COMMITMENT - Make wood-sweated DIY Engine Fuel for 365

Small Engines
#243

Hi Wallace.
Yes I hear you and believe . . . mostly.
The Chongqing Ampride Power & Machinery did not have the corporation people count to be a do-all in-house manufacturer.

An unfortunately those all-in-house corporations have lifetime burned me just as bad as an assembler company.
Champion spark plugs once great become garbage for a few decades late 1970’s to mid-1990’s. Delco auto batteries once the best for decades becoming 2-3 year always failures early 1970’s to later. To timeline much later.
Passinger car portion of the Firestone tires line up. Three times.
Huge, big Samsung going into consumer durable household equipment and appliances that break, clog and fail. Wife and I, and family swallowing $,$$$.'s of refrigerator and clothes dryer failures sure won’t touch their cell phone lines. Screw us. You lose us to all.
I’ve has Sony failures and GE failures in their built down to a price stuff.
Here is a good pattern one: never once had a Panasonic or labeled branded Sear Craftsman failure. Even though both of these Name-Line did not directly manufacture the majority of their stuff.
Why? They engineered their models. They did quality checking before sale on the delivered to them assemblies.

I’ve had Harbor Freight stuff people brough to me that was quality made junk, junk, junk.
Thier once sold cheap 10kW generator heads. Junk.
And I’ve had Harbor Freight electrical stuff that runs, and runs, and runs. Mid and high line angle grinders.
These Predator 9500 Inverter-Generator units been out for a solid three years now. Only one feedback user had a probable electrical inverter failure. I out of 600+ reviews. Only one feedback user complained of his eating a valve. Valid complaint. 1 out of 600+ reviews.
All other ~8% complainers were not valid. Bad gasoline. Running in to tight enclosed spaces. Never actually investing in proper 30-50 hours, 3 oil changes, variable speed-load breaking in’s.

Up to 24.3 hours now breaking in properly on mine. All fine. Now starts easy on first manual pull over cold or hot. Better compression now. And I had to learn the between start/full choke to Run partial choke to use.
Unplug the CO sensor system and it still operates.
Unplug the low oil sensor system and it still operates. Don’t recommend this as a normal. But cranks no-runs try’s; you bet’cha.

And now my only real found valid complaint. The only way you are getting that all metal two wire spring latched air cleaner cover off is with some system mechanical disassembly!!
Bad, Bad, Ampride to send this out. Design flaw. Bad, Bad Harbor Freight to allow this. Market and sell this. Allow printed in the Operation manual easy air filter servicing with a diagram. Not valid. Will not work.
90 days; and then out of warrantee, and some clearance cutting will be made by me. “Murderfication by Steve!” my Wife call this. Make-better, says I.
Some of the hard ran, high hours users, then complainers - dirty clogged air filters??!! Just maybe.
Steve Unruh

3 Likes
#244

Well I don’t know how that works

There are two kinds of gas can here
No vent and vented
You can seal the small yellow cap on a sceptor gas can and effectively seal it

If you can’t in the USA that’s really weird.
Gas cans that are sold in Canada must meet. CSA specification and transport Canada regulation to not burst from over pressure
If you leave the vent open the vapours escape and hats gotta be a fire hazard

This is a NATO standard fuel can
I know they make and sells these on the USA and the seal too

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As for water on the gas already
I don’t know how it works in the USA but someone must be responsible for daily water paste dips on gas station tanks
It must be regulated by the epa or something to ensure fuel tanks are not leaking into the ground

There may be a tiny amount of water that gets on but this had to monitored and recorded someplace
Fuel retailers will not get far selling gasoline or diesel with water in it

Most likely if you getting a significant amount of water in your fuel it’s caused by moister laden air interacting with fuel
Ethanol will draw water right out of the air
This is why you must keep you fuel supply air tight
To prevent light ends from evaporating and to minimize the effect of evaporation, oxidation, and moisture infiltration.

1 Like
#245

I got it backwards, gas cans as of 2009 by EPA rule, cannot vent at all if they are unattended. Oh and it has to have an autoclose valve, and none of them work. You can curbshop gas cans with nozzles that don’t work. And when they do work, they pour slow as molasses chilled by liquid nitrogen. (I would say January but we have some aussies who are out getting tans come january, and around here you can chalk up some shorts time.)

#246

Thats a good can if it sucks in like that.
Maybe it could be made a bit better with a little thicker plastic but the important thing is it seals.
Not only for the environment but for fire safety and gas preservation you want that good seal.
Too bad about the slow pouring however.

I am pretty sure my cans are pretty old.
I picked up some newer ones that were ventless and used a special spot that I was not not fond of and gave them away ( they were a 20 litre can and I prefer the ( 25l-6usg-5img ) because they hold a bit more and pour well ( but I find they are getting heavy now )

Here’s one of the new style ones I just don’t like.

