dry gas ?

[bill b va]

is dry gas only isaphropal alchol ? can i use it to remove any moisture left in my tractor gas tank after draining the water?

 

[Bret4207]

You have to look at the specific container you are considering buying. Some use isopropal (sp), some use other alcohols. Others have additional additives. The cheapest stuff is usually just a certain percentage of alcohol in a carrier...which I suspect is water! If the gas you are using in the tractor is 10% ethanol to start with, I don;t know that more alcohol will fix things. Sometimes you just have to drain the tank and start with fresh fuel.

 

[dr sportster]

Some is methanol. Some is isopropyl . On a tv show once they did a test and the methanol did not work but the isopropyl absorbed the water .

 

[old]

If you much of any water in your tank nothing will help other then draining the tank and starting with new gas. The gas we have now days has alcohol in it and in theory should absorb water but the problem is that it does absorb it then it evaporates and leaves the water behind

 

[JMOR]

Be careful with drug store isopropyl rubbing alcohol, as it is available from about 10% (90% water) up into the 90+% range. Read the label.

 

[Indiana Ken]

(quoted from post at 05:14:39 11/04/13) is dry gas only isaphropal alchol ? can i use it to remove any moisture left in my tractor gas tank after draining the water?

Heet is available in a yellow bottle which is labeled as methyl alcohol (methanol). Heet is also available in a red bottle which I believe is labeled as isopropyl alcohol. Sorry, I don't have a bottle on hand to verify.

I have been told isopropyl alcohol is more effective at absorbing water. Now to your question will it remove water; no the amount of water in the tank will be the same after you add the alcohol as it was before.

In the event there is very little water in the tank say a table spoon or two the heet will cause the water to go into soluction with the gasoline. As you consume the gasoline and add fresh gasoline the water will work its way out. In the event there is a large amount of water in the tank say a cup or two the heet will simply go into soluction with the water. The good news it that the water/alcohol soluction will not freeze however it will remain in the tank. As fresh gasoline is added the water/alcohol will gradually be absorbed by the gasoline and work its way out.

Simply using E-10 gasoline will absorb the water into soluction (same as the use of heet) and carry it out of the tank as the gasoline is consumed.

 

[GarryinNC]

Google 'phase separation' of gasoline.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Dry gas is neither dry nor gas. If E10 is bad, then E10 plus a pint of gas line antifreeze is worse.

 

[oliver power]

Isopropyl is all I use. It MIXES with the water, and burns. Up-draft carbs will not frost over when using isopropyl. Methanol SEPARATES the water from the fuel. Water is still in tank. From what I hear, it will rust tank over time. An up-draft carb will still frost over using methanol.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Sorry Oliver, but carb icing has nothing to do with the alcohol content of your fuel, whether it's on the outside or inside of your carb. It's a function of air temperature, dew point and throttle setting.

As far as isopropyl mixing and methanol not mixing with fuel, that has less to do with the particular form of alcohol used and is mostly a function of how much water there is in the tank. All alcohol will separate from fuel if it absorbs enough water. By "isopropyl" I assume you mean drug store rubbing alcohol, which is 30 percent water. Why do you want to add water to your fuel?

There should never be a reason to add gas line antifreeze to fuel if you buy your gas at a reputable supplier and keep rainwater out of it. I find it humorous that folks complain about the government-mandated alcohol in their gas, then add more alcohol to it.

 

[oliver power]

NO KIDDING MARK........ I'm telling you, if you treat the gas with isopropyl you will NOT have the engine running like $hit due to carb frosting. I can dump isopropyl in a tank AFTER the carb frosts, and engine running like $hit. You can literally hear the engine smooth out. Try it. I've been doing it for close to 40 years now. Yet some people just don't get it. You say it won't make a difference, when I know for a FACT it does make a difference. A BIG difference. Apparently you've never tried it. You can not do this with Methanol. It won't work. After reading your post, and seeing you assumed, I can see you have NO CLUE (experience).

 

[hadley]

I only use rubbing alcohol. Just make sure it is 70%or higher isopropyl and it will do the same as heat only a heck of a lot cheaper.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Sorry, Ollie, but you're the one who doesn't have a clue when it comes to carb ice. Believe me, having lived in plenty of cold, wet places, I'm quite familiar with carb ice. Alcohol in any form doesn't do a bit of good. If it did, avgas would have it added for sure, because carburetor ice is a huge, potentially fatal, problem in piston engine aircraft. In fact, alcohol is never added to avgas (although plenty of airplanes are flying today with E10 mogas).

'splain this to me: Carb ice occurs when moisture in the air condenses inside the carb and freezes. It typically happens in the venturi and around the throttle plate. If you've ever looked inside a carb that was iced, you probably saw that the ice formed upstream from the main and idle jets. So just exactly how are the propanol molecules in your fuel supposed to swim upstream against the airflow and dissolve ice forming there? It's not going to happen.

Heat is the cure for carb ice, which is why most gas tractors heat the intake manifold, and why carbureted aircraft always have a provision for carburetor heat. If you haven't seen icing when you've added alcohol to your gas, it's only because conditions weren't right. And sooner or later they will be right for icing, and I'm sure you'll have some explanation why your isopropyl alcohol had no effect whatsoever.

 

[Dr. Walt]

Isopropyl Alcohol also known as "rubbing alcohol" is at least 30% water. The closest thing to "dry" Alcohol is Everclear (drinking alcohol) which is 75.5% pure (151 Proof). I have in the past put Everclear in my gas tank when I've gotten a bad batch of gasoline (watered down) and it has put the water into suspension with the gas so that it would burn.

 

[36 Coupe]

Note that Seafoam the magic chemical contains isopropal alcohol, naphtha and mineral oil.When I did lawn mower repair you could see blobs of water in the gas tanks.I would put a little drygas in the tank.Nothing happened until I shook the mower.The fuel would turn cloudy.I would let the mower run until it ran out of gas or mow my lawn if it needed it.When E10 gas came to Maine I saw 2 pallets of drygas at Sams Club.Methanol is very corrosive to zinc and aluminum castings.

 

[rodm1]

Methanol is what you won't get it from a good oil company. Mix 1oz per gallon of gas in the winter. It's the same a HEET Gas-Line Antifreeze at a much lower cost.

 

[Jon Hagen]

Why mess with that overpriced crap, just run a tank of E10 to clean out any remaining moisture and gasoline sludge and varnish.