ClareQuilty

I have an old 2 stroke 150 cc Phantom but have been using gasohol for about 3 years now.

recently having problems getting it started. maybe the carburator ???????

thoughts please.

Maybe you have to buy a new carburetor. I wonder if it will cost more than you saved by buying gasohol instead of real benzine?

Maybe my information is off, but one difference between this Lifan 110 engine and the Wave 110 engine seems to be the bore and stroke:

The honda is a long stroker at 55.6, with a narrow bore of 50 and a total displacement of 109.1cc, while the Lifan has a short stroke of 49.5 and a bigger bore of 52.4, for a total displacement a bit smaller at 106.72 (but presumably still large enough they feel validated in rounding it up to 110).

I've no idea if these differences would be noticable in such small bikes, but perhaps?

To be earning as much as 30,000 baht per month you must be one of the best.

Friend, qualified teachers get around 100,000-160,000 baht a month. 30,000 is a kind of pittance, typically attracting someone who is already retired with a pension to live on, or perhaps a backpacker just doing a 'year abroad' for a lark before heading back to his 'real life', with regular remittances from mum in the meantime.

Clare, you will likely be able to get gasohol friendly kits for your carb bikes.

Perhaps, but my bikes are mostly 20 years old two-strokes - such as old Honda Tena and Nova, Suzuki Akira, and Yamaha Tiara. Though they're still common and running strong up here in the upcountry, I'm not sure there will be a market for retrofits, given the Thai tendency to simply discard and buy new.

Anyway, I'll be glad if I can get another year or two out of them on the Benzine 95.

Why risk it? They say benzine 95 is either already available or coming soon almost everywhere in Thailand, so there is no need to put that awful stuff (gasohol) in your bike. The savings in baht over a year would be negligable, and it is reputed to get worse mileage anyway.

If you... believe that over 100 million cars in america are going to crap from gasohol. Then by all means spend that extra money. I am sure the oil companies wont complain.

The kind of cars I like - very old cars - probably are going to crap from gasohol. But none of this really has anything to do with the oil companies - its more of a political/agriculture boondoggle. I'm sure the oil companies would prefer to sell people what they actually want - plain, real gas (leaded too, for that matter), but the government and the agricultural constituency won't allow it.

It seems now confirmed that Benzine 95 is available almost everywhere in Thailand (my Thai friends just confirmed it is widely available in Udon Thani and Khon Kaen provinces, and the station managers have promised it is 'coming soon' here in Maha Sarakham).

My only remaining question is this - for how long? I suppose it is still being manufactured and is a long-term 'get-around' the new law against Benzine 91. But for how long?

Why risk it? They say benzine 95 is either already available or coming soon almost everywhere in Thailand, so there is no need to put that awful stuff (gasohol) in your bike. The savings in baht over a year would be negligable, and it is reputed to get worse mileage anyway.

Maybe it's just after long term use that you notice the car's engine begin effect of gasohol.

The car does sit for long periods of time without anyone driving it. Maybe storage time with gasohol has to be in question.

You're exactly right - the problem with gasohol isn't anything about its immediate effect on the 'running' or 'power' of the car/motorbike, it is the slow insidious damage it does to all sorts of parts and systems of your vehicle.

That said, normally gasohol will give you much worse feul mileage, as I understand it.

I love you use benzine but I think I'm going to make the move to gasohol v-power 95. I tried some today and on my way to work it feels good. I wonder how it will be after a month of using it though.

The damage and problems usually take a few months to show up, from slow dissolving/corrosion of your plastic and rubber parts.

For example, even two stroke motobikes of mine have run fine in the short term on one tank of gasohol (accidentally pumped), but typically older bikes will develop lots of fuel leaks and carburetor problems after a few months of gasohol use.

