o.k-one thing might not have fo do with another but, I own a 1600 Vulcan Nomad (Kawasaki) motorctcle..being it is a kaw-I use motorcucle oil of course for the fact that regualar car oil can ruin the clutch...has anyone asked if the synthetic oil that everyone seems to be using can effect the clutch? and if not then mobile one does make a zero/thirty full synthetic oil which when cold will crank up quicker and lubricate much faster thus avoiding any problems from an engine that might be sitting for more than one week...also oil should be changed every 3000 miles for vehicles, and motorcycles or six months, which ever comes first...on my X304 I changed the oil at seven hrs and will continue to do so...as far as synthetic in a lawn tractor this is new to me so I have not used it yet..but one more word of wisdom, once you use synthetic you cannot go back to regular oil, nor can you mix them as this will do more damage than good...now I will wait to hear all the experts, such as myself reply to this one, but be kind as I am old and fragil..lol

I'm not sure exactly what you are implying in your reference to ethanol free fuel and spark knock. Whether the fuel is formulated with ethanol or not, it is the octane rating of the fuel that one needs to be cautious of (regarding the need to control spark knock) if you have a choice of buying ethanol laced fuels, or ethanol free. I have doubts about a 1980s engine having a compression ratio high enough to require use of anything above 87 octane rating. The real concerns of ethanol blended fuels is that some rubber parts of the fuel system components might not fare very well in the presence of ethanol, plus the fact that ethanol blended fuels DO tend to collect more water vapor from the atmosphere (through tank vent respiration) and precipitate that out later on. Your vintage of engine might in fact benefit from keeping ethanol away from its rubber fuel system parts as ethanol blended fuels were well below the OEM radar back them days. Most of the issues due to ethanol attacking certain rubber parts has been addressed by OEMs improving ethanol resistance in the latest rubber compounds they use for making their parts. As to the extra water..........about the only way to guard against that becoming a problem is to not store large amounts of fuel for extended periods of time. One way to keep from having extra fuel on hand for the OPE fleet is top off the fuel tank as far as it can be filled at the time of dead-lining the machine for the off season. A completely full tank respires less volume of atmosphere when ambient temperatures fluctuate. After doing that, any fuel you have left over should be poured into your car or truck fuel tank for daily driving.

dwpc generally, dual fuel systems are advisable when one's area/climate is favorable to leverage electric and fossil fuel such as nat gas, propane, or oil for winter heating. what is your electric rate? any special rate incentive available for HP heating? and what is your cost for best fossil fuel choice? I suggest you crunch the numbers on attached fuel comparison calculator. IMO Here is a link that might be useful: Fuel Comparison Calculator

More Stuff: 1. Clothes lines (Ever run under one while riding your bicycle? Gives a real meaning to the term, "clothes lined.) 2. Monday laundry day with the Maytag Washer powered by a small gasoline engine. (The engine could be cantankerous.) The washer sat outside with very little protection from the weather. 3. Introduction of the safety wringer. The safety wringer became necessary once the wringer became powered by a motor. Too many horror stories happened when the lady of the house got her hair or sleeve caught in the wringer. This safety feature came in two styles: 1) When an object got between the rollers that spread those beyond the normal diatance, the mechanism was tripped and literally came apart to disengage drive power to the roller. 2) A trip bar was placed in front to the wringers. When something got drawn into the trip bar, the mechanism came apart. In an emergency, a person could hit the trip bar to stop the wringer. 4. Fence stretchers. Used to intall barbed wire fencing. 5. Home made kites using weed stems for light weight sticks and newspaper for covering. (We had access to big, woody weeds called horseweed.) The paper was held by home made paste made of flour or corn starch. We raided the 'rag bag' for material to make the tail. 6. Rubber band powered model airplanes. (Not very effective.) 7. Cap pistols and Roy Rogers and LOne Ranger outfits. 8. Hand and foot operated air pumps for inflating tires. 9. Daisy BB guns. 10. Manual shifters and clutches - no automatic transmissions. 11. Hill holders - Kept the car from rolling backward while stopped at a traffic light on a hill. Ever try to go from keeping the car from rolling backard and shifting into gear to go forward on a hill? And do it smoothly? You needed an extra foot. 12. Brake light swithces were pressure switches plumbed to the hydraulic brake lines. Occasionaly, one would leak badly or the diaphram failed and caused loss of brakes. That's when the manual 'parking brake' became an emergency brake. In fact, in Model-A Fords with mechanical brakes, that little lever was called the emergency brake and it as needed. I know from personal experience. 13. Before combines, there were mowing machines, hay rakes, binders, and threshing machines. 14. Autos running without air cleaners could expect to need new rings every 20,000 to 30,000 miles. 15. Road draft tubes. Fumes from the crankcase was vented underneath the engine through an open tube. The end of the tube was cut on an angle. The air flow over the end of the tube induced a weak draft to help purge the crankcase. Where did the stuff go? On the road and the underside of the car. Look at photos of highways from the 1940s and you can obvserve an oil streak in the center of the lane unless the concrete was very new. This oil streak was a peril to motorcyclist when they leaned into a turn and happened to creep into this oil slick especailly if it was bit wet. 16. Steam engines on railroads. I remember the phase out of the last of these on the Balitmore and Ohio railway. 17. Hobos. 18. Huckster Trucks. During WW2 when everything was rationed, county grocery stores ran a panel truck route to their customers homes bringing basic items like bread, canned goods, sugar, spices, salt, etc. The made two runs per week. If an item was not on the truck on Monday, you could place an order and it would be delivered 2 to 3 days later on their next run. The huckester truck was given a gasoline alowance, but most farmers had only enough gasoline for their tractors and very little 'ration stamps' for tires. Autos remained parked for days on end. The national speed limit was 45 mph for private vehicles. 19. Bell bottomed trousers. 20. Pant leg clips - to keep pant legs out of the bicycle chain. - very necessary with bell bottoms. 21. Schwinn was a big name in bicycles. It no longer exists. I beleive that the tradename is still emplyed.