E85 Storage
 

Ok Guys,

So I haz Corn Fever along with BT but want to start with some Eth and then Will be getting BT Sooner then later. Thats for another thread though.

My nearest Eth station is 30 mi round trip out of my way from work to home.

I have tried searching here and evo forums.

There is Evo guys traveling up to 180 mi for 2 55gal drums of Eth. I wont be doing anything like that By any means.

I was thinking of doing a 2/8 gall mix. Depending on what my tuner suggests.

Thus I will be storing Eth in 2 5gall jugs, enough for 2 weeks work of driving.

Can Eth be stored without degrading in plastic jugs for a couple weeks?

Its either Eth or meth idk yet, thus thread was created.

Thank You

Aaron

Welcome to the club, yes it can be stored in plastic gas containers for a couple weeks. I do this as well with a 3 gal mix. I usually store 2 5gal containers.

Great Thank you my friend

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I was wondering about this as well

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5 gal gas tanks.

5 gall mixes or you mean like I had mentioned, store in 5 gal race jugs?

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We need to do this Cale! You have a station right off Ramona Expressway and 215

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Yea but its still 15-20min away

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Bro really 15 min that's nothing and ya get a 5 gal jug like for the dirt bikes. The squarish ones that are like white or yellow

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I'm thinking about doing this too since I have to drive 15 miles to get my corn juice every week.

i kept mine in a red containter and used sharpie and wrote E85 on it. i wouldnt trust its shelf life over a month but a week or two is perfectly fine

You guys all suck. The closest e85 place I have is over 60 miles one way. No way I can even attempt to run it.

I just started doing the storage as well. I had 2.5 gal in my garage for the past 2 weeks. It was fine. I'm with most guys here, and wouldn't go longer than a month or so for storage

hahah its like a 3min drive from my house. I'm gonna try and run an E85 mix as soon as I get started tuning with lex

fuck ya well we need to hurry before Nator Drags lol

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Is there a type of container that is safer than the regular red gas containers to store it or make it have a longer shelf life? Hoping to make the trip soon to get some e85. It's only like a 130 mile round trip lol. But I don't drive my car much so I may need to store it longer than a month.

You could probably get away with using one of those plastic 55 gallon drums and tossing a nylon net/sack full of ethanol compatible desiccant in it.

I've been using the red 5 gallon jugs, so far no problem. It usually doesn't sit more than a month though.

I have to drive 25 miles for E-85 but it's a straight interstate shot. I take two 5 gallon containers and put 3 gallons in each. I fill the car up 3/10 (23%), have to let it run with the gas light on for the trip down to get 13 gallons in the tank. This will last me 3-4 weeks so I have it stored for less than a month but wonder how long it's stored in the station tanks. There is probably not a high turn over around here.

We have two new stations under construction, one has the pumps in already but I don't see any yellow handled pumps, the other has the pumps in but not the attached hoses yet so I'm hopeful. The one that is still uncertain is a Marathon station and it's a Marathon station where I get my E-85 so my fingers are crossed.

I'll be going to the Tail of the Dragon in April and have already mapped out a strategy for E-85, however, it will involve taking a 5 gallon container. There are always very fast cars at the Gap so I want to be on E-85 to rep the Speed best I can.

So why exactly is it that we should worry if it sits too long? Moisture build up?

Exactly. Unlike gasoline, Ethanol is hygroscopic and pulls moisture out of the air and absorbs it.

I use 2 5 gallon gas cans and it works fine for me. let it sit for weeks..

ah... just love to drive 8 miles away from home and one is 5 miles away from work :P

Isn't the marine grade sta-bil good for up to 12 months? I use that in all of my powersports equipment that sits for a few months at a time.

I just used a small bottle of stabil and split it between my two 5 gallon jugs. Says its safe for ethanol and was only like $4. I just finished my first 5 gallon jug, so hopefully the second one holds up for a while. We shall see.

The red is safe for ethanol but not effective. I bought the big bottle of blue and use an ounce in everything now. Cheap insurance because when it starts breaking down it makes engines run like poop.

Well crap. I'll have to look for the blue then. I still have a full 5 gallon jug here and my tank is full.

How long do you have it sitting that the car runs like "poop"? I've let it sit for 3-4 weeks with no problem. I've got a couple of cans that are approaching the 5 week mark.

I usually run into the problem with small engines such as motorcycles, dirtbikes, my old truck that sits for months at a time, and my generator. I've had it start to degrade in as little as 2 months and I've had it last "okay" as much as 3 months.

I think it is just cheap insurance. Most of the engines that I have trouble with are carbed so that makes a huge difference I'm sure.

So E85 in red containers can last how long??? I have 3 red 5-gal full containers that's been sitting for 2 months :( google says 60-90 days shelf life on multiple sites....

