not really... i wouldnt let gas sit in soda pop bottles over night... gasoline has a nasty habit of eating certain type of plastics... and ethanol will eat rubbers as well... this should be done in Glass... theres a video of a guy using actual Chemistry beakers separation funnels and what not to do this... much better video... not to mention gas starts eating the plastics immediately so who knows how contaminated your fuel now is with plasics...
Just a little thought and common sense goes a long way Isaac!! I've been struggling a few years to make non-ethanol gas for my small motors, without making a mess, and this helped tremendously. Thank you and God bless.
@@doktorhunggari4415 The alcohol is more than a 'cereal filler' and corrosive additive. Alcohol is both an oxygenator AND an octane booster. In a high compression engine with a simple ignition system you will likely have detonation and that detonation will destroy your engine. MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) was removed from gasoline and replaced with methanol because it was contaminating the ground water from leaking rusted ground storage tanks under service stations. Even the REC90 non ethanol gasoline is not the same Ethyl gasoline that Isaac was used to...
As a college automotive instructor I teach how to use the separation process to help drivability issues to determine if the wrong fuel is being used. Great video, thanks
DON'T GET CAUGHT: big Petro will use you & the children for fertilizer for their mom food grade : ethanol greedery ¢¢¢¢_$$$$$💸💸💸💸 but if you tell em how to reverse the process: you'll be famous , ( if they forget the second process,? ☮️
All, keep in mind, if you remove the ethanol, and you have a motor that requires, or is sensitive to a minimum octane number(ie a car, motorcycle or some higher end lawn equipment etc..), you must add another octane modifier such as Toluene/Methylbenzene or Methyl alcohol to bring the octane number back up. Ethanol besides used as a fuel "filler" is also used as a cheaper alternative octane booster by petrol/gas blenders. Instead of a stuck carb, bloated seals or clogged fuel injector, you might have pinging detenation or pistons that want to escape the engine block.
I would do this with high-octane premium gas and hope the finished product is acceptable. You can buy octane boosters. I wonder what's in them - anybody know?
Your views for this video is likely to vastly increase very soon! We in UK have recently been informed that possibly 600,000 older cars will struggle to run well on the new E10 petrol (gasoline) that is being enforced on us from September 2021. Many of us are ill-prepared, I for one am not very chemically minded. Finding your video very simply explaining the process of extracting ethanol from petrol is so satisfying - very kind of you, thankyou!
@@rayperkins6006 Many thanks for your comment. According to how I read this, though, London will only have E10 by the end of 2021. Confusingly, the article suggests, while the pump will by outputting E10, the fuel station could continue to advertise that fuel as their standard current unleaded www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/e10-petrol-petrol-londons-garages-20876963
It's a crying shame that the government has to stick their stinkin nose in every thing we do. We know that they are all that smart. Look how much they messed up with covid.
enjoyed this, we used to us a 20ltr clear container with a tap on the bottom on building sites to clean out water from cement mixers and other petrol/gasoline-powered tools,i would put some drops of food colouring in the water so you can see what you are removing easer.
Thank you, I was about ready to give up on my 2 stroke engines for good. Replacing fuel lines and carb rebuilds too often now with all this ethanol in our fuel. Can't wait to give this a try.
You'll still be rebuilding, but not as often. It's the benzene in the fuel that beats up carbs - this method does not get rid of it. Engineered parrafin fuels are the only sure bet.
I think the thinner the bottle, the more precise it is to remove the gasoline and with less loss. So after doing this process with a large amount in a wide large bottle you can put the rest that is difficult to separate in a very narrow bottle. In a narrow bottle, fluid levels will be higher.
I was more thinking of leaving a larger margin between the water level and the gasoline to avoid getting any water. Yes, you would have more gasoline at the end not drained but you put it aside. The next time you need a batch, get it and use the mostly water and some gasoline in the next extraction, separation. When you have too much water, you just push the tube to the bottom and syphon off most of the water and start all over.
I have looked at several methods for doing this and yours is, by far, the most creative. Thank you! I will use this method with gallon glass jars, non-alcohol octane booster, a little sta-bil and with or without 2-cycle engine oil depending upon end use. Great video!
Can you tell me what non-alcohol octane booster you would use....I need to have an octane rating of about 91. Also, how much water will you used in each gallon glass jar to mix with fuel? I assume you are starting with 10% ethanol. thanks.
You can also spray a coffee filter with silicone water proofing spray such as that which is used on tents. The water will not pass through but the petrol will, or vica versa
Thank you, this was a great solution to getting the gasoline out with out the need to invert the bottle and taste fuel with the old method of siphoning.
