Honda Generator gas

[minndonn]

Should I use non-ethanol gas or do I need to use ethanol gas (10%). I am switching to non-ethanol gas for all my other small engines and do not know if it is OK with honda.

[theoilman]

Any small engine plus any engine with a vented gas tank is ALWAYS far better off with NON-ethanol gas.

Ethanol in the gas will attract any moisture it can find, combine with the water and separate from the gas. This then causes quite a number of problems.

Ethanol in the gas is corrosive to many fuel lines and carburetor parts in most small engines, even the newest ones.

[minndonn]

Thanks Oilman. I believe the manual say only ethanol gas but I figured any small engines that way that are doing it mostly for emissions reasons.

[Whoaru99]

Nothing wrong with using gasohol if you're regularly using the generator but for storage I wouldn't.

[BLACKJACK]

Very few gas stations sell non-ethanol gas so I don't bother, I just use a combination of running the tank empty on my small engines and/or Stabilizer in the gas. Haven't had a problem in years.

[mnxs54]

Sorry I'm a little late to this one, just joined and I'm catching up. I agree totally about never leaving gas containing ethanol in anything, ever. I just finally ended a long ordeal with my merc 6hp 4 stroke due to crappy ethanol. Here's a good place to find good old non ethanol gas in MN: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=MN

Good luck.

[Whoaru99]

What was the problem alleged to be caused by gasohol?

[mnxs54]

What was the problem alleged to be caused by gasohol?

In mine, which is famous for having ethanol related problems, it did two things. First, it broke down in a very short time (traditional stabilizers don't work with it) and gummed up everything, causing need to do a total carb rebuild. I'm not a metallurgist but I've seen it suggested that it can attack certain metal in my carb. I have no idea if that's true.

Second, it attacked all the little rubber gas lines and I kept finding pieces in the float bowl. That took me quite awhile to figure out because I'm kinda slow I guess. Now that I'm aware of the issues I run only real gasoline and life is good, I'm back to catching big smallies.

[Whoaru99]

Interesing. Perhaps that would be more a design flaw of Honda, rather than a fault of E10, since ethanol blend is the predominant (afaik) fuel in the US?

[mnxs54]

That particular motor came (maybe still does not sure) in 4,5 and 6hp. It was made by Tohatsu and was sold with either Tohatsu, Nissan or Mercury labeling. From what I've learned in my research it probably was a design flaw. A ton of people have had problems with them and almost all are carb issues like needing to be choked to run and stuff like that. I guess Tohatsu actually issued a service bulletin specifically related to the use of E10 in these motors.

FWIW, I have a cheap snowblower that did the same thing. Right or wrong, I only buy non ethanol gas for anything where it might sit longer than 2 weeks.