PTT is ramping up production of 95 benzine

Drove from Pattaya to Chiang Mai yesterday and found it all the way, Not every station yet, but not really a problem

Fantastic news. I visited PTTs here in the Maha Sarakham area twice today and in both they said 91 Benzine would be finished in a month or so, but assured me they would definitely have 95 Benzine.

two things are going to happen

either the price comes down or demand is so low that it is gone

and if you look at the economics - what's the point of any of it

The point is a lot of people have old vehicles that would either be ruined or at least rack up lots of costly repairs if they used gasohol in them. Thus, the price would have to go up awfully high to make driving a 5,000 baht Honda Tena more expensive than buying a 50,000 new scooter, or a 50,000 baht 30 year old Toyota more expensive to drive than going out and getting a new 500,000 baht car.

I've heard that Benzine may still be available in the 95 version. Is this possible? I drive a 30 year old Toyota Corolla that I suspect will be harmed if I put gasohol in it.

Urban myth...no harm will come to it. Check out my recent posts and posted video on this topic.

Wow, I hope you are right, but I can't find your posts and video.

Does any one know why you would have to reset the memory and re calibrate the gearbox ?

Because you didn't buy the 5-spd manual version like a sensible person?

I've heard that Benzine may still be available in the 95 version. Is this possible? I drive a 30 year old Toyota Corolla that I suspect will be harmed if I put gasohol in it.

CQ, next time you buy an old bike, start it, let it warm up a bit, rev it a little to clear the engine ect, then put the front wheel against a wall, rev it a bit in gear[or auto] and listen to the engine, Has the note changed? is there knocking noises under load? if so avoid it !!!

Thanks for the tip, Lickey! That's a great piece of advice.

maybe theres a tax break on the 95 to stop the riots while the benzine 91 is being discontinued ?

When 91 disappears from here I'll believe it. http://www.eppo.go.t...ail_prices.html if 95 becomes readily available even better.

Yeah, personally I find the octane numbers dubious and anyway irrelevant to the kind of bikes I drive. But I dread the damage caused by the gasohol. That said, I do know people that claim they run two-strokes on gasohol 10%.

About the Benzine 95 - is this allowed by law while Benzine 91 is banned? That sounds strange/unlikely.

(btw, thanks for the fantastic link there)

Just after my last post I was out and about, and stopping in at my local 'no name' gas station I discovered that in fact they no longer had 91 red benzine, but only 95 benzine and 91 gasohol.

However here was the bizarre thing - the 95 benzine was only 39.9 baht per liter, when 91 benzine had been about 43 or 44 at my last fill-up at PTT (which still had it here as of today).

So, what happened? I asked the gasser-girl repeatedly if it was really benzine, and she insisted it was.. so, what happened? Lower tax?

And do you all believe that 95 benzine will continue, or will it be running out soon?

It looks like it's gone here in Buriram province as well, at the local PT station in Nang Rong the 2 Benzine 91 pumps were replaced by Benzine 95 ( red sign) there also selling gasohol 95.

I'm a bit surprised by this, is this a better ( higher octane) benzine? i never saw this benzine for sale at a PT station. according to the guy at the pump it's without alchohol, the price was 49,52 a liter.

When it would be "real" benzine 95 i'm happy ( much better for my 2T bikes)

Somebody can confirm this??

Wow, this is fantastic, and I'm also a bit surprised - the key is that one wants to avoid gasohol, and the 91 or 95 octane designation is not important. The gasohol will destroy old motors, particularly the reliable old two-strokes I love, and dissolve any rubber/plastic parts in fuel systems and carburetors.

So far here in Maha Sarakham all the stations still have 91 red benzine. I haven't asked them whether they will continue to have it as I seriously doubt they have any idea.

So far I've been loaning the bike to a fellow who mostly uses it for quite short trips, and it is working for that purpose. But for anything above about 5-6 kilometers, it starts knocking again and that's that - has to rest for 10 minutes or so before going on. Guess its a lost cause.

Thank guys, especially Lickey and Transam - the car had a mechanical fuel pump in its original form, but it is now on at least its second 'electric pump'. It is apparently normal in Thailand to replace the original mechanical pump with an electric pump - perhaps the mechanical one is hard to source. I consider this too bad as I don't trust electric fuel pumps much.

Anyway, the car has run a few hour long trips now since the repair and seems fine, so maybe nothing to worry about. My mechanic does speak English but not very well.

