Sthil fuel pick up line/ethanol issues

[doo_hicky]

Buddy of mine has only ever had Stihl saws and like equipment.  An issue occured with evey one of his saws, blower, weedeater, ect within 2 weeks, granted the saws were not new but were well cared for.  He took everything to the shop and the mechanic told him it was the ethanol in the gas that was eating the pick up lines, they had shevles full of like repairs. 

They symptoms were that the engines would start up fune, but under load no power and would die.

Now, I don't know if this is a manuf. specific potential problem, but my 353 has never had an issue and I've been running 87-89(every once in awhile i'd get 93) gas for years. 

I just figured I'd throw this out there and see if anybody has heard of this and are experiencing the same problems.

Mike

[clww]

This has been discussed on here in the past. Ethanol will gum up the fuel systems on power equipment, leading to early repairs and similar expenses

[Al_Smith]

This has been discussed on here in the past.   

--plus  everywhere else on the internet that has any conversations about gasoline engines weather two cycle or 4 cycle .Even the Brits talk about it but they prefer the word petrol as oppossed to gasoline .

[joe_indi]

The ethanol loosens gummy sediments in the fuel tank and fuel lines.This is what causes the 'gumming'
I use a very unconventional cure for this. The sages here might frown on my solution, but it works.
I use polyurethane solvent (thinner) to flush out the fuel tank.This gets rid of any sediment coating that could be prone to dissolve in ethanol.
I mix the same thinner with 2 stroke oil  1:1 and add it to half a tank of fuel @ about 10% of the fuel.
The saw or brushcutter or any other engine is then run and used as usual till the fuel runs out.
This usually gets rid of any gum buildup in the fuel lines or carburetor.
Joe

[Pointman]

It seems that this bad gasoline is everywhere.I know some who claim that Sea Foam works wonders in cleaning the gum out of carbs and lines.I have used it in my ATV to some extent.Has anybody used it in their saws to any degree? The Sea Foam sounds like an easy fix.

[SwampDonkey]

Sounds probable. I had something in the line of my saw in 2011 when brush cutting, similar symptoms. I took the uptake line out of the tank and managed to loosen what ever it was from the line, the filter was almost new at that stage. It didn't happen this year. Out in the woods your bound to get fir needles and fine mossy duff in the tank from filling up and having dirt drop in. Something like a fir needle is full of resin that is pretty resilient as it has been used to patch windshield chips. Try and wash the stuff from your clothes. ;)

[Al_Smith]

Yeah over time little bits of trash gets sucked into the fuel lines and stick in the carb but it would do that even if you had metal fuel lines .

The crux of the problem is simpley that fuel lines ,crankcase seals etc. are made of a compound called buna-n which is very robust with petrolium based products but not so with any form of alcohol.Ethanol is a form of alcohol .

There's thing you can add to the gas like Stabil maybe Seafoam but all they do is prolong the inevetable and that is that the synthetic rubber components will in time go bad .Some just take longer than others .

[Al_Smith]

Over the course of a year I buy a fair amount of repair parts for Stihl products of which 75 percent are OEM from a dealer .In perhaps the last two years I've noticed the Stihl corperation appears to have changed in some way the sealing components  of crankcase seals .I am assuming the company is attempting to address and make more ethanol robust parts because ethanol is not going to go away like the passenger pigion .

I do know as fact the automoble industry has done the very same thing .I'm afraid this ethanol thing is just something we all have to live with .You can grumble about it but that's all the satisfaction you'll get .

Oh you could run race gas or aviation gas if you get real persnickity or just do like some of us and rebuild the carbs ,replace fuel lines and seals and be done with it .