@@benhasselbring1205 Hello Ben, I gave it some thought and I used some food coloring mentioned on other channels to make the water and ethanol more visible. I then inserted the ethylene tubing all the way to the bottom corner of the container and siphoned off the water ethanol solution at the bottom. It worked great the first time and hopefully all the times to come. I also used a needle pin for inflation of basket balls or footballs to pressurize the container with a small bicycle pump to prime the siphon and installed a fuel shut off valve at the end of some vinyl tubing to control the flow of the water ethanol solution and gasoline. I'm able to let the ethanol water sink to the bottom of the clear vinyl tubing and then with minimal gasoline waste flow the gasoline back to the container. Thank you for the basics which I was able to extrapolate my extraction system, I'm sure my snow blowers will be happier and work better in the Chicago snow storms. Thank you sir and Merry Christmas with hopes for a better 2021.
@@rayhoffelt Its great to hear that everything has worked out for you and you have made the most out of the system. We are very glad we could be a source of inspiration. Thanks for watching, best wishes, and merry Christmas!
All the simple solutions are the best. Thank you for an excellent video. Very useful! My only amendment would be to do this well away from buildings/vehicles. Thanks from the UK
The more ethanol the more problems you will have with your car. My SUV was getting 18.5 mpg. Now since they been messing with ethanol it's getting 16.4mpg
@@marty64thorntonPartially False. Ethanol doesn't hurt anything as long as the gasoline is getting used within 60 days. The lower BTU is why mileage is lower, otherwise the Ethanol has much better octane than gasoline to prevent detonation and also lowers intake air temps in port injected motors.
You can get a fluid transfer pump from harbor freight for like $10, I believe it screws onto larger bottles with matching threads, could be worth it for large quantities. Great video!
This works well. What I have done in the past get one of those lemonade dispensers with the spigot at the bottom. Dump the gas and water in there and let it settle. Then turn the spigot on until all the gas is out. Of course, you have to do some math so that the water is always below your spigot. My math minor finally paid off!
Thanks for sharing this information. I was wondering if any octane reduction may result in this process? I saw someone else do this procedure an they mentioned adding an octane booster. Thanks again,you earn my subscription!
Hi great video, but surely you have now removed some of the explosive power of the petrol? So will it now ignite as good in the engine or will an additional additive have to be used? Thanks Nigel. Uk.
At 2:42 Please don't pour gasoline or any flammable liquid inside your house or garage. If it catches fire you will lose your house. Go outside and pour it far enough away so you can walk away if it goes bad, and you won't have to fight a burning gas can. Thanks for the information on removing ethanol.
Thanks Ben! Isaac uses his brain and some basic chemistry and ingenuity to solve a common problem with modern ethanol infused (fouled) gasoline. Clean out that ethanol for the engines and tubing that can't handle the alcohol!
The problem with ethanol is not the ethanol it is the people who have small engines and don’t maintain them properly. Never let gas sit in a container with open top, shut the gas valve to carburetor off and run engine til it’s dies (install a shut off valve if it doesn’t have one) and remove gas from tank. This only needs to be done if your not using motor for 3 months or so. Modern engines are designed to run on ethanol fuel. My Sthil MS-261C chainsaw is designed to run on 25% ethanol.
Thank you Ben. The two observations I have.. 1. We will be paying government for unwanted ethanol. Either 5% or 10% depending on if fuel is E5 or E10. More importantly, you didn't mention, when the ethinol is remove from the petrol, the octain rating is drastically reduced, and may cause 'knocking'. Can we measure the resulting octain to calculate booster additive.
He did say that the gas is being used for a chainsaw. Small engines don't need high octane ratings but will benefit greatly from ethanol free gas since it won't cause desegregation or oxidation from the ethanol trapping eater moisture
@@nativecowboy1_3cowboys_wer84 Sthil recommends 89 or higher octane in chainsaws. Removing ethanol brings it down to about 85. Gotta be careful with the crappy octane boosters because they are often made of ethanol. Most won't say what the contents are.
Yes, giod point. After some research, I found that the ethanol adds about two numbers to the octane, so if you used 93 it would drop to about 91 after ethanol removal. They use other chemicals like benzine to get the octane levels up to premium level because they don't want to put more than 10% ethanol in most gas, at least until all the vehicles can handle it.
Thank you for the tip! I need larger quantities to run an early 60s carburated vehicle. How much water do you need to add in that big water container to be able to repeat the process on a larger scale?
If you're going to extract the ethanol, which I don't recommend, you should wash the gas at least a couple of times in your separatory funnel, then dry the gas through a buchner funnel loaded with granular anhydrous sodium sulfate. Taking the ethanol out reduces the octane rating by about 4 points for E10 gas. The added cost of using a quality octane booster adds a significant amount to your fuel price.
But I bet it's cheaper than buying a new 2-stroke generator after the alcohol did its trick to the carburetor. We had no power for 12 hours today, so I fired up my generator (free from a neighbor years ago, no manual included). It ran about 20 minutes, then died. A friend found a manual for it online. Turns out the manual warns strongly against gas containing ethanol, as it wrecks the carburetor. I'd just bought high-octane gas and mixed in the 2-stroke oil, but it looks like the ethanol may be the culprit.
