Ethanol in fuel

[Steve341]

Just curious. Bought a 75 Chevy c20 camper special scottsdale with camper in back. It's got a 454 with a 4 bbl carb. What harm will the ethanol in the gas do to this truck? After googling for hours I came up with ethanol is bad for pre 80s vehicles as it eats away the seals? Will it harm the engine as well?

[Steve341]

Forgot to mention the previous owner said he put 1/2 cup of ATF in the gas tank once a year to keep the seals wet

[78 Chevyrado]

ATf once a year will wet the seals once a year.  Unfortunately us carburator users will suffer from this etanol crap.  Notice the pump says "UP TO 10%"  Could be 1%, could be 8%.  What I noticed with my 78 is that no two tanks run the same.  Seems like if you don't have EFI they are punishing you.  The only way to use this "UP TO 10%" E-10 junk to truly be efficient is to retune your carb after every fill up.  Yeah I know, ain't happening...  me either...
 
~END RANT~

The main problem E-10 causes is drying out and cracking the rubber components of the fuel system.  ANY RUBBER HOSES, such as tank to hard lines, hard lines to fuel pump, etc.  I haven't had any problems from actual carb seals and stuff, only the rubber hoses.  All I can say is buy fuel injection hose, not just plain carb gas hose.  it seems to last longer. 

All of us with carbs are left out high and dry by our empirical lord.

Etahnol is junk, it has less energy potential than gasoline, so I equate E-10 with the bar tender who pours you a shot of whiskey and then puts a shot of water into the bottle for the next patron.

In short, buy EFI hoses.  they last longer, but E-10 will dry and crack everything rubber it contacts.  plan accordingly.  Such is the current woes of the old car enthusiast. 

[Steve341]

dang that really angers me. EVERYWHERE in alberta puts that garbage in the gas here. The only exception is Shell 91 prem. About 20 cents a liter more. Guaranteed No ethanol in their 91 prem. According to PureGas they are the only station. Should i switch to this? The price sucks but my truck would be worth it as she sure isnt pretty now but i do have plans. Deciding to sell the 95 ford and sink some money into the chevy.

[bobcooter]

Just a quick note about ethanol. When NASCAR started running it a couple of years ago they said it would make the power but they couldn't get the fuel mileage they were getting with plain gas. That equates to you and everyone else burning more gas with ethanol to go the same distance as regular gas. Now they have changed the objective from originally using it to stretch the gas and make it cheaper. Now they say it reduces emmisions which is crap because if you burn more gas... Duh...
I won't even go into the fact that we are burning FOOD.
Ethanol is THE biggest scam ever pulled on the A
American public (and apearently Canada) in history.
 God bless America and help us too!

[Irish_Alley]

with the weather we had during this summer dry as heck. i foresee the ethanol coming out. for one the cash crop this year is corn since supply will be low. but demand will be higher they have to use the corn for farm animals so the price for meat will be high, and this will make gas prices rise even more. so unless they want prices to be too high for us to afford it should be coming out

[bobcooter]

The EPA has a set quota set for ethanol production. The farm  have already tried to get the EPA to reduce the quota so the farmers could use the  corn for feed stock. The EPA refused. When corn prices go up all food prices go up. The EPA has the mindset that if they price ANY industry out of existence; Oh well....

[78 Chevyrado]

EPA=FOS  FOS= Full of poo....  ya know.

I equate Ethanol in Gasoline to the old wild west movies where the bartender poured you a shot of whiskey, but when no one was looking, he poured a shot of WATER back into the bottle to make it go farther.

Plus on every single forum with newer truck I've been on, they say "total cost per mile" is better with Gas than E85.  I found this out too just like them with my '08 Impala.  Gasoline and Diesel are it, period.  Electric cars would be great if they could recharge instantly like a gas powered car. 

Diesel is better, gasoline is 2nd.  everything else is BS....  so far.    E-10 is crap and I feel personally offended I should have to run this garbage in my truck.  well, when the rubber lines finally fail and i have to jack up my bed to get to the rubber lines on my gas tanks, I'll put teflon SS lines and never have to worry about it agian.  I do have to say I'm pissed, that my fuel lines in said spot already have huge slashes in them from drying out after only 4 years, and the lines I replaced still looked good at the time being the OE lines installed at the factory.

Ethanol is a BS band-aid.  You must use it, but plan on replacing your rubber lines often.  I replace my rubber parts on the pressure side every 2 years, weather they look good or not. 

E-10 is crap.  More govt intrusion into things they know nothing about.   

The worst polluting SUV today puts out LESS pollutants than the best econo-box of the 1980's.

I say leave it alone jerks.

I'm one step away from tuning the truck to where it leaves a black cloud of smoke wherever I go.

I''ll buy the spark plug to make my point

I  LOVE MY TRUCK.  JUST IDLING, IT CANCELS OUT 17 HYBRIDS.  No telling how many I cancel out when I actually touch the gas pedal....  BWAHAHAHA! 

[454Man]

I got this in an email from summit racing
E15?

 http://static.summitracing.com/email/2012/e15_20120821.htm

[Edahall]

Diesel has been reformulated as well to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD).  The result has been about a 10% hit in fuel economy as well.  On top of that, the reformulation ends up costing about 25 cents more per gallon to make.  So basically, we're paying more to get less.  That's always the way it is when govt meddles with things.

[ehjorten]

Check-out www.pure-gas.org

I've run multiple fill-ups from my local stations and have noticed that my '91 crew runs sooo much better!!  The price per gallon is more, but I found that it was about the same cents/mile cost in the end due to the increased fuel mileage.

[bobcooter]

Al Gore even admitted on TV that ethanol is a scam. He said the only reason he endorsed it was because he was running for president and he wanted the votes of the Iowa corn farmers. The problem now is that there is too much money invested, too much money to be made and too many lobbyists pushing it to ever turn it off. 

[Captkaos]

Look at Alcohol dragsters, Look at what they have to do to run Alcohol.  Anything that Ethanol gas contacts that is rubber, will end up dry rotting.  Fuel lines and diaphragms in Carbs are suspect to ruin over time.  This is a ploy by the government to push Pre 2001 vehicles out of circulation.  If you want it to last, I highly recommend getting EFI methanol safe rated hose anytime you purchase hose.  It cost more but will last under the conditions. 

I spend a weekend helping a neighbor troubleshoot his 1987 R10 that wouldn't run.  After I found out his tank selector switch was bad (I used mine) I found that both pumps ran, but not enough to push the fuel to the front.   He decided to drop one tank which is the one that was not pumping and found that the hose from the pump to the fuel line had turned into a ball of rubbery gel.  The opposite side sounding like it was pumping but all it was doing was pumping it through the pump and dumping back into the tank.  The rubber lines from the tank to the frame mounted hardlines were cracked.

There is a push now for E15 which will make its effects 50% faster than E10, which is the link from Summit Racing.  If you go to sema's site it has the info on it also.

[Irish_Alley]

capt this is the first thing i check when im working on a fuel problem. my buddy was working on a 88-98 chevy they thought it needed a tune up did that still had the same problem. i asked if they checked the rubber line they looked at me funny, they where thine pump itself but when he pulled it, it was only the hose that was the problem

[gto109]

When my arm was still messed up I was having major problems with the fuel system in my truck.  I ended up taking it to the garage I deal with, they figured out that the lines the p/o used where junk and replaced almost all my fuel lines in the truck with a hard plastic line other then a little bit of rubber hose right at the ends.  I hope this holds up.  I have been using stuff to also take out the Ethanol and things seam to work better when I put that stuff in the gas.