Today’s ethanol gas in carburetors

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greymouser7

greymouser7

Vagrant Vagabond “Veni Vidi Vici”
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How detrimental with today’s ethanol gasoline be to a Thermo quad or Edelbrock carburetor if you had to drive several one thousand mile trips totaling four to 10,000 miles?

How long would it be before you would need a rebuild or have detrimental problems with the carburetors functioning ?

They sell those little blue bottles of ethanol catalyst that supposed to neutralize and diminish any problems -Is that a worthy the solution?
 
From my experience, ethanol becomes a problem when your not running the vehicle.

As long as everything is submerged, your ok. It’s when a hose that’s ran ethanol sits dry for a while is when it reeks havoc on things.

I’m by no means an expert, but I have ran a Holley for 8 years on ethanol rich pump gas. In the winter, I add stabil, and circulate the pump a couple times a month.

I will also add that I switched my fuel line over to PTFE when I started running pump gas.

But the carburetor has shown no I’ll effects in 7 years.

I hope this helps. Eric
 
All I know if ethanol makes black mold like stuff grow on your paint. It looks like mildew.
 
For what is worth....our generator sat for 7 years with the gas it had in it...2 pulls & it was running..log splitter..sat for a year, one half hearted pull and it was running....have never bought into that whole ethanol terror.
 
I will say this though. It will seriously destroy foam in a fuel cell and plug your filter.
 
I've been running 87E10 since 1999 with the same fuel system, but several different carbs, none of which have had a problem. I did start with a new tank, a new 3/8 steel line, and a new HO pump. I fabbed a 1-piece line from pump to carb. At a jobber,I found a large EFI filter that I installed at the back, just in front of the right front spring hanger, that I have never yet changed. There are 3 EFI hose jumpers; one at each end, and one at the filter. The filter has one screw-in connection, IIRC, on the inlet side.
She has sat every winter from September to May. And has accumulated over 125,000 miles .
I built the engine to specifically use 87E10, with an original Scr of 11.3 and aluminum heads.I thought 11.3 might be borderline high, but with the 292/108 cam, it was no problem. Later cams have run 10.9 with a gasket swap, and a decking. The Dcr remains about the same at 8.7 corrected to 900ft elevation.
The carbs I used were; Big Thermoquad, and three Holleys. 600VS,750VS and 750DP
Your results might vary, but really shouldn't.

PS, forget the 600 on a 360,lol.It's a real power-choke. She's just my mileage maker that I bolt on for long trips.
 
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Ethanol will pretty quickly destroy rubber parts like o-rings, gaskets, fuel lines, etc. that aren't compatible. As far as hard parts like carb bodies go, it's fine if you are running the gas through the system frequently. If you park your car for extended periods, then you'll want to either drain the system, or add some kind of stabilizer to the mix.
 
I’ve spent a half a day recently studying this and I have always used all the different products everytime I filled up my Barracudas.

I have fully come to the complete understanding and believe that all the new fuel is 100% good to go and will remove more water with the 10% ethanol mixture.

Go read up on the facts.
It’s kinda like the new technology of oil today but gas.
Just don’t buy your fuel from a old out dated hole in the wall gas station.
 
I have steel brained line on race cars....the 71 Dart has had the same fuel line for 15 yrs now....started out with gas...then switch to e85 probably six or 7 years ago.....same fuel line...same fuel pump...Chinese version of a black holley...140 gph pump... car sits during the winter months....with e85 in tank and fuel lines......
 
Depends on trip conditions. High elevation, ambients or frequent hot restarts of various durations played hell on fun. Didn’t destroy anything except the vacation.
 
The bigger issue is that ethanol vaporizes more readily than gasoline. It is much more prone to vapour lock in a suction style (engine driven fuel pump) fuel system, and much more prone to carburetors "drying out" when parked for a few days due to the fuel evaporating out the float bowl vents.
 
I used stabil in my motorcycle and it still stuck up over the winter, had to remove and clean the carbs, switched to seafoam and had no problems.
 
If you run an ethanol treatment like Lucas, you won't have any trouble at all.
 
Depending on how new the Edelbrock carb is, it should have neoprene instead of rubber.

Old rubber fuel lines will make themselves apparent fairly quickly.
 
Have used ethanol gas in my dart sport and no issues. I have a thermoquad carb. Car sits for weeks sometimes starts right up and runs fine! May start adding marvel mystery oil just for peace of mind. But may not need to.
 
I heard that gasoline now gets the final blend in the tanker truck at the refinery, because of how fast it separates. Can anyone back that up?
 
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