Your lawnmower tank will be vented to the air because the fuel will be pumped or gravity-fed to the engine. Thus atmospheric water vapour will be in constant contact with the fuel surface. On the other hand, your stove will be pressure-fed thus doesn't have a vent (and obviously wouldn't work if it had one). Pound to a penny that's the explanation. What you could do between uses is to completely fill the tank and plug the vent or secure some polythene or rubber sheet over the filler cap of your lawnmower. Obviously, you'd need to remove that and restore the fuel system to normal when using your lawnmower or it would quickly pack in due to fuel starvation. That's wot I finks anyway... Edit: I forgot to mention that I think the felt gauze in those Coleman fuel funnels is hydrophilic - i.e. attracts water. Your lantern/stove one will probably be too small for your lawnmower although they come in various sizes and Trevor tells me he has one about the size of a bucket. Anyway, you can buy funnels with hydrophilic felt inside which removes water (and all sorts of other shyte) from fuel. If memory serves they're a Yank product called 'Mr Funnel' or something like that. I'll try to find the website, although I think Amazon sells them if all else fails. Mine works well - for my lamps and stoves (lawnmower is electric!) Edit2 - click here. Warning! - Risible, patronising US video advertising hyperbole alert!!!
Dead right, without the small vent holes in the filler cap the fuel won't flow to the carburettor. The plastic can on the other hand was sealed but whether moisture gets in from opening and closing the lid to pour small amounts out, I wouldn't know.
Click here for UK suppliers of Mr Funnel. Mine came from No. 6 who offered for me, the best price and service at the time - YMMV! BTW, I'm not on commission of any sort...
Back to my question, please. Does anyone have any information as to how the really intense Coleman folks are distilling their own gas. This is for entertainment purposes only, certainly not to be done at home. Thanks, Ken H.
I can't see it would be much different to the way shown in Matukat's video link given in his post directly after your original question. Incidentally, is "really intense" a metaphor for 'stupid'? Anyway, I think it's odd some of the things that pass as entertainment - me, I like to follow fire-engines...
O.K. finally a topic I know something about. Natural gas and propane are odorless gasses so an odorant, usually ethyl mercaptan, is added so their presence can be detected by smell. Gasoline contains anti-knock, anti-oxidant, metal deactivators, lead scavengers, anti-rust, anti-icing, upper-cylinder lubricants, detergents, and dye additives. It does not contain odorants added to make it smell. Gasoline is naturally stinky. Both gasoline and Coleman fuel are mixtures of many compounds. Gasoline typically contains more than 150 different compounds. It's primarily the aromatic hydrocarbons in gasoline that make gasoline stink and gum up our stoves. They're called aromatic hydrocarbons for a reason, they have an aroma. Aromatic hydrocarbons are also called the BTX complex which stands for Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene. The characteristic of all of these is that their base structure is a ring of 6 carbon atoms which share 3 electrons in a unique type of bonding called resonate bonding. Resonate bonds are extremely strong and hard to break down by burning or by metabolism. Because these resonate bonds are so hard to break, aromatic hydrocarbons do not burn cleanly. They burn dirty creating lots of black spider web looking smoke full of soot. That's what clogs the jets on our stoves. That is also why you don't want to breathe gasoline fumes. Your body has a difficult time breaking these resonate bonds as well and so aromatic hydrocarbons tend to accumulate in the liver. All of the aromatics are toxic with benzene being the most toxic. Gasoline contains between 20-50% aromatic hydrocarbons including between 0.5-2.5% benzene. The aromatics in gasoline include benzene, xylene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and others. Coleman fuel is hydrotreated to remove the aromatic hydrocarbons and contains less than 0.001% benzene. This results in a much cleaner burning and less smelly fuel. While Coleman fuel is great for burning in classic camp stoves, I would not recommend using it as an engine fuel. The largest constitutent of Coleman fuel is n-hexane 25% and cyclohexane 15%. These are 6 carbon compounds that have a low octane rating. In fact, when determining the octane rating of gasoline, n-hexane is given an octane rating of zero and iso-octane (8 carbons) is given a rating of 100. Where a particular gasoline mixture falls on that scale determines its octane rating. Coleman fuel has an octane rating of 55 compared to 85-90 for gasoline depending on grade. Burn Coleman in your lawmower and it will knock like crazy and you'll probably be damaging your engine because it doesn't contain the protective additives of gasoline.
My understanding is the reason the garden supplies store I get Aspen fuel from stocks it is because one of the main uses is as a cleaning agent for small engines. So a Chainsaw in daily use might get one fill in 5 of Aspen fuel to clean out the deposits left by cheaper pump unleaded. Also handy for petrol engine machinery that is rarely used, no ethanol in it afaik (will check that) so it should sit there ready for use without going stale like pump unleaded. Edit: EU pump unleaded has 5% Ethanol added. Checked and there is no Ethanol in Aspen fuel, a sales type FAQ for Aspen fuel can be found here.
Yes, think I will use some before putting the mower away this year, I Do drain the tank and carb as best I can but never sure it's such a good idea letting everything dry out completely as things tend to seize up. I always have to strip the carb down and clean everything.
G,,day. I just checked the bulk price of shellite. 25 litre $108 which is about half the price of buying in 1 litre bottles and the 25 litre drum has a tap for easy decanting. cheers kerry
I did not realize that there was a video link. Thanks for the clarification. This looks like something best not tried at home, even though the video looks like it was. Thanks, Ken H.
You wouldn't want to. The additives in motor fuel for reasons, among which are anti-knock and lubricity. Naptha (Coleman fuel, white gasoline) does not have them. I used Colman fuel in a lawn mower because I was motor fuel poor and Coleman fuel rich. As it happened the lawn mower engine was ruined. It wasn't one time, I used that mower for a month with Coleman fuel; when the engine failed, I stripped it down. Valves were burned, compression ring was broken, and the piston was badly burned. Gerry
Thanks for the details z1ulike, nice to get a good handle on things. Bending the topic slightly: With regard to Ethanol in fuels and its effect on engines - especially if left in the tank for a season - read HERE. Contrarily, our Briggs & Stratton 5hp mower has no trouble starting after being left out all winter under a pvc tarp. Nor does the Ying-Tong Amazon purchased strimmer (2T). But if you read the link, the same does not apply to all.
G,,day. z1ulike, very informative post, thanks. stonehopper, good link on ethanol, usefull information, thanks. cheers kerry
This talk of Coleman Fuel vs Gasoline reminded me that I haven't used my Coleman 265 lantern for about 4 years (its one of several kept handy for power cuts) and that its been hanging up full of leaded petrol all that time. Anyway it fired up and ran fine but I didn't really expect anything else. I doubt it will get used again for a while so I gave it a wash out and refilled it with Aspen 4 ran it for a couple of minutes then put it back ready just in case.
I can't see it would be much different to the way shown in Matukat's video link given in his post directly after your original question. Incidentally, is "really intense" a metaphor for 'stupid'? My original response to the idea of home distillation of gasoline was not very favorable. But now that I have seen the video and understand the reason behind the process, it seems more reasonable. The poster had a need for CF, could not obtain it and found a solution. Intense, yes. Stupid, no. DANGEROUS ? Yes, yes. But some times, you do what you have to do. Ken H.
Gerry, I have a friend who ran out of gas while out hitting rummage sales in his '70 Karman Ghia. He bought some CF and poured it into the gas tank, you never heard a engine knock so bad! Being air cooled didn't help things, either! Found out later that CF has an octane rating of ZERO. Murph
