10% Ethanol at the pump????

A few gas stations around me now only sell gas w/ 10% ethanol, and more of them around me have little signs up saying that its on the way. I saw a flier up on one of the pumps that said it could be harmful to pre 84' vehicles, and to check your owners manual. What does it harm and how? My daily driver is a 54' chevy with a 235, so its safe to say its pre 84', but I hight doubt the owners man. would adress this issue...


Thanks,
Cory

 

Here in the NW they make us burn that **** every winter.
Your milage will be worse. And it will clean all the **** from tank to carb. Your carb will be fouled with ****!!! Lots of fuel filter replacing and carb cleaning. On my "74" it took about 6 tanks before it had cleaned all it was going to clean
Good luck.

 

stovebolts don't have hardened seats either, but unleaded hasn't caused much trouble there. i have used 10% in mine, no difference as far as i could smell. i think a 235 can run on piss if it has too.

 

It eats rubber.

You're going to notice a distinct loss in power and fuel milage with the ethanol, it takes more alcohol to run a motor than gasoline.

 

dude you and texas are ****ed!!! it is the crazy wack job left leaning california liberals trying to get one over on ya'll. there wont be a running car in texas after a few weeks.

 

ethanol is an alcohol that is made from corn just like all alcohols it will deteriorate gaskets an seals in the engine it will also break up any old carbon or crud in you fuel system, if the tank and lines are original i would try to find fuel without ehtanol because it will start to clean everything out and your car will run like **** for a long time

 

Ethanol is the hottest subject in the popular media around here. You cannot swing a dead cat without hitting an ethanol pump, it's all you can buy in most areas. If your engine will burn unleaded it will burn 10% ethanol. You may need to replace a filter or two and if your rubber seals are really old it may dry them out. It's all I burn in my engines from my flatheads to my late model injected LT1.

 

It's all we burn up here too, not like we have a choice But they're mysterious about it and the pump says "may contain" 10% ethanol

Flatman

 

i bet you flat land corn loving tornado havin midwesterners must worship that stuff...

(i am waiting for E-85 to be available up here, that way i can drag the '59 out and run it with its original 11.5:1 engine still intact...anyways what would be cooler than cruising a forward look mopar on environmentally friendly fuel...talk about an oxy***** or ironic.)

 

Yeah they told us that it was only for the winter...now we get it all year round...the 68 galaxie didn't care, but the 81 f-150 HATES it!

Aint got the y-block running yet so who knows...

 

actualy every pump here you have a choice of with 10% or not. but it all costs the same anyways. as far the worshiping goes, its providing alot of jobs with all the plans going up but its kind of a let down that the e-85 stuff costs just as much as normal gas does.

though who didnt expect that? i mean what gas station chain is going to carry a product they dont make for waaaaay less then there stuff.
every place ive seen it sold its only a few pennies away from normal gas

 

I drove my '87 Caprice (4.3 TBI V6) to a swap meet in M***achusettes a few years ago, and got stuck with a tankful of this wonderful racing fuel. It would run on anything....except that. It spark knocked its way back to Albany, getting about 5mpg less than it usually did, where I filled it with Sunoco Ultra in an attempt to dilute it--end of problem.

 

Ran my roadster in TX for years. One tank of gas in CA melted my gas tank sealer. Extended my roadtrip home about 2 days. I am not looking forward to this.

 

E-85 is at least a dollar cheaper per gallon in my area than 87 octane pump gas...typically hovers 10 to 20 cents below the 2 dollar a gallon mark, with regular running the same below 3 dollars a gallon...

 

I've run 10% Ethanol almost exclusively in every one of my vehicles since 1978. A couple of them that never ran it before needed a fuel filter change or 2 as it will dissolve any varnish in the fuel system, but that's the extent of any additional maintenance. Once they're clean they stay clean. I'm not noticing fuel mileage any worse than people I know who don't use it, but 10% of your fuel does contain about 50% less energy so it could make a slight difference....about 1mpg on a car that normally gets 20mpg. I also have never had any problems with moisture in the fuel, in a part of the country where there's a big winter market in "Heet" gas line antifreeze. Ethanol is certainly milder than the Methanol in Heet. Unless you're using NOS gasket sets virtually all rubber gaskets and O rings have been reformulated to be immune to alcohol in the fuel. This is an issue that generates strong feelings but I have trouble seeing a down side.