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Then you have these that look like Jerry can but they are plastic.
I have tried them and found that they also do not pour very nice, but they are easier to carry and better than the previous 20l

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What really pisses me off is you pay almost as much for spout as the can itself.
And the spouts are not standard.
Every spout and vent should safely interchange with another so you never have a leak.

Now they make a plastic Gerry can.
Im not sure I am warm to the idea having used real steel ones in the past.
Steel is the ideal container because its air tight always and leak proof if secured.
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Hind site being 20 - 20 I think what I have is a 16 gallon and not 20 gallon drum.
but like I said its still small enough to lift and carry by one man and thats about as large as I think is practical.
Carbon Steel Drum-CQ1603 | Skolnik Industries, Inc..

It contained hydraulic oil at one time and its not lined or coated inside.
I believe your better off without a lining and just clear steel.
If you notice the inside of your drum is rusting then something is wrong with your fuel or your handling proceedure…

1 Like
#247

I have noticed they use mostly open source circuits in their electronics. Whether it is a reference design from a manufacturer or a circuit that was open sourced like a flight controller, 3d printer board, etc. They usually don’t change the designs at all. For complicdated things, a lot of times they are all made in the same factory with different names. And sometimes it is an open source -addition- to their design like a high frequency start to one of their cheap welders, someone designed a board, they found it, printed it and added it to their welder which was already a jumbled mess of wires.

Their manufacturing has improved, it is a lot like metal working, you can do it by hand but tooling helps accuracy and speed. Now they have screen printers, pick and pluck machines, and temperature controlled ovens at home. For <10k, you can get all the equipment you need. A screen printer ($300), pick and pluck machine ($3k), a reflow oven ($600), 3d printer (Etching PCBs With A 3D Printer | Hackaday), etc.

It is kind of like using a benchtop minimill instead of bridgeport, but for a number of things, designs don’t need to be that accurate, and they are doing smaller runs.

They can sell it below my component cost because of the scale pricing like a board might use 5 resistors, so instead of buying 1 for 56c, they buy a 3k reel for 20c. But I am pretty sure the smaller shops are buying black/gray market components that are like from larger companies where someone was dumpster diving, the company just gave what was left on the reel after a large batch run to an employee, etc. They can also be manufacturer seconds. so if they ran a bad batch with a 50% yield instead of 95+%, they toss it. It is cheaper to run another batch, then it is to sit and test out all the components. It wasn’t in China but I think malayasia, where the garbagemen were actually taking the loads of trash from the manufacturer and taking them home then reselling them.

If you don’t have much money and have time and a small space to work, with a little bit of knowledge, you can make money. It might not be a huge amount, but wages are low and the cost of living is low.

I have also noticed a number of things I am interested in buying and at low prices are coming from manufacturers. They are dealing in small quantities directly. Where if I try to buy a 1 component from broadcom or qualcomm they don’t bother to answer. Companies like TI, ST, Microchip, etc don’t like to, but they will sell smaller quantities of -some- parts, but mostly they refer you to distributors like digikey or mouser.

There is just a mixture of stuff and especially at the smaller cottage industry level, that we don’t have. So it is hit or miss. To add to that, they have a lot of drop ship sellers where everyone is selling the same thing from the same warehouse.

1 Like
#248

I have curbshopped a few smaller ones that don’t work. :slight_smile: I have a small one for each type of gas. and I wrote on them with a sharpie what goes in them.

1 Like
#249

In the past when there has been reason too ( weather, international issues that are going to drive up fuel prices, refinery fires ) I have filled extra cans ( I have 30 USgallons worth of cans ).

I always lose track of the dates they were filled in the rotation so I started to put paper tags on them with dates and whats in them.
That turned out to be a nutty idea because i would be searching cans for the oldest while still trying to add and remove fuel from the drum.
I decided its better to keep my stuff full of fuel.
Spread out the gasoline and then I am never confused as long as I remember to stay on top of the drum.

And if mother nature plays another nasty trick like the great ice storm or we have another week long black out I have time to figure out stuff.
Yesterday I went and looked at a 70s CCK-4 Spec R Onan.
I’m thinking I might buy it and do the long awaited natural gas conversion and get off all this gasoline storage
I have enough of these BGE onan I am thinking quite seriously to build a frankengenny with the New heads on the old machine to burn NG more efficiently.

That will still leave me with enough BGE parts to have the frankengenny woodgas

2 Likes
#250

I usually keep 20-30 gallons of non ethanol on hand and every three months when I need fuel in the dodge it gets all of it cans loaded in the back and refilled. Easiest for me to remember, oil change time is fuel rotation time. The dodge will always need fuel until it runs on wood so it’s almost like clockwork to remember fuel rotation

4 Likes
#251

back in the day, we used to have the 250 gallon tank buried in the ground with a hand pump to fill up the car. :rofl: The price of delivered gas was less then the cost at the station. They changed the regulations about storing gas at home because they all leaked after a while. So you either have to have an above ground one, or a stainless, triple lined and have some geological survey done to be able to contain gas leaks.

