Ethanol
All my engines are over 14-1
My 72 Dart is closer to 15-1 (540)
Talking to Mark Sullens, he says E-85 loves compression (e-85 is a slow burner)
Exactly. 14:1 in a street motor is outstanding in my book.
I've HEARD of some guys playing with 17:1 compression on E85 and still not running into real detonation troubles. Don't know if it's true or not. But if it is. That's unreal. Sprint cars on 100% methanol run 16:1-18:1 depending on the race and how hard they wanna beat the piss out of the thing. So to run 17:1 on easily available gas just sounds awesome to me.
Great info Lustle!
I have been considering trying Petro Can 94 for the benefit of detonation protection.
Try it out. A tank isn't going to hurt anything.
Another thing I forgot to mention is the whole "ethanol sucks up water from the air" thing. This one is SORT of a myth. Methanol does this. And you do have to be careful with how you store and how LONG you store it. We only ever kept 3 -1000L totes full at a time. With how quickly we went through fuel. Atmosphere was never a huge concern. Ethanol also does this. But here's the thing. How quickly does it suck up water? It takes over 3 months for properly stored pure ethanol to absorb all the water it can. So obviously any blended stuff will take a lot longer. Not only that. But if you are storing any gasoline (including non-blended) for that kind of time. You should be adding a fuel stabilizer to it anyways. It's common sense stuff.
I just pulled this from wikipedia :
"Disadvantages to ethanol fuel blends when used in engines designed exclusively for gasoline include lowered fuel mileage, metal corrosion, deterioration of plastic and rubber fuel system components, clogged fuel systems, fuel injectors, and carburetors, delamination of composite fuel tanks, varnish buildup on engine parts, damaged or destroyed internal engine components, water absorption, fuel phase separation, and shortened fuel storage life.
[155][155][156][157] Many major auto, marine, motorcycle, lawn equipment, generator, and other internal combustion engine manufacturers have issued warnings and precautions about the use of ethanol-blended gasolines of any type in their engines,
[158] and the
Federal Aviation Administration and major aviation engine manufacturers have prohibited the use of automotive gasolines blended with ethanol in light aircraft due to safety issues from fuel system and engine damage"... Doesn't sound like a myth to me...
Ethanol is a solvent. Even in 10% blend. It's going to have a solvent effect. So if you pour a bunch of 10% ethanol gas in a shitty rusty gas tank, with lines full of gunk. Guess what? All that rust and stuff get's lifted and goes through your system. Is that the gas' fault for cleaning the system you didn't clean? Nope.
Did you actually read the sources that are cited? The 155 source cited, a consumer reports article, is a good example of a myth. Here's a direct quote:
"The photo shows how ethanol could impact the carburetor of a small gas engine; the white, crusty film is apparently caused by the ethanol."
HOW. COULD. APPARENTLY.
AKA they don't know. But it's easy to blame ethanol. Never mind that maybe that carburetor had never been cleaned. Or the fuel system. Did they inspect the carb before and after running ethanol? Did they clean the system before and after? No? Oh ok. Still perfectly valid test though.
They then go on to say that engines that had never previously ran ethanol. Had certain ethanol blends run through them. And to their surprise, they didn't run well! Well. Yes. Of course. You just changed the type of fuel without tuning it, and it didn't run well. Somebody call Captain Obvious.
How about source 157? William Maloney. First off. It's just a website that he wrote. With only his own experiences and second hand stories "from a neighbor" on it. No independent testing. No verification of facts. But there is this tidbit:
"I personally had an auto engine damaged where I left the fuel in for over a year. It started fine, I got it tuned and running well and shut it down. The varnished fuel hardened on the intake valves and when I started it again the next day the valves stuck and all hell broke loose. 4 pushrods were bent and two lifters were broken. All valve guides were worn to a long bell shape on the inside from the wear of the hardened varnish and had to be sleeved."
I'm sorry. But if you let a vehicle sit with fuel in it for OVER A YEAR, without any kind of stabilizer. And then you go to fire it up without any fresh gas? But no wait. It started fine. Took a tune and was running well. But definitely that bad gas that somehow magically ran well that turned into varnish overnight. Yeah. If it was actually varnish bud, that engine never would have started up. I got no help for guys like that.
At least read the sources before you cite them.
Also, my gas tank on my Dart is original configuration, so it has vents that are always open. If I used ethanol gas, being a water absorber, it would soak up water from the air and form large water deposits inside it... Sound logic, isn't it?
Ok so I mentioned this above. But pure Ethanol takes 3+ months to absorb all the water it can. Blended will obviously take longer. As gasoline itself does not absorb gasoline. Do you take 3 months to go through a tank? Even assuming you do. Realize that 10% ethanol gas absorbs .05% of water at 60F. That's an extremely low amount. Not "large water deposits". That mixes with the gasoline/ethanol blend and is burned harmlessly by your engine. Just like all the other water floating in the air when it's raining out, or when it's extremely humid.
So yes. There is logic in your thinking. Just gotta follow that logic through to the end.