We aren't talking about containers. We are talking about Sta-bil. Red doesn't help but green seems to prolong the life for up to 12 months.

I was just thinking about this same thing! I'm glad that i was able to find where my questions were answered already before making another post and getting yelled at :bigok:

This thread is funny.
I pull 100% denatured ethanol samples out of a 1,000,000 gallon above ground tank almost daily. I guess I should just start saving old samples, rather than dumping them down a drain sump? Lolz

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I have 3 5 gal gas cans. I've used a 1/4 of a tank with e85 so far.....i love the corn lol

So i have been looking all over the place and cant find much.

So it seems that much more than a month of storage you are pushing it. Has anyone tried the stabil ethanol treatment, and tested how long it still stays good.

http://www.goldeagle.com/products/4_oz_ethanol.aspx

The other issue i think i might have is the only place to get e85 around me is very small towns at like mam and pop gas stations. I would assume they dont go through much of it. In the underground storage at gas stations can they also absorb water or are these mostly sealed systems that wouldnt allow this to happen.

The e85 treatment from stabil says it removes water. My question would be is there any other way to do so.

I really want to go the e85 route and if i lived in a large town or could get it locally in my town i would have already done it, just dont want to put crap e85 in my car and cause issues

I think if you keep the moisture out of it, it will last much longer than all of us originally thought.

There is a few threads concerning this on evolutionm.net and many of the guys have used old e85 (a few months old) with no issue (assuming they did not allow the e85 to absorb water, etc.).

Any idea where these cars are located. I am in central IL, not a desert, i cannot control the amount of mositure in the air. In the summer it can get extremely humid here. I am not going to be storing it outside, but these is still mositure in the air. I will more than likely just try 2 5 gallon jugs, 3 gallons in each, and add some of the stabil eth treatment and see what happens.

was just curious as to if anyone had experiance with a low volume station with e85

Good reading:
Quick question for you E85 guru's? I have 2 gas containers of 5 month old E85 - evolutionm.net

I feel for you guys having to drive out your way to get that E

Fortunately, the ethanol gods have been kind to me and placed 3-5 stations within a 5 mile radius of my area. shell's right next door too. 3 marathons, a mobil, and a bp.

Once you open that drum of E, you've let moisture in. Stuff is almost like brake fluid.

It actually has some inadvertent water content when you buy it, albeit a small amount. The C of A I get at work (wholesale) when it is distributed to our facility lists water as apart of its contents. From there, I suppose it just compounds over time and exposure.

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Fortunately for me there is an e85 station within a mile from my house, unfortunately It's in Boston so for me to get there at 5 when I'm out of work is hard sometimes so I will be storing some too. Anyone think a dehumidifier will work next to the E? I won't be trying it sense I won't need to store it long but maybe worth a shot for some of you that are far from the station.

I was worried about this @ one time as well. I still try to elevate the stored e85 containers and keep water away from them, but read it is not nearly as big an issue as originally thought.

If you google e85 storage, you'll catch a few links to many of the evo guys discussing it. Some have stored it for a LONG time and still had it test as if it were new.

One person made an interesting point about how long it sits in the rail cars as well.

I've personally used e85 that was sealed in a gasoline can after 6 months of storage with no issue.

Once I read some of the storage stories on the evo sites, I felt a lot more comfortable about storing some in sealed containers.

I put my 3 gas cans on the middle shelf in my garage, and I get nervous if it stays there more than a week lol, 6 months is crazy I guess I need to relax a little haha

Have you seen any issues of storage when it becomes much warmer out? I live in So Cal, I mean it can get up to 115 here, garage turns into an oven at that point. My nearest station is about 30miles away, so I'll have to be store 15-20 gallons at a time since I commute and use the car as a DD all the time. Plastic containers aren't ideal, id Prefer to get my hands on a 55gallon drum that was previously used for fuel like a VP container.

Any insight would be great :)

Has anyone actually had any issues storing E85 for long periods of time? I keep reading posts that sound like this: "I wouldn't store E85 for more than XXX." Now, don't get me wrong, I like scaring myself as much as the next guy, so I read all of thee posts and they make me very nervous about that can of eth that's sitting out in my garage.

But, I think a more helpful post would be: "After 9 months of storage in a 5-gal steel jerry can, I took a sample of E85 and found that it had X% water in it," or, "My E85 phase separated after Y months in a plastic fuel container." Can anyone contribute anything like this?

Intuitively, I can't figure out how a sealed container of E85 absorbes very much water after it sucks whatever residual vapor was in the small amount of air that got sealed in with it. So, it _shouldn't_ be a problem unless you open up the container frequently.

For the record, I use 3-gallon Rotopax to store E85. That way, I never have to measure anything. Plus, Rotopax are really expensive, and I love spending money.