3 Likes
#252

This is the best stuff I’ve found for long term storage.

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5 Likes
#253

As TomH observed and other such as myself have found gasoline stored in-vehicle so long as that vehicle is a mid-late 90’s and has an intact vapor recovery system the gasoline simply lasts longer.
In-vehicle it is not so sun heated exposed then chilled down daily like in a container. So very low pressurizing and chilled down then negative pressurizing.
Vehicles here gives 34 + 24 + 15&13 + 17 +15 US gallons means quite a bit if all here are filled. Safe average of 5 x15= for 75 Us gallons just there. Accessible by jumping the fuel pump relay and hosing out at an under-hood fuel line. Yeah. ex-Master-tech with the tools.

And I always have a five gallon can of non-ethanol 89 RON 2-cycle mixed up. One five gallon of 87 RON non-ethanol for the seldom used, then let sits; rototiller, the small generators. And seasonally 1-2 five gallons seasonally of 87 RON E-10 regular. For the 1/2 gallon an hour Rider lawnmower when active. And now this new large 1/3 a gallon and hour inverter-generator. I try to do full five gallon dumps into these. So no partial topping offs. No half empty can of gasoline. Kinnda Wallace’s method.
And all these stored will intermix in everything except for the 2-cycle mixed.
Stored gasoline you are only buying time to let things swing back to normal. Time to get an alternative up and working. Over-night you must change your consumptions usages to “make-it stretch!”

Yeah on those 4-5 gallons cans I switched years ago to ventless plastic. Even the best of my metals ones eventually did internally corrode giving insoluble hard metals clogging fits.
Some of the current plastics are an older style of Blitz brand. Some a now older style of Mid-West brand. Two handle types. Garage sales finds. I do not like the way too many of the current new plastic ones corners kink when sucking in.
ALL fitted over to an older style of I think it was Blitz rigid one piece plastic nozzles with a tight snap on yellow end cap. These seal at a molded tapered plastic edge to molded (or hand formed) fitted neck inside taper. No bending creases or folds to age and crack, then leak. No gaskets to fit wrong; or lose; or wear and crack. No plastic locks to stick. wear, leak sucking air moitures. No moving parts. No springs. No o-ring seals to fail.
Ventless I’ll chug-ga-lug tow arms hold up telling myself it is good exercise.

I’ve tried all of the new sysles. Problems all. Easy, easy to damage your tank necks with most.
For the Wifie if she is lawns active I kept one 2 1/2 gallon NO-Spill Brand can for lawnmower re-filling. Need a transmission funnel to use these on vehicles.
And you all do wrap your funnels in old Tee-shirts right to keep the dusts and bugs out, right? Right?

I freebee give away all of the small one gallon and odd balls with broken/worn then nossel-less to askers at the gates along with a $3-4. bought ahead cheap long transmission funnel.
You keep. Do not bring back. Hint. Hint. Do not come back.

The keepers:

S.U.

2 Likes
#254

Totally agree that we should be at least dual fueling all equipment SteveU. The rototiller could be a challenge, but despite a lot of research I have not found a suitable alternate to gasoline for my chainsaws. Pretty sure I will not live long without a functioning one. Watched a video yesterday of a guy running a saw on both 50-1 and 25-1 mix and the heavier mix caused more engine heat and therefore less durability in the long run rather than extend it due to better lubrication. I have thought of running a saw off of an awkwardly mounted little propane tank but finding a way to drip that tiny amount of oil into the cylinder was what stopped that line of thought.

2 Likes
#255

From what I have seen, the newer 80v battery chainsaws are probably on par with the performance of a small-medium gas saws which is probably fine for bucking out tree tops especially with an extra battery. I wouldn’t use one to fell a 30+" oak even though you probably -could-. I get pretty skittish around standing trees after I start cutting.

#256

I have a 58 V Echo battery saw Sean and I really like it for limbing and small trees but I cut about 8 cords a year and it would be too slow. What it is great for is when I get my bar stuck in a cut because I’m a crappy sawyer. Anyway I go with the no replacement for displacement theory on chain saws as well. If I could afford it I’d have one of those 80 cc bad boys.

3 Likes
#257

I haven’t seen an electric version of the 880magnum yet. I wasn’t even finding a 12000rpm, 6kw dc electric motor. It is a lot of wood. I forgot you did wood for other people as well. Maybe get them to install solar thermal so you have time to open boxes. :slight_smile:

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#258

Price is defiantly a factor to get you power and manageable weight alright.
You will get exactly what you pay for.
TomH the 80cc and Plus monsters are heavy, heavy, heavy on the arms and back.

