moonshine

[Dieselnut59]

I was tinkering around and thinking in my shop, as I was filtering up my cooking oil to run in my diesel vehicles tonight and came up with a crazy idea. Why not put some of my favorite non beer spirits in my pushmower? After all, it, my chain saw, weed whacker and leaf blower are the only non diesel (biodiesel) powered pieces of equipment I have! So, being the alternative fuel thinking feller I am (and the freedom from government/taxation feller I am!), I decided to pour a little of my "spirits" into my antique push mower's gasoline tank. This little mower is a 22 inch cut, 3.5 horsepower Briggs & Stratton powered machine. It has the 1 quart gasoline tank mounted directly to the "Pulsa-Jet" carburetor. This sucker is pre EPA, pre government regulation, antique, probably from the early to mid 1970s. It runs like a charm, even on 2 stroke fuel (which is all I keep since I have nothing else that is actually straight gasoline powered). Well, I had just enough 2 stroke fuel (93 octane gasoline, mixed 50:1 with 2 stroke oil) to fill it's little 1 quart tank halfway up, so I decided to get my "spirits" out of the deep freeze and fill it the rest of the way with that (after consuming a small "shot" myself). I fired the trusty ole mower up, it ran like normal until the "mix" got through the carburetor. I then had to really lean it out, but damn this thing has the power! It smells different too, much like my veggie oil/diesel blend versus straight diesel in my other equipment/vehicles. That got me wondering, have any of yall alternative fuel folks ever tried or thought about this? I have heard moonshine is not too much different than ethanol that is sometimes blended with gasoline anyway, but this stuff must be stronger than the road stuff, cause this little 3.5 horse engine runs more like a 5 horse engine on this blend. I have considered building a moonshine still, but if I can "justify" it by running my only non diesel equipment on a blend of the same product, I will get with this project sooner....for personal consumption only, of course! Plus, I have been unable to find a 5 horsepower vertical shaft, air cooled diesel engine. Have any of yall ever tried or heard of running moonshine or home made ethanol in a small gasoline engine? Thanks for any opinions!