Listen, by my records, I've rebuilt or cleaned over 4000 carburetors in my life as a motorcycle mechanic. This problem was in full effect over a decade ago when I started: You leave it sit for a month, you're asking for trouble, you leave sit 60 days, and jets are plugging. The fuel turns to varnish, and you're cleaning a carb. Use Sta-bil, and you're not. This 60-days business was 1998-1999 when motorcycle EFI was rare and mandatory E10 was a decade away.
But this talk of "separating out" and "eating fuel lines"...bullpucky.
#1. If you have enough water in your gas for it to separate out, you got other MAJOR issues (See Heet comment below)
#2. Go buy some fuel line from your favorite local parts whorehouse and leave it sit on the shelf for a month or two. Unless it says "Gates", it's probably dry-rotting and cracked in 60 days, no fuel required. Happens to me anytime I buy it (I don't buy it anymore) no matter if it comes from O'reilly's, Autozone, almost anyone. I go to Carquest, and I buy name brand only.
Leaching the copper out of Brass? Seriously? If you believe that, I've got a bridge I'll sell you. Better yet, a stature of some broad holding a golden flame and a tablet that's made ENTIRELY out of copper. She's been outdoors in the acid rain for years, still standing tall. All those water lines that they like to steal around my 'hood? Copper. Most of the water fitting in your sink? Brass. And they're rated for methanol and ethanol, too. Just go look at your grand-daddies' still. Copper...and I'll tell you something; I've not seen a carb full of green goo since E10 was mandatory.
I have seen (and own, actually) carburetors that are riddled with holes where the standing water corroded the zinc out of the aluminum. I've never seen a jet that had holes where it wasn't supposed to. Never.
Guys...you know what you put in your fuel tank when you get water in it? Heet. Go crack open a bottle and waft the fumes to your nostril: It's alcohol. It's what suspends water in your fuel so that your engine can suck it down without drowning. Heet's been on the market since our grandpappies were paying a nickel for a gallon of E0. No carburetor-dissolving complaints that I ever heard of.
I have carb problems with my lawnmowers and saws, too. So I use Stabil and the problems go away. I don't know how it works, but it does, and the "E10 ruined my car" stuff? It's a load of crap. I run the EFI fuel lines because it's superior and I don't sit back and take cheap boolsheet rubber hose that most parts stores hand out. I've looked at the carb kits on my shelf for the lawmower and they dry-rot just like the fuel lines do. Hmmm....how long has it been since the US started outsourcing almost everything to China? Where was that carb kit made? Hey, wait a minute....
I KNOW the E10 is not hurting my car, and the parts that are not made here go to hell in a handbasket...maybe there's something to that? ;) Also: We've been economic dire straights going on 4 years now. Companies are cutting back and getting the cheaper stuff because the markets are a lot less competitive; people can't afford to be picky. The quality of parts over the last few years has gone down. Sad fact: You don't get the cream of the crop during a recession.
Side note: Try running premium and suddenly a lot of carb issues go away? Why? Because the fuel companies know that premium doesn't move like regular fuel does...and they can't afford for it to go bad. So they do whatever they do to keep it from going bad. Try it. I spend about $1 more a year for my lawnmower fuel (Boohoo I'm going broke) and it's not going bad in a season.
That's not saying I am thoroughly in love with E10. The economy drop blows, and yeah, it's bumping food prices. That happens with any major change in things. Ask the next hot girl from Brazil you meet (about her native countries' fuel preferences, not pubic trimmings) and she'll talk to you about E-fuel and how it's not that expensive (relatively speaking) because their economy grew around it. That's what will happen here. You want jobs? Go to where the change is. You can't have your cornbread and eat it too. (For the record, change sucks and I don't like it either, but it's a way of life)
Frankly, the only corn-based food I eat regularly is corn, and I avoid corn-syrup containing food, so my food budget hasn't gone up much, but I agree with Dan, it's not the best thing we could be doing with our food.
I like E85. It's cheap race gas. Build your motor accordingly and go wicked fast for less, but the sob-stories about E10? Look elsewhere, it's not the fuel.