That depends on if you're buying 26 gallon octane booster for $10 a bottle or buying it for about $5 elsewhere. It will be cheaper than buying a tank of non-ethanol at an increased price or paying for a higher octane rating.
@@TheGuyThatWondersWhyit's more expensive to buy high octane fuel and way cheaper to buy a $5 bottle to treat 21 or 26 gallons. Remove the ethanol first and then add the octane booster.
I remember as a kid I use to have a neighbor who would often need gas for some reason or another. He would often syphon gas out of his truck tank. What he would do is put the syphon hose into the trucks gas tank, then he would put his hand over the opening of the gas tank around the hose. Then he would blow into the hose building up air pressure in the trucks gas tank. After building up some pressure he would put the end of his syphon hose into his gas container and the gas would come out with no need to suck in and gas
Thanks so much! I see no reason why this same transfer method wouldn’t work to delete water from old fuel, with or without ethanol. Water always settles to the bottom and your easy siphoning method will do the trick. One thing I would improve upon is the soda bottles. I’ve been using 2 quart rectangular plastic fruit juice bottles from Langers for other purposes which are a thicker plastic and have a larger cap.
Ok so once we have removed ethanol from the petrol what do we do with it. Can’t pour it down the drain so best option is to leave it in a bucket to evaporate.
You can add a pinch of salt to the water to shift the equilibrium more to the side of the water. Would also strongly suggest using molecular sieves or a drying agent like calcium chloride, because the water still inside the gasoline will do more harm then if you left in the ethanol.
You need to make a video to explain this in more detail please. I was going to use this method to extract ethanol because I want to keep moisture out of the gas/petrol for long term motorbike storage, but if, as you say, water will contaminate the fuel then it is pointless.
So will this process not completely separate the water/fuel? I'm planning on doing this to remove the ethanol to be used in a 2-stroke outboard engine. There is an onboard fuel-water seperator , so if all the ethanol had been extracted but there is a small amount of water , I would assume the seperator will then be able to remove it before it reaches the engine. Yamaha reccomend 86 octane fuel , I'm planning on using 95 octane E5 , removing the ethanol should result in a loss of 2 octane. 2 stroke oil also reduces the octane rating of fuel so estimating it'll reduce it further down to 89. My question is what percentage of water would you say is left in the fuel after this process?
@@ocarroll3578 It's true that some water will be left behind in the gas because the gas will dissolve a very small amount of water. But I have a hard time believing that the amount of water left in the gas is a significant problem. Gas naturally absorbs water vapor from the air anyways, so you never really have completely dry gas unless your working under strict laboratory conditions. I'm no chemist, but I would think that gasoline left in contact with the atmosphere probably becomes saturated with water (to the same degree as following the procedure in this video) pretty quickly. In any case, if you're really worried about the water content, you can put a little bit of drying agent like sodium sulphate powder in the final ethanol-free gas, shake it around, and then pour the dehydrated gas off into another container leaving the drying agent behind.
Your process is identical to what a wine maker would called "racking" - The only difference is that you're pulling the floating gasoline off the water, where the winemaker is trying to pull the wine off the sludge of dead yeast and assorted "ick" that sediments out during fermentation. the "turn the bottle over and loosen the cap to let the water run out" method you described is the same as a chemist's separatory funnel, and works incredibly well, and with zero spillage when you've got things set up properly. Nice demonstration.
AS a kid in Oklahoma, we used to get Drip gas from pipe line condensate traps. this would have water in it. Would pour it through a felt hat when filling cans, which filtered the water.
So if the water ethanol is clear and the fuel left to settle becomes clear can you still see the divide layer to know how for to push the siphon tube. ????
He meant that the cloudiness goes away. It will still be a yellow shade. You can also add a few drops of food coloring to the water to make the water stand out more from the gas.
Will this work to remove methanol as well?? I have heard that some ethinol free contains methanol which is just as bad. So I want to check my ethinol free to see if it contains methanol.
Sucks this is your only video.. i enjoyed listening to you. And I imagine from what I see of your garage you could provide a wealth of knowledge.. please consider doing more how to vids.
What in his garage is making you think that. If you saw my garage you would think I’m a hundred wealths of knowledge,but I’m probably not. Sorry man. Just joking.
Good man. Having watched several videos on this topic, i am going to create one for this very purpose. Take a 20 litre water bottle, and install a valve/petcock on the very bottom, on the bottom rib, furthest lowest point on it. (drain off crap, and water). Make several horizontal lines, around the bottom, outside, 1 cm apart, for 3 inches. Then, am going to go ' gas cleaning ' removing ethanol, and using THAT, as a cleaner in a spray bottle. Good luck, all !
You should have mentioned that taking the ethanol out will reduce the octane level of the gas. Chainsaws should have 91+ octane. Octane boosters often have ethanol in them, so you have to be careful what you use to boost it back up.
Thankfully, my town has 2 truck stops with non ethanol and never been out when i go get gas. Idk if its truly 100% ethanol free but my mower runs alot better with it as opposed to the normal "up to 10% ethanol"
