Yes, I'm convinced ethanol free gas is better in any engine that was designed for it. Isn't easy to find now, though. Can you get it in Taos? As I said, there's none in Ruidoso and there certainly isn't a drop of it for sale around Dallas.
In a very recent post I showed three vials of ethanol gas. 2 had been unused for apx two months. They were the color of strong urine and burned more slowly with great amounts of black sooty smoke which reminded me of a wellhead fire. A tarry molasses looking sticky residue was left after burning. One vial was just out of the pump. It burned with less smoke and seemed to burn a bit more quickly with less leftover residue. Point being if you drive your vehicle infrequently, don't keep a lot of gas in it and don't expect it to start easily nor run very well. There is nobody anywhere who could convince me running ethanol gas which had aged for 2 months or more (as my test vials had) would not produce sooty exhaust and nasty deposits in a stovebolt or other similar engine. This crap is a ticking time bomb.
After the experiment of burning the 2 month old gas, I started searching for data. I found a short Road & Track article which sort of sums up what I thought. They said gas starts going bad in 30 days and exposure to air worsens the situation (even the air in your gas tank or can).
I've found more info and it all pretty much says the same thing. So what is the answer? A lot of people are convinced you should add Sta-Bil into gas immediately. I haven't used it, so I haven't made any decisions about it yet. Sta-Bil is about $50 a gallon. A gallon equals 128 ounces. 1 ounce of Sta-Bil per 2.5 gallons of fuel means if you have a 15 gallon tank, you will need to add 6 ounces of Sta-Bil per fill-up. This means your gallon will last you for about 21 fill-ups. This means $50/21 = about $2.40 extra cost per fill-up or a little over 16 cents a gallon extra so your gas doesn't turn to worse crap than it already is. Years ago when unleaded gas first appeared, there was a product you could add to gas which was supposed to solve the problem for vehicles/machinery not designed for unleaded gas. All it did was successfully transfer your money into somebody else's pocket.
