suck off the bottom of the tank . One cure is to use the older type fuel filters which are a metal shell with a felt filter because they weigh more .These are relatively inexpense .I get mine though MFG supply ,a couple buck a piece and they come in several sizes .

miking

I've been pretty fortunate and have zero saw issues as well as several stations locally where I have work and can get good non-ethanol gas for the saws. That makes me connect one with the other pretty confidently. For todays free plug, report your non-ethanol sources at: http://pure-gas.org/
Echo CS530, 600 and 680 chainsaws, SRM410U brushcutter, PB500 blower and PP265 power pruner. Also a Stihl 192c for the lil' stuff.

John Mc

The are a few stations in my part of Vermont which carry non-ethanol fuel. Several carry only low (87) octane, but some carry low, medium and high. My primary source of high octane has just switched to 10% ethanol gas a couple months ago. They and a few other sources say that by sometime in September 2010 they won't be able to get non-ethanol gas anymore. Apparently, all of the non-ethanol gas in the area was coming from Canada. Apparently Canada (or at least Quebec) has succumbed to the corn/ethanol lobby and is going to start requiring it in their fuel as well.

My backup source of premium non-ethanol gas is a small grass airstrip about a 25 minute drive away. Some piston aircraft can run on auto gas rather than 100LL aviation fuel, but ethanol is a definite no-no in aircraft... for all the usual reasons, plus the fact that it can attack aluminum fuel tanks, and that it does funky things at altitude. I asked if he was still going to have it available. He was not sure. He had not heard a thing from his supplier about a change in non-ethanol availability. This is scary, if they're just not telling their customers about the switch. Having a load of ethanol-gas in an aircraft tank could ruin your whole day.

John McNerney
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

jteneyck

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I found the same thing, Al, you have to use a heavy filter in order for it to swing around to the bottom of this particular tank when the saw is laid on it's side.  My Huskys don't appear to have this issue as they are taller compared to their width.  Smart folks, those Swedes.  Other than that the Tygon tube approach appears to be a winner, cheap, and no trip the dealer when it needs to be replaced years from now.  I got some feedback from a guy who owns about 15 Shinnys that he has no problem as long as he runs them dry at the end of the day.  Something to consider, but a pain.  I usually only do this at the end of the cutting season, or if I haven't used the saw for a few weeks.  And I'll have to stop by one of our marinas or local small plane airports to see if they have any premium non-ethanol fuel.  Thanks again. 

As for the whole issue of ethanol in fuel, it's just a bad idea, and I better leave it at that. 

jteneyck

Further inspection of my 385 XP revealed that the Tygon fuel line portion inside the tank was formed into a spiral to allow it move around more easily.  Taking this idea, I found that a piece of solid 12 gage jacketed copper wire fits perfectly inside of 1/8" Tygon.  So I slid the wire in about 6 inches, formed into into an overlapping 360 deg. circle, then carefully heated it with a heat gun for maybe 30 seconds.  After it cooled, I straightened the wire back out and slid the tubing off.  Lo and behold, the Tygon had the exact shape I had formed it into.  So it seems very possible to form Tygon into any shape needed to replicate the original rubber tube in a particular tank.     

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