www.transalp.ro

[vladchi]

http://www.capital.ro/detalii-articole/ ... 41089.html

am vazut prin articol ca ar fi ceva probleme la masinile cu carburator (si mai vechi)... n-am inteles exact ce, dar banuiesc ca nu de bine. oare o fi si la noi la motoare ? stie cineva sau om trai si om vedea ?
multumesc

[asilindean]

Salut,

mai jos e ce au scris americanii pe advrider referitor la aspectul asta:

discutia incepe undeva la pagina 678, postul nr #10164, pe acest topic:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39170

mais jos am dat copy/paste, nu am timp sa il traduc. Cititi si urmatoarele posturi, sunt interesante.

Alcohol is BAD......mostly
________________________________________
For those of you reading the last few posts be aware that strange things are happening with our fuel. The strange thing is the addition of alcohol.

Depending on where you live, different concentrations of ethanol is being added to our fuel. In California, we have E-10 or 10% ethanol.

Over the past 2 or 3 months we have replaced the diaphragms on all the pumper carbs of the 2 stroke power saws on my Ladder Company at the Fire Dept. The diaphragms were getting hardened and NOT pumping fuel. Saws were dying on roofs during critical venting operations....bad...real bad.

Anyways...we traced the problem to the alcohol content in the fuels. We've also seen the little pumper "domes" that you use on weed-eaters, lawn mowers and other small power tools becoming soft and in some cases partially dissolving all together. Mostly, it's the alcohol in the fuels. Don't believe me....talk to your local chain saw service guys. They have been fighting this problem for quite a while.

We've maybe found a solution using StarTron fuel additive. Look it up on the net. I'm not saying it's perfect but seems to be working so far.

What does this mean for motorcycle riders.....?

Just that any old bikes, TAs inculded, any carb O-rings, fuel pump diaphragms, fuel petcock diaphragms, FLOAT VALVE TIPS, etc will be affected. Maybe not today or next week but sooner or later this stuff will start to harden, malfunction and dissolve or otherwise go bad.

I also believe that the alcohol is responsible for the recent problems some guys have had with their carb diaphragms on the TA. There have been quite a few cases of cracked and leaking diaphragms lately.

Be aware of what you're putting into your tank.

[asilindean]

and some more:

Dunno what fuel Europe is using or if there is any standardization from country to country.

All you really need to test the fuel is a 100cc graduated cylinder.

A few easy steps:

1. Add exactly 90cc of fuel to the grad. cylinder.

2. Add 10cc of water to bring total to 100cc.

3. Seal the top so nothing leaks out and then vigorously shake the contents.

4. Let it sit still for 10 min. or so.

5. Find the place where the water and fuel has separated (water near the bottom)

Now, if this separation mark is above the 10cc line (remember you added 10cc of water) there is "something" in your fuel that is absorbing water....most likely some type of alcohol.

If, for example you see the separation mark at 20 cc - your initial fuel sample had 10cc of alcohol and 90cc or gasoline....so 11% alcohol in the initial sample. The interesting part here is that we've found fuels as high as 16-20% alcohol. It seems that the alcohol is added at the local level and someone doesn't understand ratios very well. Or it might be that the stuff separates in the tanks at the fuel stations and if you happen to get fuel when the tanks are low, you end up with a large alcohol ratio. Don't really know what's happening exactly yet.

The difficult part here is to seal the grad cylinder well. Almost all of them have a little pour spout so the correct rubber stopper is needed if you want to be accurate. Don't just hold your thumb over the end. And, please, remember what your dealing with and don't do the test next to your wood-burning stove.

Our research showed that most large auto manufacturers were changing their O-rings and other "rubber" products to alcohol resistant formulas starting in the middle to late 1990s. Some but not all felt that alcohol was the coming thing in fuel and guessed correctly.

This doesn't help Transalp guys in the USA with 1989 and 1990 model bikes and it's unknown if Honda (or any other motorcycle builder) actually changed these products on their motorcycle line or not.

This is pretty much all I know at this point.

On the StarTron stuff:

Our local chain saw shop has been testing fuel for the past 18 months. They have found that this product will reduce the alcohol content from 10 per cent down to about 1.5 or 2 %.

I've started using is in my motorcycles. Cost is about $10 USD for a bottle and one bottle will mix with about 50 gal. of fuel. Does it increase your fuel cost.....yep...Do you look like an arm-chair chemist at the fuel station while you get out your syringe and squirt blue stuff into your fuel tank....yep. But have you ever tried to replace your carb diaphragms on your TA....expensive, huh?

The other problems are that alcohol, being a great solvent, will remove varnish and other products from old fuel tanks, pumps and lines. All this old loose crud then lodges in idle jets and small carb passages or at the least plugs up fuel filters. So if you're not running a fuel filter....get one. Easier replacement than a carb rebuild.

On my own machines, this is the alcohol related problems I've had:
Both Clarke fuel tank caps on my DRZ400 and XR250 have degraded, cracked and gotten soft and jelly like at the inside seal - replaced.

The fuel prime "bulb" on my Briggs-Stratton mower degraded to the point that I pushed my finger into it and it fell apart with the contents of the fuel tank on the ground. This happened at the beginning of this summer. When replacing the bulb I also found the fuel line was soft and beginning to "dissolve"

The carb diaphragms on my TA developed cracks in multiple placed. Discovered during the carb rebuild at the start of the summer.

We started having life-threatening failures on our power tools at the Fire Dept.

I didn't see any relationship between these things until we got interested in the fuel problems at work.


On Performance:

I've seen no actual "performance" gain from using this additive. The biggest change I saw was in my Suzuki DR750. This bike never liked to run down around 2500-3000 RPM even though you'd think a big single would lug down without complaint. It always surged and bucked down low and generally was not happy.

With the additive the bike will pull smoothly down to about 2000 RPM without complaint.

I've seen no real change in the Transalp. It "seems" to start easier but that's pretty subjective and not very scientific.

That's all I know so far.
__________________

[mmario]

Pai da.
Inainte de '89 puneam alcool in rezervor la Dacie ca sa nu inghete apa din benzina pe conducte.
Acum o sa punem apa in rezervoare ca sa diluam alcoolul

[reltih]

e clar, deci nu avem nicio problema, in the land of choice se pune apa in pompe la benzinarii
eu zic sa nu va agitati prea tare, avem chipurile benzina E5 in prezent, deci daca v-ar fi lasat membranele carburilor in 20.000 de km acu o sa va lase in 10.000