Re: Re: No lead gas in a VAC

Posted by Gerald J. on November 02, 1999 at 15:39:27 from (208.142.211.114):

In Reply to: Re: No lead gas in a VAC posted by MrG:Ethanol? on November 02, 1999 at 10:29:26:

I'm not sure why ethanol is not liked in small engines. Perhaps it burns at a different rate, more likely the makers have neglected to make their carburetor parts compatible with it and a bit of ethanol can make a mess of things. I know that happened to one of my standby generators (ww2 vintage surplus). It had a varnished cork float in the carburetor and ethanol softened the varnish that then plugged the carburetor passages. It hasn't run since. That could be a problem in a vintage tractor engine too.

I'm not in favor of being forced to use ethanol in my truck because its been around 13 years and never had ethanol, so it likely has a deposit of gum in the tank and lines. I fear the addition of significant ethanol will cause those to come loose and to plug the single filter which is a pain to find and replace. And if there are some of those gum deposits past the filter, moving them to the injection pump and injectors can truly be disastrous. With only 75,000 miles I'm not ready to replace it but that might force replacing it.

In Iowa sometimes 10% ethanol is a couple cents cheaper than regular gas.

My comment was based on reading a 1939 vintage book about engine design last week that showed 10% ethanol had the same octane improvement as the normal dose of tetraethyl lead. I neglected these potential fuel system problems.

Gerald J.

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