MORE watered down gas

I'm a bit curious about watering down ethanol. If I'm not mistaken, HEAT is pretty much straight ethyl alcohol which mixes with gasoline and absorbs water. How much water will "gasohol" absorb and how much water could one dump into a tank of gas with a corresponding amount of ethanol before cars cease to run on it? gm

AND is the reason you seldom hear about water in your fuel system anymore because of the ethanol in gas? gm

(quoted from post at 08:47:12 05/15/18) I'm a bit curious about watering down ethanol. If I'm not mistaken, HEAT is pretty much straight ethyl alcohol which mixes with gasoline and absorbs water. How much water will "gasohol" absorb and how much water could one dump into a tank of gas with a corresponding amount of ethanol before cars cease to run on it? gm

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Technically, the two are completely miscible. That is, there is no real definitive limits when Ethanol and water are mixed. Natural bonding is dependent on temp quite a bit but if water were added to Ethanol at the refinery in a dilution method, the water would take up about 11% by weight of the compound. However, it could be much higher based on mixing, storage, temp, etc.

As for how much HEET or Ethanol will absorb from the atmosphere, that is entirely dependent on conditions. If the Ethanol were in a large open vat, and it was in the jungle of a rainforest in summer, I would say it would absorb a great deal of water. If it were in a fairly well sealed tank, in the northern US over a winter, it will not absorb much at all, because the exposure is very low, and the humidity is also very low.

I would expect the issue with watered down gas is not near as bad as long ago, the tanks are now plastic and the states are better monitoring it.

One thing to note is that petroleum is separated by water blocks when transporting by pipeline, the terminals must separate the water out at that point. Being in the controls work, I assume that process is very reliable, but failures will occur.

(quoted from post at 09:06:46 05/15/18) One thing to note is that petroleum is separated by water blocks when transporting by pipeline, the terminals must separate the water out at that point. Being in the controls work, I assume that process is very reliable, but failures will occur.

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It should be noted that the water plugs between products in the pipeline contain NO Ethanol. That is refined fuel, with very few additives except some stabilizer. Once the fuel reaches the distribution point, Ethanol is typically added at the last step in the delivery process.

Tanks are segregated as well, and the tanks are usually sumped each day for water, but a cheap dist might miss a few days.

Good points.

(quoted from post at 08:47:12 05/15/18) I'm a bit curious about watering down ethanol. If I'm not mistaken, HEAT is pretty much straight ethyl alcohol which mixes with gasoline and absorbs water. How much water will "gasohol" absorb and how much water could one dump into a tank of gas with a corresponding amount of ethanol before cars cease to run on it? gm

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- HEAT, in the yellow bottle contains methyl alcohol and the red bottle contains isopropyl alcohol.

- GASOHOL, typically contains 10% ethanol, (E-10). As water is added to the blended fuel, phase separation will begin at approximately 0.5% water by volume, at 70 degrees F. Therefore, assuming the blended fuel (E-10) is free of all water, one could add: 128 oz/gal x 0.005 water = 0.64 oz water/gallon of fuel. 0.64 oz is approximately 4 teaspoons of water. As additional volumes of water is added, phase separation, a mixture of water and ethanol will occur. Initially the mixture may combust in the engine however, as the water concentration increases combustion can not be assured.

Note, the ability of E-10 to hold water decreases at lower temperatures. For example, the water tolerance at 0 degrees F is approximately 0.3% by volume. This means if one would add water when the fuel is at 70 F, phase separation could occur (without the addition of water) as the fuel temperature is decreased.

I haven't used a can of HEET since they started putting ethanol in the gas! And the couple I had on the shelf evaporated without being opened!

Years ago maybe 1980 ? my sisters car had a hesitation. I tuned it up ,rebuilt the carb. and it still had this issue. We finally gave up and took it to a local mechanic. Me being a teenager at the time I'm sure he was wondering what all I goofed up ! He asked me several questions and he took the fuel line off pumped some gas into a glass jar and then held it up. Sure enough the gas had too much water in it !
Then many years later around 2000 ? I was working at a car dealership and one of the guys who was younger than me remembers working at a local gas station and they would put a compound on a stick and then stick it down into the storage tanks. This tested for water. He told me on more than one occasion the boss instructed him to stick the water hose into the tank and add some water to it ! So there really were / are crooked gas station owners ripping people off.

.....and are underground making for a constant 55*F as I recall.

(quoted from post at 08:45:51 05/16/18) Years ago maybe 1980 ? my sisters car had a hesitation. I tuned it up ,rebuilt the carb. and it still had this issue. We finally gave up and took it to a local mechanic. Me being a teenager at the time I'm sure he was wondering what all I goofed up ! He asked me several questions and he took the fuel line off pumped some gas into a glass jar and then held it up. Sure enough the gas had too much water in it !
Then many years later around 2000 ? I was working at a car dealership and one of the guys who was younger than me remembers working at a local gas station and they would put a compound on a stick and then stick it down into the storage tanks. This tested for water. He told me on more than one occasion the boss instructed him to stick the water hose into the tank and add some water to it ! So there really were / are crooked gas station owners ripping people off.

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In the 70's as a gullible teen I was told they did this to reduce carbon build up in engines. I know a bit better now! Have used a spray bottle to burn carbon out of a running engine maybe a teaspoon or 2. Can't tell you if that really worked!

For carbon I have heard tales of people dumping rice in engines ! The old tech at the GM dealer told me this. I think it was one of the oldsmobile engines that had this problem.