Update, melted rubber in gas tank

Rocket Scientist said:

It's an all to common practice for gas stations to allow carriers to dump toxic chemicals into gas storage tanks for a little under the table cash. It happened to my father. He bought gas to put in his mower. When he started it he said it barley ran and made the octane rattle sound really bad. He drained it back into the gas can, got a different can, went to a different gas station and everything was fine. He said he noticed the next day the can with the contaminated gas had formed a skin over the pour spout, like what forms on paint when you leave the lid off to long. Another possibility is someone put something like E10 or higher alcohol doped gasoline. Here is some info on E10. They have up to E25

List: E10 Engine Damage & Performance Issues.

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barbagris said:

I have seen something similar on an old classic car. I was told that it has something to do with stabilising and aromatic agents in unleaded fuel.

If left standing - some can start to react with synthetic rubber (and it's all synthetic in there) forming long polymer chains. Smelt foul too. Oddly leaded fuel stopped this. Oh well. If the fuel is not allowed to sit still - no problems.

The bacterial thing - could be. My niece is a petrochemical engineer and researched something along those lines for her thesis - bacterial degradation of old tyres.

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peter k said:

Sounds like your neice might be the person to ask

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mport said:

Ethanol eats away at rubber and plastic parts, dissolving them over time. If your bike sat for awhile before you bought it with high levels of ethanol in the fuel, this coud have caused the problem.
My brothers Bonneville had the same problem from 10% ethanol[or so the pump said] stored in his bike over the winter. It ate every rubber part it touched. The inside of the fuel lines dissolved. I would hate to see what E85 fuel would do!

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