A friendly reminder...at my expense

[DTro]

I learned the hard way last night what happens when you mix -10 degrees and a little moisture in your fuel. My sled spent the night on the lake.

I will now carry a can of starting fluid and heat with me at all times.

Do you guys usually put a bottle of heat in every tank?

[snowgoose]

Whenever the weather gets below 10 degrees I run isopropel (sp) in with my gas. I lurned the hard way when my wife burned up a motor one cold weekend. I always have it with me. About a half a container per tank will do it. I think it is just as important to have that with you on a trip as a extra jug of oil.

[BoxMN]

If I mix seafoam in with each tank anyway, would I still need the iso? I just got into the habit of always seafoam with all my small engine/2 cycle gas right at the pump.

[SledNeck]

I use seafoam on my first tank of the year

[MuskieJunkie]

I run seafoam in every tank unless I'm on a snowmobiling trip where we're riding all day every day (the same goes for my boat).

When it's really cold I run Heet (the red bottle).

Thanks for the reminder DTRO.

[Iron Cowboy]

What the-- isnt heet and isopropel alcohol? the same stuff in ethanol that causes all kinds of problems in 2 cycles? I'm confused, i've had more than one mechanic tell me that ethonal will screw up these engines faster than anything. I try only to run the non-oxygenated gas to keep that [PoorWordUsage] out of the engine. I have had water in gas make them run like [PoorWordUsage] but would of thought alcohol in the tank would lean them out and burn them up before it would help them run better I am very curious of how water in the gas could blow up a sled? I have had one burn down from a clogged jet in dirty carbs that leaned it out but water??

[Surface Tension]

If your using regular unleaded there is ethanol in the gas already. That will mix with water.

BUT!

During summer storage you'll have heating and cooling periods from day and night temps. Each time that happens your getting condensation inside the tank. How Is That? Snowmobile gas tanks are vented. There is always a new supple of air getting into that tank, with it the moister in that air. It is possible to get some much moister during that storage period that the 15% of ethanol in that gas is not enough to absorb all that water.

By adding more ethanol you'll absorb that water.

BUT!

Your now exceeding that % of ethanol you can safely run.

15% is not a big deal because just about all sleds are jetted 1 or 2 over anyway and can account for that 15 % ethanol.

Darren you need to schedule a long ride to get ride of that old gas.

[sparcebag]

What the-- isnt heet and isopropel alcohol? the same stuff in ethanol that causes all kinds of problems in 2 cycles? I'm confused, i've had more than one mechanic tell me that ethonal will screw up these engines faster than anything. I try only to run the non-oxygenated gas to keep that [PoorWordUsage] out of the engine. I have had water in gas make them run like [PoorWordUsage] but would of thought alcohol in the tank would lean them out and burn them up before it would help them run better I am very curious of how water in the gas could blow up a sled? I have had one burn down from a clogged jet in dirty carbs that leaned it out but water??

Ethanol is ethyl alcohol-drinkable if it didn't have additives-Moonshine,Isopropyl alcohol is a compound & poison,But it absorbs and combindes with water letting it burn off easier combining with the gas also.

[DTro]

Darren you need to schedule a long ride to get ride of that old gas.

Ok, you twisted my arm

[caseymcq]

It was already mentioned but running some SeaFoam through your sled might be a good idea. On the can it states that it works to dry fuel and works as a de-icer among others.

I was always told not to run any more alcohol through a sled than what was already in the gas and if possible run premium to avoid alcohol in the sled all together. I was also told it is more important to avoid it as the temps get colder because the motor will run leaner unless the sled is re-jetted. This may be less applicable to newer sleds especially sleds that are fuel injected becasue they adjust the mixture accordingly.

[frogtosser]

last night mine was idoling like [PoorWordUsage] and kept quitting and of course then the rope broke on the recoil so i had to drive on the lake to go get it, at least there was good ice. now i need to find a place to fix my recoil, anyone have any suggestions around st cloud.