Why do you worry about ethanol in your UTV? Should you worry about Ethanol when you’re just trying to cruise through a trail, or tend to your property? There are a lot of good reasons to be concerned when pumping E10 gas into your $15,000 pride-and-joy, and there are also a lot of reasons why you don’t need to worry at all. E10 is still a relatively new addition to gas pumps across the US and a lot of people still have knee-jerk reactions to its 10% ethanol content. We often hear people say that it makes their gas go bad or it’s bad for their engine.
Is it really that bad? Let’s clear the cloud of ethanol confusion so you can make an informed decision when it’s time to gas up your UTV.
Ethanol is alcohol—the same alcohol that you drink—and it makes decent fuel. Without going into too much detail about the “why” of ethanol, just know that the law requires it to be in your gasoline and, it is not the result of some smart gas chemists somewhere trying to make a better product. It is what it is.
That makes the gas you pump “gasohol,” a mixture of petroleum-based gasoline and plant-based alcohol. When ethanol is mixed into gasoline at a ratio of 1 part ethanol to 10 parts gas like E10 gasoline, it makes little difference to your gas mileage and makes no difference to your octane rating or power output.
Sounds like a zero-sum fuel additive. Add a little bit of ethanol and nobody loses, right? Not exactly.
The problem is that ethanol likes water more than it likes gasoline. Ideally, ethanol will dissolve in the gas and uniformly mix with it. If water gets into your tank either through water vapor or condensation, the ethanol will start to dissolve into the water or pull it right out of the air instead staying mixed with the gas. And since water and oil don’t go together, you get what is called “phase separation.” Basically, the ethanol-water mixture comes out of the gas and sinks to the bottom of the tank.
Phase separation is not good. When the ethanol sinks out of the gasoline, it lowers your octane rating significantly, but that’s the least of your worries at this point. The water can corrode your gas tank leading to rust, and you’re in for a world of hurt if that water gets sucked into your engine. The only way to fix phase separation once it has occurred is by completely draining your gas tank.
Phase separation sounds like a big problem, but it’s easy to avoid.
Phase separation doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t even happen in a week. Generally speaking, the earliest you’ll see phase separation is 90 days after you fill up with fresh gas. However, phase separation can be postponed indefinitely with proper care.
In the car you drive every day, you use all your fuel and refill with fresh fuel quick enough that phase separation (let’s call it PS for short) won’t happen. With a UTV, you’re not driving as often and you might go a while between rides if you’re unlucky. And then there’s the off season, where your machine might sit for 3 months or more.
What can you do to stop PS? There are a few routes you can go. The most obvious first step is to use a fuel stabilizer on your full, fresh tank of gas. A fuel stabilizer like Sta-Bil, has a different kind of alcohol in it that can absorb moisture and still burn safely in your engine thus delaying PS by keeping the water out of ethanol. Sta-Bil says they’ll keep gas fresh up to 12 months and they even have a stabilizer designed to last up to 24 months. It also keeps your gas from going stale, but that has nothing to with ethanol (gasp!). We’ll cover “stale” gas in a bit.
Whenever you’re storing gas, it’s important to keep a full or nearly full tank. The less air that can fit in the tank, the less condensation can occur and that means less water. On that same note, it’s important to avoid harsh temperature changes that could lead to condensation. Keep your UTV stored in a cool garage year-round if you can. If you do all that, you won’t have any troubles with E10 gasoline in your UTV.
If you plan on storing your machine over winter or longer, it’s a good idea to take an extra step or two to button everything up. Siphon the gas out of your tank and put it in your daily driver. Then use a fogging oil to coat the engine and then run the remaining fuel dry. That will get any potential ethanol out of your vehicle and keep everything well-lubricated when you go to start it up four months later.
You can subvert this whole topic just by buying ethanol-free fuel… if you can find it. Sites like pure-gas.org do their best to keep a catalog of all the gas stations in the US and Canada that offer ethanol-free fuel. While it is possible to find ethanol-free 87-octane fuel (which is what most UTVs need), you’ll likely only find ethanol-free fuel in the premium range. Just keep in mind that running higher than your UTV’s recommended octane fuel can lower your power output.
Yes, but at least one study shows that pure gasoline might be more corrosive than ethanol. Even if ethanol is more corrosive than gas, there’s nothing to worry about when running E10. The parts that are most likely to corrode are the rubber gaskets, connectors, and fittings. Modern engines like those found in UTVs today use rubber compounds that are designed to handle a gas mixture made of 10% ethanol.
You don’t need to worry about any corrosion due to ethanol. But if you let your fuel separate, you will see corrosion from the water.
Some people claim that ethanol can clear old deposits in your engine and clog your oil filter. Again, there’s no need to worry. It does clear deposits, but if you only ever run E10, you won’t have any deposits to clear. The only people that really need to worry about this are owners of old cars that have been running ethanol-free for decades before E10 hit the market. Your UTV probably hasn’t been running ethanol-free long enough to develop the deposits that could cause problems.
Some are concerned about their gas turning to varnish or “gumming up” their engine. It can happen, but it has nothing to do with ethanol.
Gas will go stale if left long enough, but it’s not ethanol’s fault. It goes stale because the gasoline you buy is actually a complex set of compounds in a very specific mixture. Some of those compounds will evaporate away before the rest, while others will react with the oxygen in the air to form that gummy crap you were worried about. The evaporating compounds make the gas less volatile and give you less power. The gelatinous “gum” can clog oil filters and make your engine unhappy.
Any gas can go stale, ethanol or not, high octane or not. In fact, sometimes high-octane gas sits longer at the gas station due to low demand and may be going stale before you even pump it in your engine. Anecdotal evidence shows that scenario is unlikely, though. Don’t sweat it.
Here’s the good news: keeping gas from going stale is easy. Use a fuel stabilizer on a fresh tank of gas and keep your tank full when you store it. Less air means less room for evaporation and oxidation. Easy-peasy. Careful readers will notice that those are the same measures you take to prevent phase separation. That’s two birds with one stone.
When it comes to UTVs, don’t use anything higher than E10. UTVs are designed for E10 or lesser concentrations of ethanol. Using higher concentrations will limit your power and make your engine harder to cold start. If you were to use E-20 or higher ethanol blends, you would see corrosion damage in your engine over time. They’re designed for E10. Use E10. Check your vehicle’s manual for gasoline recommendations specific to your UTV.
It’s easy to keep your fuel in good shape even if you don’t ride your machine every weekend, every month, or even every other month. Just remember: keep a full tank and add fuel stabilizer to fresh fuel. Do those two things and you can put your ethanol worry to bed.
2 Comments
It’s helpful to know that ethanol could potentially cause phase separation in my gas tank, which would be dangerous and costly to fix. My wife and I just bought a second car and want to keep it in good condition. Looking into options to avoid unnecessary damage would hopefully let us use it for a long time.
Hey Oscar, we’re glad this article was useful for you! We appreciate the feedback.