Here is a list of ethanol free gas station in MO:
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=MO
That web page needs to get promoted more, IMHO.
I've seen that before. Unfortunately all of those places are outside St. Louis by a
far distance, and most in rural areas. Due to air pollution standards, and high concentrations of traffic in a relatively small area, we get stuck with ethanol gas.
I suspect, but can't prove, that this crap is responsible for other problems related to fuel system as well. Like, why won't fuel line last longer than a season without shrinking and getting hard as a rock. I recently had to replace my K/N factory style air filter because
the rubber frame shrank and became rock hard like the fuel line. The element frame
will no longer fit the lip that locates it in the airbox. I bought a good used one (thanks Mr. Breeze), and compared it to my own. Probably 2-3% shrinkage compared to the replacement, and far less flexable/supple.
Right you are: the ethanol causes the neoprene to swell almost 10% in length (O-rings and seals, too), causing fuel leaks. When dried back out, it then has removed the flex elements of neoprene, making it brittle and stiff. Even the best fuel hoses, rated for ethanol, suffer from this, so superior clamps are needed when the hoses are wetted.
One fine example: I recently struggled to change a fuel pump (inside the gas tank) on my car. Upon removal, the O-ring that seals the tank SPRANG out of the metal clamp when I released it. It had grown more than 1" in diameter. There was no way to put it back together. I ordered a new O-ring seal, which took 3 days to arrive. When I crawled back under the car, the original O-ring was once again the correct diameter, but very stiff and inflexible. Always the Experimenter, I dipped in into the gas again for a few minutes, went to lunch. When I came back, it was almost 1/2" larger OD again. I installed instead the new one, but kept the old seal ring (metal) to see what happened next: the following day, the old O-ring fit back into the groove, but slightly tight.
The ethanol swelled the O-ring more than 10% in diameter, and made the cross-section almost that much thicker. When it finally dried out, it was 3% smaller (cross-section) than the brand-new one I had bought, and the ID of the O-ring was about 2% smaller, too.
After sitting in the garage for another 2 weeks, the wetted side of the seal ring, now stripped of its plating by the ethanol, rusted a LOT. Here in desert Colorado, that's very unusual. I see it happen inside our fuel tanks, often. The only way I have found to stop it is to coat the inside of the tanks with POR15, nothing else seems to work and last.
In the engine: the valve guides (stock iron ones) lose all lubrication with ethanol, which is why I often recommend top oil in the gas. Bronze guides improve things somewhat, but can still benefit from some top oil in the gas. I've recently switched to using synthetic 2-stroke oils, to try to reduce the buildup in the pipes: these really AREN'T 2-strokers, so the pipes aren't designed to not collect oil...this stuff is supposed to burn more completely in the engine. We'll see?
