ethanol gasoline.....

[blue34]

one of my hot rod pals was having trouble with his car not starting, running & shutting off .....for what seemed like no reason.
it is fuel injected & only gets driven a little every year. he adds Stabil to a full tank when in storage.
this is what was found when the tank was dropped & the fuel pump pulled out.....

https://postimg.cc/K1YT08SZ
(he sent me this picture this morning)


what is in the gas that will eat foam filter / pickup?
he usually uses Sunoco gas but there are times when you have to fill up with whatever is available.
this scares me as what else is it doing to our classic rides ???????

Keith

[kid vishus]

I am firmly convinced it has less to do with the ethanol in the gas than all the "cleaners" they put in it now to make it burn cleaner, and clean the chambers, injectors, etc. If that crap will eat carbon off a piston top, what does it do to foam, rubber, plastic, etc. We ethanol fuel in Iowa in the 80's, and I dont ever remember anyone having issues because of it. It was actually the "go to" fuel in the winter because it was less prone to freezing up when it got bitter cold outside. But now, now that everyone has all grades of unknown "detergents" in their fuels, everyone blames the ethanol when they have issues.
But I agree, there is something eating up stuff in fuel systems now.
I had one buddy claim to run nothing but ethanol free fuel in his old carb equiped ride because he said the ethanol was evil, then one day the car started running real bad. He pulled the bowls off the carb and they were full of a white paste like substance. To this day he still has no idea where it came from. Strange thing is, I saw that same crap in the carb on KK's racecar when I was mixing pump gas and racegas.

[Ryan Wilke]

A fella would think one of the carb builder outfits would look into this...but I suppose they'd simply just be happy selling us new carb parts!

Ryan

[rbohm]

ethanol is a good solvent, better in fact than gasoline is. and it loves to eat plastic. and even though i love ethanol as a fuel, i do recognize some of its drawbacks.

replace the pick up sock with a nice metal one, and ethanol proof the rest of the fuel system, o rings, carb needles, fuel hose, etc. and give the fuel system a good clean and that should solve your problems

[blue34]

what will happen when the push is made for a higher content of ethanol ? the stuff now eats at parts,what will more do
to our cars ?

Keith

[rbohm]

keith, basically by that time we will have changed over to ethanol proof parts, hopefully, and it wont be an issue. but then tuning will be.

[blue34]

keith, basically by that time we will have changed over to ethanol proof parts, hopefully, and it wont be an issue. but then tuning will be.

i hear you but when I am 100 miles from home in my hot rod & it breaks down due to this new gas eating parts....I get a bit disturbed....

Keith

[rbohm]

nothing new about gasoline having 10% ethanol in it, its been around for many years now. however with vintage cars, most people only drove them during the times when E10 was not required to be sold, so the issues havent creaped back into the forefront of problems.

[blue34]

nothing new about gasoline having 10% ethanol in it, its been around for many years now. however with vintage cars, most people only drove them during the times when E10 was not required to be sold, so the issues havent creaped back into the forefront of problems.

I remember well when there was no one offering anything but the ethanol. a year or so later all the rubber fuel lines on my coupe had to be replaced.
I then had fuel pump issues,replaced 2 of them in a little over 2 years.
after that there was a rash of issues with carburetors, the material flaking off the inside of the fuel bowls or a white gummy substance being found in the fuel bowls.

I cant say for sure what was going on but I do NOT want to go through the same or similar issues if & when the government pushes the E15 and up to E85 on us......

Keith
.

[rbohm]

keith, once you have replaced all the parts with alcohol proof parts, it wont matter from that point on what amount of alcohol you have in the fuel, even straight ethanol, the system is protected from problems caused by the ethanol in the fuel, as far as damage to the system goes.

[blue34]

keith, once you have replaced all the parts with alcohol proof parts, it wont matter from that point on what amount of alcohol you have in the fuel, even straight ethanol, the system is protected from problems caused by the ethanol in the fuel, as far as damage to the system goes.

I know what you are saying but with the government involved,we are taking for granted that all that is added is ethanol. what other type of junk will be added to
"help" the planet ?

Keith

[ford84stepside]

I think it is Brazil that 1/2 or more of their cars are fueled by 100% alcohol? They have been that way for years, and apparently don't have the problems we have here. It's got to be some of the cleaners or other chemicals they put in the blends that in time drop out and cause all the problems.

[rbohm]

well brazil has been using ethanol for something like four or five decades now, so their issues have gone away a long time ago. and yes there are a variety of chemicals put in US gasoline, in fact there are something like 40 different blends for use across the country. however many of these chemicals have been in use since the early 80s.

[kid vishus]

I still firmly believe it's all the crap they put in gas to make it burn "cleaner" that's causing all the problems and not the ethanol. If they are putting crap in the gas that will "clean piston tops and combustion chambers", what is that doing to aluminum parts, or rubber, or anything else it comes in contact with?