E85 in my small engines?
I've been mixing about 50-50 of E85 and regular gasoline. I have 1 snowblower with a Craftsmen 5.5HP engine, one 16 year old 3.5 hp push lawn mower for the hard to reach spots and a craftsment 17.5 hp lawnmower. I've been using this E85 mix with my 16 year old lawn mower and I don't see any negetive effects. Could something else go wrong when using E85 mix in the long term?
E85 contains between 70 and 85% ethanol (the rest is gasoline). If you mix 50-50 with gasoline, you are looking at 58-65% gasoline. This (35-42%) is too high an ethanol content, as it is corrosive to your mild steel fuel lines and fuel tanks.
You can safely run 10% ethanol. It is done in a number of areas in the country with air pollution trouble. I would mix much less E85 with gasoline.
BTW, you can also mix some E85 into your vehicle's tank if you are interested in a renewable fuel. I would use a max of 10% ethanol again, however.
