Redwood City, California Ethanol Free gas

[barfer]

To all the gents and ladies in the area I thought I’d share this:

975 woodside road, Redwood City, CA Mobil station

The sell Sunoco GT260 100 octane at the pump. It’s $10 a gallon!!! But (shrug) there’s no ethanol in it and in California normal gas stations only go up to 91 octane. So… it’s available.

They also sell 5 gallon tins of Sunoco… whatever you want them to order, they’ll order. They have some in stock but it varies. They are 5 gallon tins and cost $100 a tin for anything 100 octane or higher (they can get up to 130)

$80 for a 5 gallon tin of anything under 100 octane

Yeah ten bucks a gallon is ridiculous but 91 pump in California is about five and a half bucks a gallon anyway… so hopefully somebody finds this useful.

Best everyone.

Woody

 

[grizz55chev]

To all the gents and ladies in the area I thought I’d share this:

975 woodside road, Redwood City, CA Mobil station

The sell Sunoco GT260 100 octane at the pump. It’s $10 a gallon!!! But (shrug) there’s no ethanol in it and in California normal gas stations only go up to 91 octane. So… it’s available.

They also sell 5 gallon tins of Sunoco… whatever you want them to order, they’ll order. They have some in stock but it varies. They are 5 gallon tins and cost $100 a tin for anything 100 octane or higher (they can get up to 130)

$80 for a 5 gallon tin of anything under 100 octane

Yeah ten bucks a gallon is ridiculous but 91 pump in California is about five and a half bucks a gallon anyway… so hopefully somebody finds this useful.

Best everyone.

Woody

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Avgas is cheaper by at least 3$ per gal, and etanol free. I live in the foothills between Sacramento and lake Tahoe, so that's where I got the price of Avgas from .

 

[SS396driver]

Guess it’s all geography. I’m paying 4.09 for 91 octane e free gas

 

[grizz55chev]

Guess it’s all geography. I’m paying 4.09 for 91 octane e free gas

Definitely.

 

[barfer]

Avgas is cheaper by at least 3$ per gal, and etanol free. I live in the foothills between Sacramento and lake Tahoe, so that's where I got the price of Avgas from .

oh man I’ve tried to buy a gas at the Palo Alto airport and the Burlingame airport and they dye it and they freak out when I try to buy it. But you’re right it’s ethanol free and way less money.

(Frankly idk how these guys are selling this fuel because it is NOT legal in California for street use—they used to be a hot rod shop when I was younger I suspect they just keep on ordering it… (shrug) )

 

[barfer]

Guess it’s all geography. I’m paying 4.09 for 91 octane e free gas

Don’t get me started. 9 bucks for a gallon of milk here. In Utah unleaded is 2 bucks a gallon in some places… the SF Bay Area is one of the most absurdly expensive places to live in the world… (shrug)

The only reason to live here is if you HAVE to for work or whatever… and it used to be worth it. But “the times… they are… a changing… ”

 

[SteveH]

Found ethanol-free here in Colorado last week for $4 gallon. This morning, avgas is $5.12, lowest I've seen it in some years.

Several years ago, ethanol-free at the pump was banned in Colorado; I guess somehow that is now changed, as I ran across it few days ago and bought a gallon to replace in my saws.

Regular ethanol [15%] auto gas is $3 Costco price today here.

 

[Mad Professor]

AV gas prices.

100LL.com

$6.01/gal local

Non-E10/corn pump gas

https://www.pure-gas.org/

91 prem $4.19/gal local

 

[barfer]

Yeah California requires ethanol in pump gas and I can’t find anything less than E15 at the pump.

I bought a new saw earlier this year and noticed it’s been running HOT. Using a good uni whatever it’s called foam filter… so it isn’t because it’s not breathing. Took the baffle out of the exhaust manifold. Tried running it with and without a bark box just to see if that made a noticeable impact on temp.

So now I’m trying ethanol free fuel. I know the saws are built to tolerate E10 but I’m hoping that going from E15 to ethanol free makes a noticeable improvement.

My clutch is already starting to look overheated and I’m worried I’m gonna have to make a warranty claim which I’m dreading… (and yes I’ll restore all the mods I made to it before I take it in—if I have to take it in—and hope they don’t notice the light porting )

And no I haven’t been reving it with the brake

 

[barfer]

UPDATE for anyone who is interested:

After spending a couple days with the ethanol free gas it is painfully apparent that the saw is running noticeably cooler than before.

I suspect I’ve been getting gas with far more than E15 in it… in CA they’re required to post it but it seems as if nobody does. I wonder if this saw has been drinking E20+ or something outrageous (?!)

Anyway it’s running great again. (When I first bought the saw I was running 50:1 canned motocross fuel I had laying around but somehow it all burned up (wink)

So yes I know I’m overpaying for high octane that the saw doesn’t need and can’t take advantage of but it’s worth it to avoid the ethanol that appears to be far more than 10%

I’m gonna talk to some folks I know who fly planes and see if I can get an AVgas hookup… that was a good suggestion.

 

[bwalker]

If your going to buy canned race gas i would go with the no lead stuff.

 

[barfer]

If your going to buy canned race gas i would go with the no lead stuff.

Yeah I don’t buy the canned gas… I just had a bunch leftover from when I was still racing motorcycles and in those tins it basically never goes bad… it’s high octane and it’s ethanol free so… yeah I gobbled that stuff up for the new saw because being the Luddite skeptic that I am I wanted optimized conditions for trying out the “new tech” mtronic (I know it isn’t that new but this is my first mtronkc saw).

But yeah I love love love leaded gas but only for motos and cars that have a bunch of valves and no cats to get clogged up… chainsaws don’t need the lead. I’m told this saw has a catalytic converter on it but I’ve looked and for the life of me I can’t find one (?!) (shrug)

 

[Mad Professor]

UPDATE for anyone who is interested:

After spending a couple days with the ethanol free gas it is painfully apparent that the saw is running noticeably cooler than before.

I suspect I’ve been getting gas with far more than E15 in it… in CA they’re required to post it but it seems as if nobody does. I wonder if this saw has been drinking E20+ or something outrageous (?!)

Anyway it’s running great again. (When I first bought the saw I was running 50:1 canned motocross fuel I had laying around but somehow it all burned up (wink)

So yes I know I’m overpaying for high octane that the saw doesn’t need and can’t take advantage of but it’s worth it to avoid the ethanol that appears to be far more than 10%

I’m gonna talk to some folks I know who fly planes and see if I can get an AVgas hookup… that was a good suggestion.

I think you need to tune the carb richer, and/or put a bit more oil in the mix, with corn-gas too. Ethanol is not great for cylinder lubrication and seems to run leaner.

If you switch fuels/mix note the carb settings before/after, then it's easy next time you switch fuels.