[roberce]

I am new to the site and have owned ATVs my entire life. I have 2 2002 rancher 4x4s. I have always used sta-bil and ran the carbs clean when stored, never had a problem. This year I had big problems when hunting season began... bad Gas. One ATV would not crank and run, the other would run rich and spill all of the gas through the overflow. It turned out I had black gunk *( rubber tar looking stuff) in my Wife's tank that got sucked into the carb. Mine had a gel looking substance and varnish looking covering in the enitre system. :shocked::icon_cussing:

I have removed tanks, cleaned and re-built each carb. This gas smelled terrible and looked black, I am guessing this may be due to the blended Gas?? I will be more carefull about gas now, This stuff was about 10 months old.

Anyway I used the moose carb rebuild kits and was very pleased. The bowl seats was plugged on one and not seating on the other.

Anybody have feedback on gas breakdown??? Ideas about the newer blended stuff?? Thanks

 

[Redracer]

Welcome to the site, That's to bad you got stuck with bad gas. So are you up and running again?

 

[ddrumman2004]

Welcome to the forum!
By blended gasoline, what exactly do you mean? Gasoline with ethanol? If so, that's the problem. I have found out that ethanol blend gasoline will go bad more quickly than gasoline without ethanol. I had to have the carb rebuilt on my wife's 04 Yamaha Bruin from gas with ethanol as well as I had to rebuild the carb on my Craftsman mower.
I am fortunate in that there are two places locally where I can by gasoline without ethanol and that is all I put in my riding mower, motorcycle and atvs.

I also run "Seafoam" in the fuel system if I know the machines will sit for any length of time. Seafoam saved me from having to tear into the carbs on my 06 Yamaha V Star back in the spring after it had sat for over a month.

I am a staunch supporter of Seafoam, even mixed with non-ethanol fuel.

 

[TRX2fiveO]

I agree ^^^^ Seafoam is great, but this blended fuel is really bad and not just for ATVs it is affecting the fuel systems in many cars, I don't think the shelf life has been safely determined just yet due to Ethanol is basically dirrived from a grain. I personally run 104 racing fuel but I don't let my quad sit for months on end either.

 

[ddrumman2004]

I know that ethanol is not good for engines as we know them.....even the 20hp Kohler engine on my mower.
When I first started cutting my 2 acres with it, I would use a half tank of fuel. Then when I started running the ethanol blend...it used three quarter's of a tank. Before mowing season ended and having switched back to non-ethanol gasoline, it has gone back to using half a tank.

My truck, a 97 Ford F150 Lariat with a 4.6 Triton V8 and auto tranny used to average anywhere from 17 to 22 mpg combined driving, dropped to 14 to 17 combined on the ethanol junk and is now back to where it used to be since I started back with the non-ethanol gasoline.

I drive out of my way to buy the non-ethanol gasoline! It's worth the few extra miles to get there!

 

[tomgodd]

Agree^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Welcome to the Family!!

 

[Saber6]

Welcome to the forums and to crappy ethanol gasoline.

 

[roberce]

Thanks for the welcome to the forum. My dad and I have decided to find a location to buy non ethanol blended gas. We have three boats four ATVs Mowers etc. This was a royal pain, but they are Hondas and they are running great. After the carb re-build and adjustments I noticed they actually ran quiter.
I use sea foam in my boat, never used on my ATV but I can.

Thanks for the reply...

 

[Country Boy]

Agree^^^^^^^^^ Atvs are efficient enough. welcome to the forums