Fuel additives

[motowarren]

This may have been covered and I see some blogs that touch on it like dis figured tanks etc. But talking to a friend tonight who has a couple of late model Ducatis including a Multistrada, he says he uses aproduct made by Sta-bil specifically for ethynol gas for Marine use. Lucas makes a similar product and my friend claims he's never had any tank bulging issues. Has anybody on this list used a similar product? And do they stop or reverse the tank distortion caused by the ethynol? Is there a product out there like this that also acts like an octane booster?

[GuzziMoto]

I have some of the same Sta-bil for ethanol gas. I use it mainly for my lawn mower and weed wacker. The gas usually gets used up quicker in my motorcycles, but I did put some in them once.

I doubt it would undo any damage already done, but then I am not one of those anti-ethanol people either. It may stop tank issues from happening but since not everyone who uses gasoline that contains ethanol has issues it is kinda hard to know if it helps with tank swelling or bubbling. It is cheap enough and has other advantages like prevent the fuel from going stale and adding extra anti-corrosion agents (which is a definite issue with ethanol) so it likely can't hurt to add it. As the saying goes, better safe then sorry.

As for the octane booster, ethanol is an octane booster. In fact, used to be many of the cheaper octane boosters were ethanol based as I recall. Most poor in the tank octane boosters are a waste of money. If you choose to use one I reckon it doesn't matter which one you use. If you really want to increase your octane buy 5 gallon cans of race fuel and cut that into your pump gas. That actually works.

[motowarren]

I have some of the same Sta-bil for ethanol gas. I use it mainly for my lawn mower and weed wacker. The gas usually gets used up quicker in my motorcycles, but I did put some in them once.

I doubt it would undo any damage already done, but then I am not one of those anti-ethanol people either. It may stop tank issues from happening but since not everyone who uses gasoline that contains ethanol has issues it is kinda hard to know if it helps with tank swelling or bubbling. It is cheap enough and has other advantages like prevent the fuel from going stale and adding extra anti-corrosion agents (which is a definite issue with ethanol) so it likely can't hurt to add it. As the saying goes, better safe then sorry.

As for the octane booster, ethanol is an octane booster. In fact, used to be many of the cheaper octane boosters were ethanol based as I recall. Most poor in the tank octane boosters are a waste of money. If you choose to use one I reckon it doesn't matter which one you use. If you really want to increase your octane buy 5 gallon cans of race fuel and cut that into your pump gas. That actually works.

 

So If my tank shows no signs of distortion now it may never go bad. Is that the way it usually works? I'm not an ethanol hater either but I hate half baked attempts at doing things. I think if they want to use ethanol then use a lot of it, say over 50%, sell it for half the price and have 14:1 cr motors to get the proper potential out of it. It's kinda like everybody says you should never run anything but hi-test (sorry, showing my age) Premium or 93 octane gas in a V11. That was fine when it was $.10 a gallon more than 87 but now it's $.40 some places so why not just put the 11:1 pistons in and hopefully get some more gas mileage for that extra money? What do ya think?

[GuzziMoto]

It takes more then 93 octane to be able to run high compression ratios. You need a good combustion chamber design. Stock Guzzi's do not have a good combustion chamber design. There is room for improvement that you can do, but they are pretty much a stone age motor. For them 10.5:1 is pretty high. V11's are right on the verge of detonation as it is.

As to the tank and will it distort, who knows. It may be fine for a long time and then they change the witches brew that is modern in your area and then it has a problem. I have no more idea if you will ever have a problem then I know whether or not using that Sta-bil stuff will prevent it. I am not sure what is causing the tank issues now. People say it is the ethanol, but I have yet to see any actual evidence one way or the other. I suspect it is a combination of additives in the fuel but I have no more proof of that then others have proof it is the ethanol.