Another mishap befell the ancient Toyota Corolla Ke-70 a few days ago - it died after a short 8 kilometer run (but just after two weeks of long 4-6 hour trips), and wouldn't start. It also reeked of gas. I had it towed in, and the mechanic said that it had gasoline in the motor oil, and that he guessed it might be ruined.

Then a few days later, after he tore into it, he said it was fine. He cleaned the carburetor, cleaned out the oil/gas mix, and changed the oil.. he didn't mention or charge for any specific gaskets or other replacement parts.

The car runs great - a little better than it did before the mishap. Also no signs of loss of compression or damage to the rings/cylinder walls, etc. (no smoke from the tailpipe, either at startup or any time).

So, what I'm wondering is this - how on earth could gasoline get into the engine oil? I would've thought it would require a bad gasket or 'head' or something like that.

The rebuild didn't touch the lower end of the engine - just the piston/rings, etc. I guess the previous owner ran the bike without oil, which not only wore down the rings, causing it to smoke heavily (though it still ran well) - the reason I took it to be rebuilt in the first place. This same running without oil apparently damaged the bearing/ping/crankshaft, whatever that is. I've no idea if he took it apart while he had it to make this diagnosis, but I doubt it - there was again no charge for the attempt.

Ah, alas I just picked up the bike today, and the guy said he could do no more for it. However he had diagnosed the problem - it is the 'lower end' or 'bottom end' of the motor. I think they call it the crankshaft or crankcase, or possibly the wrist-pin. Its the thing that transfers the up-and-down motion of the piston to the rotating motion of the drive-shaft.

He said this would be 2,000 baht to replace, which I thought was far too much to spring for (throwing good money after bad as they say). He did say he thought the bike could still be used as-is, but I think it is pretty marginal and perhaps quite unsafe. Not sure what to do with a bike like this.. are there salvagers who might pay a few baht for something like that?

What was the bike running like before the 'rebuild'? It sounds like your spanner man has made the bike worse with his fiddling. Maybe you could ask one of those retired foreign gentlemen or a fellow teacher in your locality if they know of a recommended mechanic, because I can't see your present one resolving the issues and you'll continue throwing good money after bad.

It was running ok but smoked terribly, however it was already developing a kind of bucking or jerking phenomenon at times. So far he hasn't really charged much for subsequent visits - I think he feels an obligation to fix whatever he may have done wrong.

Anyway its the same mechanic I've always used for all my rebuilds. Maybe he's only good at two strokes. I'll try another one next time, if there's a next time.

Just caught up with your posts CQ, What you are describing sounds like a gummed up main jet in the carb, this will cause "pinking" pre-detonation of fuel and bang and popping from the exaust on closed throttle when slowing down,

I see you are away for a week or so, but try to contact mechanic and tell him to overhaul/clean carb..

Thanks Lickey. It isn't a bang from the exhaust, or pinging, more like a death rattle from within the engine. At first it made me think it was totally ruined, but after the first few times, it always ran ok again for the first few minutes after a cold start the next day. Whatever it is, the sounds are from the engine itself, right under my feet, not the exhaust or out the back. And as it makes the noises, it loses power and then jerks back on again.. but eventually after a few minutes of this it dies out completely for a while.

Anyway as you say I'm out of town, and he's got the bike back for a full week.. we'll see what he makes of it. Hope he doens't charge anything much, because by now I've far more in the bike than its worth (approaching the 10k mark!).

Even though modern 2 stroke engines are as clean as 4 strokes manufacturers face a tough time getting them accepted because of pressure by the Green lobby who stick their fingers in their ears at the merest mention of 2 strokes. Hopefully, one day

Hopefully not. And it's not the treehugers who prevent them, but everymen who don't want to fall out of the bed when one of those bloody things passes our homes, and can be heard for a further mile. I don't think you want 2 stokes because they are clean, or cheaper, or simpler than 4 strokes, but you love the hell of a noise they make, and the revs.

Yeah, about half of my two strokes are noisy, but about half are not - it just depends on how you set them up. On the other hand, it is true that even the quieter ones aren't quite as quiet as some of the extremely quiet four strokes. Still, this is hardly a good enough reason to stick us all with boring, second-rate technology.