Rumely Oil Pull engine

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

It isn't any contaminant that causes the sticky mess it is simply the rubbish E 95 petrol. Common problem if you leave the stuff in a mower overwinter. I had this problem twice before I twigged that you don't leave the the stuff in overwinter.Always empty the fuel tank and carb before storing.

E 95 has 5% ethanol. When it first came out I noticed that my fuel consumption dropped by almost 5%. One has to ask why it was introduced. I suppose the rational was that "we" were using a greener fuel, until you look at the mpg figures!

Andrew.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

E5 petrol (the older stuff) is 5% ethanol. E10 (the new stuff) is 10% ethanol. The ethanol isn't a new addition, the quantity has just increased. As a result you may be getting it twice as bad with the new stuff, but it isn't a new problem if the ethanol genuinely is the issue.

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

95 petrol did have 5% bio alcohol ,now it has 10% in it ,i suspect its the green lobby advocating this awful fuel and force drivers to go to electric cars,this fuel mix causes all sorts of problems,on my full size stationary engines I currently us the 97 petrol which is supposed to have less bio in it. During the recent storms , my Honda generator refused to start,first time in 35 years,had to clean out the carb,jet was blocked and there was a green slime in the bottom of the float chamber, engines with intermittent use require the fuel to be turned off and the engine left running until all the fuel is used up and the fuel tank drained,As you have a model which should have an economic fuel consumption,you could try petrol with no additive in it which sells for £20 for 5 litres at garden machinery suppliers, either as neat petrol or with oil for use in two stroke engines,it also remains stable for a long time. Its called Aspen fuel. The comment about the spark plug being close to the driver,not knowing anything about the full size tractor ,I just wondered if they had igniters and low tension ignition which would not give the driver a shock.

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

Ethanol absorbs water which can cause corrosion of aluminium float chambers, etc., so definitely worth draining for storage.

Mind you, old school petrol deteriorated over time too, with the lighter fractions evaporating off (and possibly other chemical changes taking place) leaving an oily, stinky, not very inflammable goo.

Avgas (aeroplane petrol) is reputed not to suffer from this problem, perhaps because its all all 'good stuff' rather than mostly cheap stuff, blended with a small quantity of good stuff. It smells nicer too.

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Thanks , I didn't know any of that. I'll look into getting something else but maybe not available here in Belfast.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

I neglected to say, what a fantastic piece of engineering John.

 

You mentioned in an earlier post you were thinking about adding castor oil to the fuel, did you do that in the end?

Edited By Jon Lawes on 31/03/2022 22:31:35

[Robert ButlerParticipant @robertbutler92161]

Brilliant Work. Try fuel stabilizer to prevent fuel going off – keeps fuel useable for up to two years,

Robert Butler

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Is it hard plumbed or do you have any silicon fuel line in there? I Know of another model that built up sludge due to the silicon fuel line dissolving. If you do change it for the yellow Tygon.

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Hi Jason, no it's a copper fuel pipe and the float is made of copper foil. The fuel in the stainless steel tank seems ok. I wonder if it is reacting with the aluminium float bowl, that seems to be where the gunge was concentrated. Robert, what is fuel stabiliser please?

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

I understand that the ethanol can be removed from E5 and E10 fuels by adding water and agitating then allowing to stand, the water will separate out to the bottom and the ethanol will have combined with it, pour off till only water remains and your petrol should be virtually ethanol free. Dave W

[Andy_GParticipant @andy_g]

Posted by John Rutzen on 31/03/2022 21:05:14:

Thanks , I didn't know any of that. I'll look into getting something else but maybe not available here in Belfast.

It might be worth trying Coleman Fuel which is available from camping shops, etc. (I presume also in NI).

[Roger BParticipant @rogerb61624]

I initialy tried running my 'petrol' engines on cooking alcohol as it did not smell as bad as pump petrol. They were stored in a shared cellar so that was important. I soon found problems with corrosion on delivery valve springs and injector needles.

A change to 'alkylate' fuel from the local agricultural merchants (not cheap at around CHF 20 for 5L) solved the problems. No smell and no corrosion

I believe this is the same as Coleman fuel.

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

I watched a video on removing the petrol by adding water and then syphoning off the water plus alcohol. It suggested that the result might not ignite as well as the petrol plus alcohol and you would have to add some octane booster. Anybody tried the alcohol removing trick and does the result work as is?

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

Posted by John Rutzen on 01/04/2022 08:32:22:

Hi Jason, no it's a copper fuel pipe and the float is made of copper foil. The fuel in the stainless steel tank seems ok. I wonder if it is reacting with the aluminium float bowl, that seems to be where the gunge was concentrated. Robert, what is fuel stabiliser please?

I think you're very likely right about the float bowl. I would guess that the aluminium corrodes to form aluminium hydroxide gel which is what you found lurking in the carburettor.

re. using octane booster, unless this does something else apart from increasing the octane number, I'm not sure it would help, since the only significance of octane is its anti-knock properties (probably not important with the compression ratio you are using).

The simplest course of action is probably to drain the fuel from tank and carb if laying up the tractor for any period of time, e.g. over winter – I'm sure it wouldn't do any harm leaving it fueled for a few weeks.

Lovely model by the way – it sounds great!

[Robert ButlerParticipant @robertbutler92161]

Posted by Robert Butler on 31/03/2022 22:40:17:

Worth repeating and easy to mix. "Try fuel stabilizer to prevent fuel going off – keeps fuel useable for up to two years",

Robert Butler

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

Thanks for the reminder Robert, I've just ordered some fuel stabilizer from Amazon.

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