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On Wed, 2006-03-29 at 22:05, Hal Sullivan wrote: > On Mar 29, 2006, at 8:37 AM, Steven Ayres wrote: > > HalS=> until corrosion from the alcohol turned their carbs, metal fuel > > lines > > => and gas tanks into junk. > > Can anyone tell me what the chemical process would be with E85 here > > and specifically which metals would be affected? > > The main problem isn't the alcohol itself, it's water. Ethanol is > hydroscopic and collects moisture from the water vapor in the air, just > like brake fluid does. Anything that oxidizes in the presence of water > is going to eventually have problems. The first place to show it > would be the jets and passages in the carburetor, or the pintle & seats > on fuel injectors. Those have to have fairly precise tolerances to > work correctly. Rust issues with the fuel lines & tanks come later. > > A programmable EFI used with pieces from a Flex-fuel vehicle and mapped > for E85 would take care of most of it. A set of 6 injectors from a FFV > Ford costs about $75 from the wreckers, add a fuel pump, filter & > pressure regulator and you'd be mostly good to go. Once E85 is more > widely available, building an engine with E85 in mind would be a good > thing -- alcohol likes higher compression, and tends to run cooler as > well. > > Can you tell I've thought about this some? >:-) > I have not bought anything but Ethanol for the last 10 years. And have had no problems at all, except, that I kept plugging the fuel filters on the '71 FB until I replaced the gas tank. It was just breaking the crud loose that was in the tank from sitting for 15 years. And I will REPEAT, Ethanol will not hurt any component in a fuel system. IT IS A WIVES TAIL. Except the accumulated varnish in an old system. We do tests like this constantly at work. That is our business. -- Russ Wolfe '71 FB AT '66 FB MT '64 T34 (not running) '65 T1 (not running) '05 KIA Sorento SUV russw@classicvw.org http://www.classicvw.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~