What are you doing about the ethanol in our gas?

I mix about 50/50 with 100LL Av Gas and premium street fuel. It seems to retard the street fuel turning to varnish in a period of weeks.

 

I live close enough to a race track that I have access to 110 leaded gas. Put it in both my old Ferrari's, 2 60's Vette's, a 70 Trans AM, and 2 vintage BMW motos. The gas is $7.75 a gal. but well worth it IMHO. No problems with starting. Carb bowls don't gum up. As little as most vintage cars are driven it's a cheap insurance policy against ethanol related problems. AV gas works just as well if you have access to an airport.

 

I drink a little ethanol and then I don't worry about it.

 

Replace all old Ferrari fuel hoses and install the correct ones.This will help ALOT. tongascrew

 

IMO, the alcohol is not the main problem, it's the myriad "clean air" additives that seem to varnish in short order, quite effectively clogging the smaller passages of Weber carbs, ie:

Oxygenates
Alcohols:
Methanol (MeOH)
Ethanol (EtOH)
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA)
n-butanol (BuOH)
Gasoline grade t-butanol (GTBA)

Ethers:
Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), now outlawed in many states of the U.S. for road use, mostly because of water contamination.
Tertiary amyl methyl ether (TAME)
Tertiary hexyl methyl ether (THEME)
Ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE)
Tertiary amyl ethyl ether (TAEE)
Diisopropyl ether (DIPE)

Antioxidants, stabilizers
Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
2,4-Dimethyl-6-tert-butylphenol
2,6-Di-tert-butylphenol (2,6-DTBP)
p-Phenylenediamine
Ethylene diamine

Antiknock agents
Tetraethyllead, now banned almost everywhere for causing brain damage and violent crime.
Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT)
Ferrocene
Iron pentacarbonyl
Toluene
Isooctane
Triptane

 

we use sunoco 260gtx for our cars.

 

In Illinois, I have never had a problem using ethanol fuels. It seems to last for over one year and the cars run fine. There was a batch of the "yellow" fuel hose about 15 years ago that internally disinigrated with the ethanol, but the latest hose works well.

In Arizona, we have encountered numerous problems with the fuel, finding it leaves powder-like deposits that clog jets quickly. We are now using No-Rosion Fuel Stabilizer after running our own tests that confirm its ability to "clear up" modern fuel that had turned "cloudy" from the ethanol separating.

 

Some of the guys around the racetrack were buying legal race fuel and sometimes off road only race fuel in 55G drums from say VP fuels and sucking off that. However, there was a thread a while back where one of the blending chemicals made its way into some of the drums labeled racegas. Motors were destroyed and while the fuel supplier was liable he never got paid. I think it was an old rennlist thread. So buy reputable if you go down that road. VP will also tell you what is in the fuel and of course there is the MSDS that has a lot of info too. This is not any more economical just gives you more control. The fire department probably does not want you storing fuel in your garage either.

 

110 leaded $7.75 per gallon plus a can of seafoam to each 5 gallons ,carbs never get gummy

 

Running 110 in a car that's not tuned for it is beyond pointless.... If you live near any water it's easy to find stations with ethanol free gas.

 

Bah. Depends on compression and how much you like your valve seats.

Higher octane means lower combustion temperatures as far as I know.

 

bigger question is what type of oil does everyone use. It's not the same either.

 

I can buy 89 Octane Ethanol free gas locally and mix it with 110 leaded racing fuel. No problems.

 

No it doesn't. It just means that the fuel doesn't detonate.

The heating value (amount of BTU's per pound of fuel) is the same, provided it doesn't have ethanol in it. High octane, or lower octane have the same amount of heat per pound and will heat up the combustion chamber the same amount when burned in the same chamber.

Provided you have enough octane to prevent detonation, then the amount of heat released is the same. The lower octane fuel will obviously detonate sooner, but that has nothing to do with the amount of heat released or the combustion temperature.