 

We've had ethenol here for a few years and i haven't noticed a big difference in performance but thats been only in daily drivers.working in a radiator shop that did fuel tank repairs i did see lots of older sealed tanks come in because the sealers in them either turned to jelly in the system or peeled in sheets and clogged lines.been wondering what you folks were talking about when calling it e85 till you started talking 10% ethanol.expect it to loosen **** in your system like folks been saying also it will attack rubber anything gas hose gaskets etc.

 

E85 is 85% Ethanol which requires a "flex-fuel" EFI system in order to use the full range of fuels on the market. It's practically unknown here although a fair numbere of cars on the road sport a "flex-fuel" badge on the fender.

 

if you run ethanol you are a no good long hair tree hugging hippie.

btw, anyone know of a website where i can find what stations sell e85 in a gneral vicinity, i am not having much luck.

thanks -

 

We have been running it in south east Wisconsin for years now with no real problems, maybe about a 5 percent fuel mileage loss. With the alcohol already in the gas you don't need any fuel system deicer in the winter. Been running it in the 348 for about 3 years now with no problems.

 

We've had it up this way since the 70's. Never had a problem....even in the lawn mower or the snowblower.

My dealer warned me against running it in my '85 Virago....B.S. ! 15,000 miles on that from new and it performed flawlessly the whole time.

 

http://www.e85fuel.com/database/search.php

Contrary to popular belief ethanol can be made from a slew of other things besides corn. There are plenty of crops that take much less work to grow and the farmers can rotate crops so they don't overwork their fields.... I can't wait for E85 here....

 

guess i can go to either berkeley or livermore...it is a start atleast, thanks!

 

E-85 will be consumed at a 20% faster rate than general gasoline. Just so you folks know, this is a huge step in the right direction. E-85 has the octance eqivilency of 106. Think about how cool it will be to run a 13:1 motor on pump gas and not pollute the atmosphere. The very first internal combustion engine was powered on a combination of alcohol and turpentine in 1826, and ethanol was discovered before tetraethyl lead to prevent knock, and is in fact considerably better. TEL was not only incredibly toxic to people, but it was bad for engines too. Alcohol burns cooler too, which would help alleviate alot of cooling issues as well. I don't see much of a downside to running E85 or gas with ethanol.

 

Put an inline filter back near the tank. Any crud that is loosened will not make it's way to the fuel pump and carb. Over a short period of time, the system will be cleaned out, (unless you just pulled the car out of a junkyard where it's been sitting for 40 years, then drop the tank and clean it out, before)........ ....................

 

Here in Seattle, we've had 10% ethanol for years. The cars affected most were the small **** (like CVCC Hondas with a tiny third barrel on the carb, and small jets - maybe .030" or so) that plugged up real easy.

I did lots of carb cleanouts - good $$$!

I used to install Racor fuel filters (I think they are marine) which would catch a lot of the stuff. You need real fine filtering on those CVCC hondas because any **** in the bowl wreaks havoc.

None of my flatheads or V8 cars had any problems whatsoever (I was probably just lucky), any crud knocked loose just went thru the jets and on its merry way. Luckily, I never had any tanks with sealant or anything else to cause problems.

Advice: good fuel filter, drain tank, blow out lines, make deposit at karma bank.

Best of luck.

-bill

 

Can I run E85 in my flathead if I fatten it up a little?

 

i am sure you can run it in any old car...i guess you will need to adjust the air to fuel to richen it up enough though.

i think that if i were to run the windsor on it, i would get a demon carb (cnc'd internals) and jet it from there, should work pretty nice.

 

Yeah and you'll need to retard the timing as well... But it can be done... I'll be running an old Nailhead on it when it gets here...

 

One problem is less BTU or heat energy per measure of fuel. Your engine will make less power and run leaner on this oxygenated fuel. Some older cars need the idle channel restrictions in the carb opened up a few thousands and the main jet upped one or two numbers to restore idle quality and eliminate surging at cruise speed. Hell,lawnmower engines with fixed main jet carbs need them opened up a bit to run right too! This keeps up we will all be hunting for fuel Like Ernest Borgnine did in Escape From NewYork.

 

jaybee hit the nail on the head, we've had it in our area since I started driving in 1986 I've used it to some extent in every vehicle I've owned with minimal to no problems. My wife works at an ethanol plant now so its all I buy, I'm smart enough to see who ****ers my bread