Mostly I try and use my older now Stihl MS260Pro. 10 pound power head weight. A 29" light weight SS aluminum filled bar. 50cc. 3.0 bhp. 14,000 rpm. The replacement for displacement is RPM! Still about twice what an electric can be.

Choosing in the late 90’s, I skipped right on past all if the more common less expensive mid-line saws. All were 13+ pounds power heads with only 3.5-4.5 bhp.
Went with a Stihl MS 440Pro. 12 something pounds powerhead. 70.7cc. 5.5 bhp. 13,500 rpm. That kind power/rpm it is real easy to slack on the chain sharpening trying to get in a few last cuts and overheat “smoke” damage the bar and chain. Yep. Me. More than once.

Both of these saws were derived from earlier models. Made more powerful. Replaced by later saws. MS261; MS441->MS462->MS500i’s. Not so much more powerful. More EPA compliant. Heavier total redesigns to be less easy to overwork and tear-break the rubber isolators. Yep. Done that too.

Ha! Others can quote Huskavarna, Echo and Polan professional saw numbers.

I think electrics would have to be in the multiple hundreds of volts to even try and match these in performances. Corded to a big battery pack.

Time is the most valuable thing we have. Slow cutters steal your Life away. You keep pushing through the hours; tiring; getting dangerous.

4 Likes
#259

For anyone interested I’ve been following up on the Harbor Freight Predator 9500 inverter-generator kissing-cousins’ brands: GENMAX 9000ie; DURAMAX 9000; AiPower 7000/8000; AIVOLT 10,000. I was looking specifically for users complains of inverter failures reported. None. A few real with assembly problems. A few with sub-sytems CO, Oil level and remote starting modual keep from running failures.
After all. As one GENMAX buyer surmised parts will be virtually none. The source will be other owners thrashing trashing their engines; fuel systems clogging and setting the whole unit aside, mad.

Very intersting that the different brands users manuals vary much on break-in and recommended fuel requirements. 5 hours (too short!) to H.F.'s 30 hours for break-in before full power usage. I’m at 33.3 hours on a true measured 10 gallons US of 87 E10. I play it super safe and break-in to 50 hours before the synthetic wide range 5W-50 or 0W-40 oils.
Some brands users manuals ask not to use fuel preservative for daily/monthly use machines. Some say to long term store drained out of all fuel. Not to use in system preservative at all. H.F say use of a gasoline preservative is mandatory always. Hmm. Not me. IF I have to return in these first 90 days I’ll dose it before returning.
No eyes watering, cough-cough preservatives anymore; that’s me now, for the last few years. Use-cycle your gasolines. Long term storage I am heading for LPG.

Two different engines are actually used. A 458cc hemi-head. Senci brand. 90% sure.
A more common used 459cc inline valve head type. DINKING brand. 50% sure.
Both 50,000 to 150,000 engine units a month manufacturers.

I found a system wiring diagram download on one stocking dealers sites:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1163/1976/Files/genmax_gm9000ied_manual-p2.pdf
Can be found on FactoryPure’s web site lower down on the GENMAX 9000 descriptions.
S.U.

4 Likes
#260

These Eagle gas cans are marvelous for small-engine fuel. Expensive at $50+, but they are 100% sealed (hold pressure and vacuum) and come with a funnel for no-drip filling. A bit heavy for wife use. And filling vehicles is tricky. But for what they’re for, I love them!

5 Likes
#261

The Stihl 500i comes in at a little under 14 pounds Steve. My Husqvarna 460 goes 13.4 pounds and I’m still comfortable with that. Doesn’t matter. Those 500i’s run $1400 bucks. I do most of my cutting with a Stihl MS271. 12.5 pounds. Only 50 cc but pretty easy to use.

I hate to admit this but I have a 2000 w Wen inverter generator that has sat for at least 14 months unstarted with gas in it. With some trepidation I got it out and it started on the first pull. Could not believe it or be happier about it. Got the old gas out and ran it awhile. I gotta change my lazy ways.

6 Likes
#262

Thats all the same company.

These are all the same engine different companies…
Just a few minor interchangeable parts for cosmetic effect.

As long as parts don’t corrode or gum up engines can sit for years.
Simple advice I have is close the gas and run the engine untill it starts to sputter and die.Then reach for your squirt can of oil and lay the lube too it untill it smokes and sputters and turn it off…
Change oil.
Roll the engine over until both valves are close.
Put an oil rag in the tail pipe.
Empty the fuel tank and skirt some oil in there to coat the tank and prevent rust.
Spray it all down with WD40 and wrap the whole thing up with breathable canvas.
Store high and dry.

That engine will run next time you need it.

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