Ethanol reduces the amount of heat in a pound of fuel, and you lose mileage because ethanol has less mass and fewer BTu's per pound.

 

No problems is Australia, 95 and 98 non ethanol is readily available at most gas stations.
Bring your cars down under

 

I use Millers Additive VSPe Power Plus:- Classic Fuel Additives | Millers Oils
•
Adds up to 2 octane numbers
(20 points) to unleaded fuel
•
Prevents valve seat recession when used
with unhardened valve seats
•
Prevents detonation, hot spots
& running on
•
Prevents fuel system corrosion/helps
protect components
•
Combats the adverse effects of
ethanol in fuel
•
Carburettor anti-icing formula
•
Contains anti oxidant to improve fuel life

 

Higher octane burns slower, that's why you have to increase advance - or you get less power. Same amount of heat released in a longer period of time also means lower temperature. this is also one of the main characteristics that makes higher octane fuel tolerate higher combustion ratios.

Detonation is very very rare and it quickly destroys your engine. Misidentified detonation is usually either based on too much advance /w too low octane rating with max-pressure reached too soon as a result. Pinging (sometimes falsely called detonation) is the same problem caused by self-igniting fuel and is one step more dangerous for your engine, but still nothing compared to real detonation - explosive (=supersonic flame front) burning

 

I'm sorry Kare, but you are incorrect. Flame speed is related to specific gravity, that is lighter fuels burn faster, but flame speed is not related to octane rating.

I will give you a very simple example and hope this makes sense. You could have two tanks of fuel that were identical, same fuel, same flame speed same stuff. If you add a tiny amount of tetra ethyl lead to one of the tanks it would have a much higher octane rating, but it would have virtually identical specific gravity (because the TEL amount is only a trace amount) and yet the fuel laced with TEL would have higher octane.

Nowadays some fuel has ethanol added which increases octane rating as well as reduces the specific gravity, and therefore burns faster, but that's a byproduct of the alcohol's higher octane rating and lower specific gravity.

Octane rating isn't related to flame speed or heat content. Octane rating is simply a measure of knock resistance. It is measured on a standard variable compression ratio engine, and it is a measure of how detonation resistant the fuel is. There isn't any correlation of octane rating and flame speed, and slow burning fuels can have higher octane than faster burning fuels.

 

Came across this website a while back that lists ethanol free gasoline vendors across the US and Canada:

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada

 

I do two things. Mostly, I've become pretty good at rebuilding carbs! I actually enjoy it.

I have a bunch of vintage bikes I keep in a warehouse at our local airport and use 100 LL Av Gas for the carburated ones because it's easy. 100LL is leaded (Low Lead) 100 octane with no Ethanol. It costs about $6 per gallon. The problem is it's illegal to fuel a car, bike or even a can directly from the Av Gas pump, the FBO can be fined $10,000 if caught. I fill 5 gallon jugs from my plane, convenient for bikes, not so much for cars. I also then make sure to top off my plane before every flight!

I have found that Stabil does seem to help a bit with Ethanol Gas and put it in my carburated cars if they will be sitting for a while. More modern cars, bikes & boats with fuel injection seem to be OK with ethanol. When Ethanol sits in a float bowl, it tends to form a slimy green Jello-like substance that clogs up the jets. Injected engines dont have float bowls with jets in them, so they evade that problem. Ethanol does eat some plastics. It's really bad for fiberglass gas tanks (motorcycles & boats), some motorcycle petcocks and some plastic parts and O-rings in the fuel systems of some cars. It also eats Teflon tape, so don't use that anymore to seal the threads of the fuel lines going into your carbs!

Bottom line; If you have carbs and can avoid Ethanol, do so.
If you have to use Ethanol, use Stabil if your car will be sitting for a while and learn to rebuild the carbs yourself. Get the appropriate manual, rebuild kits and a nice cold beer. Take your time and enjoy it.