Fuel Stabilizer for new Z Turn

[tomplum]

Great resource. There are a good many near me but according to the list most of them are low octane or midgrade. Manual on the Kawasaki recommends high octane. Not sure which tradeoff would be better. Maybe a tank of ethanol free midgrade for storage and then 10% ethanol 93 octane for regular in season use?

Really. Didn't know that. Does the manual give a suggested octane or just the preference for premium?

 

[N80]

Really. Didn't know that. Does the manual give a suggested octane or just the preference for premium?

I'm not sure. I do not have the manual for the Kawasaki FR with me. I do have the manual for the Kohler Command PRO on my saw mill. It says:

"Octane rating of 87 (R+M)/2 or higher"

Then:

"Research Octane Number of 90 octane minimum"

There is a chance the Kawasaki manual said the same thing and I confused the Research Octane Number with the (R+M)/2 octane rating (which I think is the number you see on the pump). So if that is the case then no problem adding 87 octane ethanol free fuel.

Interesting thing in the Kohler manual about storage: "Add Kohler PRO Series fuel treatment or equivalent to the tank.......(failures due to untreated fuel are not warrantable).

This suggests to me that either fuel treatments actually work or they want to sell a lot of Kohler fuel treatment or they want to avoid warranty work. Maybe all three.

I would like to know how the average consumer is supposed to know what the equivalent of Kohler PRO series fuel treatment is?

 

[tomplum]

Good question. I've sold the Starbrite /Startron before. Then I went to Kinetics as I sell their oil. I think Startron used to say that it biologically changed the fuel? Lots of claims. Buy the bottle of whatever that says something about dealing with ethanol issues. Where I live it is a moderate climate. That makes it easy to run engines once a month. Probably the best thing right there and the stabilizer is the icing on the cake. Of course, who wants to hook up and run a pressure washer just for the sake of running it.

 

[RalphVa]

I bought a new Cub Cadet ZT2 z-turn this summer. It has the Kawasaki 22 hp FR engine. I have never owned a grass cutting device that cost this much money. I either mowed with the rotary cutter on the tractor or a push mower. During the off season I never did anything to my push mowers for seasonal storage. But, I want to do what the manual says since the z-turn/Kawsaki is too expensive to ignore. The manual says to either run the gas out or fill it up, add fuel stablizer and then run it for a minute or two.

Well, as it turns out my tank is more than half full so I'm planning on option #2. I only put 93 octane in it but it does have 10% ethanol. I don't know of anywhere locally where I can get ethanol free gas.

So, I'll fill it up and put fuel stablizer in it but I don't know what to use. The manual does not make any recommendations in that regard. I have used Sta-Bil in my gas cans that sit for long periods but don't know if that is right for this application. My understanding (which may be totally wrong) of Sta-Bil is that it sits on top of the gasoline and acts as a barrier to water absorption. Good enough in the tank, but not sure if that provides any benefit within the rest of the fuel system, lines, carb., etc.

I'm looking for recommendations. Open to anything that makes sense or that has worked for you guys.

A dollup of Sea Foam wouldn't hurt. That what I used when I had little gasoline engines in addition to Stabil. Only have battery powered ZT and self propelled now.