I thought I could recall having this conversation before, so did a search and found it. (It also made me miss Cappy) It's an interesting read if anyone wants to go back to it.
http://www.goodhunting.info/showthre...hlight=ethanol
If you didn't feel like reading through all of that, I'll get to my point here. I keep hearing how ethanol is the most evil thing known to man and even if you have a truckload of Seafoam it's still gonna get'cha one way or another.
When the recession hit in 2008, my business went down the tubes almost overnight and I had to do something immediately to pay the bills, so I started driving a truck. Since I was on the road all the time, I had to hire someone to cut my lawn. I also could no longer hunt as I didn't have the time off I had before. I parked my (Honda) 4-wheeler in my shed after deer season of 2007 and never so much as started it after parking it. In 2018, a buddy of mine asked me about it and when I said it had been sitting in the shed for the past 10-11 years. He asked to buy it from me and I agreed, but informed him he'd have to go through the fuel system, etc, as I just drove it in the shed, turned the key off and it hasn't been touched since. We agreed on a price and out of curiosity, the day before he showed up, I hooked up the jumper cables and it fired right up, immediately! The only thing I'd ever put in the tank was ethanol, although everyone told me I was insane for doing so. The last time I saw my buddy was about 6-8 months ago and he informed me he STILL has that 4-wheeler and hasn't had to do a thing to it since dragging it out of my shed.
Now for the real impetus of this post. At the end of the growing season in the Fall of 2007, I mowed my yard, finished up and drove my mower into the shed. It was probably around October, 2007. About 2 months later the recession hit and I was out of work by Christmas. I started driving a truck in January of 2008 and in November 2009, all Hell broke loose and I ended up in the hospital The rest is history, but needless to say, I haven't been able to cut my grass since and now have a regular "yard guy". My buddy stopped by this morning and as we were talking, he mentioned his mower crapped out on him and it's pretty much toast, but he really can't afford a new one. (he lives in an OLD single-wide, early 60's model trailer out in the middle of nowhere and really has zilch for money) A light went off and I told him my old mower is sitting in the shed, but it hasn't moved since 2007. I told him I'd GIVE it to him if he wants to fool with it. I told him I drove it in there and it ran fine, but he'd have to put a battery in it, go through the fuel system and it'd probably be cheaper to simply throw a new carb. on it (usually cheaper than a rebuild these days). Man-o-man, he was a happy camper. I loaned him my trailer and we hooked it to his truck, then he drove it out back to my shed (I have an acre of property). I flipped the compressor in my garage, filled my air tank, took it to the shed, we aired the tires up and rolled it onto my trailer.
I just received this text from him. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Jimmy! The mower fired right up and everything works great!
That thing has been sitting in my shed with a 1/2 tank of ethanol since 2007! No Seafoam, no Sta-Bil ... nuttin but 100+ degree summer temps. Now, I'm wondering if those two Honda pressure washers I have in my other shed will crank? I haven't so much as LOOKED at them since 2007. I'll guarandamntee you, non-ethanol gas would have been a total glob of sticky, gooey, varnish smellin' gunk!
