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The gasoline additive is blamed for damage to engines in devices such as lawnmowers, but you can still buy ethanol-free fuel in Baker City

Earl Tilton, owner of S&E Small Engine Repair in Baker City, says he is certain the increase in small engine carburetor problems, including weed eaters, is linked to ethanol in gasoline. The good news is that the small engines are exempt from regulations requiring ethanol. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

“We’re seeing carburetor problems big time. It’s a big problem. The smaller the engine, the worse the problem is,” said Earl Tilton, owner of S&E Small Engine Repair in Baker City.

Duane Ewing at D&D Power Sports in Haines believes ethanol, which makes up 10 percent of most gasoline for sale now, is responsible for a big increase in damage to carburetors and fuel systems on ATVs, motorcycles, boat motors and chain saws brought into his business.

“In the older machines it causes contamination in the fuel systems when corrosion beaks free, and people have to bring them in and have us clean it out,” Ewing said.

Since the arrival of cold weather this fall, Ewing said he’s seeing more problems with engines that are hard to start and are hard to keep running at idle due to water which ethanol absorbs.

Ewing said that problem has been cropping up in new vehicles as well as old.

While engines of all kinds built since 1996 were designed to run fine on gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, Tilton said he’s seen a tenfold increase in repair work rebuilding and replacing carburetors and other fuel system components on older two-cycle engines since the Oregon Legislature mandated the switch to ethanol-blended gasoline.

That mandate took effect in the Portland-Salem area in January, in southwest Oregon in March, and east of the Cascades in September, said Clark Cooney, assistant administrator with the Measurement Standards Division at the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

He said when lawmakers passed House Bill 2210 in 2007, they didn’t include exemptions for older vehicles and equipment built to run on pure gasoline.

However, Cooney said lawmakers were bombarded by reports of problems during the ethanol transition in the Portland area, so they passed specific exemptions for the older engines, and authorized gas stations to offer ethanol-free premium gas to be dispensed and used only in the classes of vehicles and equipment listed in the exemptions, which were approved in a special legislative session in February.

Two gas stations in Baker City took the Legislature up on the authorization to sell ethanol-free premium fuel: Black’s Distributing on Broadway, and Humbles Sinclair station on Campbell.

Shannon Black, an owner of Black Distributing, said that after he heard about problems ethanol-blended fuel was causing customers with two-cycle motors and vintage cars, he decided to switch one pump at his station from premium blended gas to premium ethanol-free gas.

He said sales of the ethanol-free premium started slowly, but word is spreading about its availability and sales are picking up.

“As long as we can get it we will have it here,” Black said of the ethanol-free premium.

Under the state exemptions, Black said he can legally sell ethanol-free premium for cars built before 1954, as well as Class I and Class III motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATVs, boats and certain types of aircraft that run on gasoline, as well as lawn mowers, rototillers, weed eaters, chain saws and gas-powered irrigation pumps.

“I started carrying this (ethanol-free premium) on my own because I knew the ethanol was going to be a problem for some people,” said Bill Emery, owner of Humbles Sinclair gas station.

He said his gas suppliers out of Boise had been dealing with ethanol-blended gas required there for several years, and they clued him in about some of the problems.

“This is a convenience for our customers,” Emery said. “I think the main reason people buy (ethanol-free premium) is for their snowmobiles and chain saws.”

While most newer vehicles seem to do OK on the blended gas, Emery said he has heard lots of complaints from his customers about problems they’ve had with it, ranging from a drop in mileage of 6- to 10 percent, to rough idling and plugged fuel filters and fuel injectors.

Emery said getting dirty or water-laden gas from gas stations probably contributes to problems encountered on newer cars with gaskets and other components of their fuel system designed to run on ethanol-blended fuels.

He said since ethanol absorbs water, the tolerance for water in gas station tanks is much lower.

Michelle Knadle at Oregon Trail Sports on Main Street in Baker City, said all of the Yamaha, Suzuki, Polaris and other brands of snowmobiles, dirt bikes, ATVs and other equipment manufactured over the past 10 to 12 years are compatible with ethanol-blended fuels. That’s also true of the newer lawn mowers, weed cutters and chain saws, she said.

For people with older equipment, Knadle warns that because of the water absorption characteristics of ethanol, the blended fuels don’t keep as long as pure gasoline does.

“If you’re going to store anything with blended fuel in the tank, drop some additive in it,” Knadle said.

Besides that, Emery said, the ethanol has solvent qualities, so some of the problems with plugged fuel filters and injectors comes from debris the ethanol cleans out of fuel systems and gas tanks.

However, once the crud removed from fuel systems by the ethanol worked its way out, the number of problems with clogged filters and injectors dissipated for newer vehicles, and the exemptions appear to have resolved most of the other problems related to older engines, Cooney said.

Knadle said ethanol can also eat holes in fiberglass boats, potentially leading to fuel leaks and explosions.

He said there may be some lingering issues with cars built between 1954 and the early 1970s, but in Western Oregon those haven’t been a barrier to people using blended gas, Cooney said.

All cars built since 1996, and most made since the mid-1970s, are compatible with ethanol-blended fuels, he said.

For those tempted to fill up a car built since 1954 with ethanol-free fuel , Cooney said it’s against the law, although the Legislature hasn’t gotten around to enacting penalties yet, and with 19 field inspectors for the entire state, he said the ODA doesn’t have the staff to go around checking for violators, yet.