ethanol stripping

C26Pinelake said:
A couple questions please. How long does it take to process a tankful ? Why does your car need this process but other Model A's run fine without refining the gasoline pumped into the car at the gas station.
Can you only do five gallon trips so you can then get home for a refill ?
Wayne
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It took me about an hour and a half to set uo, separate 20 gallons and clean up. The actual separation is rather fast (and fun to watch) but I usually wait 15 minutes per bucket for everything to settle.

I started doing this year's ago for old motorcycles and mostly do it now for my 2 cycle tools.
I hadn't thought about it for the A until I the same symptoms that some of the bikes had.

The A had 1600 miles of pump gas before this tank so why it had a snit I do not know. I have run 2 tanks of un-ethanol-ed gas without a skip but put ethanol 10% in last night to see if the problem returns.
 
I had this exact problem a few years ago. Car would run fun until stuck in traffic on a super hot day or stopping to buy gas and the car would sit for a bit and cook under the hood. You could actually see 'boiling' taking place in the glass cup of the gascolator (fuel filter on the firewall).

However, I had the original radiator cleaned (went from 20gpm to 30 gpm), replaced and tightened the fan belt (it was about an inch play, so now it is only about 1/2") and retimed the engine with new points. The coil was already relatively new and has a hot spark and no indication of breakdown.

I had no indication of overheating other than the ethanol boiling. Two years later it has never happened even once and you cannot find unethanol fuel in SW PA anywhere. So as someone else mentioned, your problem is not the ethanol but a slight overheating on hot days.

I still do not believe in putting alcohol in gasoline. False economy especially since farm equipment used to grow the corn are run on oil.

Also, we have very humid weather this time of year and the alcohol draws the water from the air, stratifies in the tank and then rusts a line around the tank in that area if it sits. I use the Stabil or Seafoam to prevent that if I know she'll sit for a bit.

Otherwise it should run fine on gasohol.
 
I still do not believe in putting alcohol in gasoline. False economy especially since farm equipment used to grow the corn are run on oil.
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It is an energy (and pocketbook) loser for the country. However, your politicians (here we go again) have decided it's in your better interest to pay the price and have (they claim) cleaner air for your children.

Well, someone's children.

A cost we alone pay nationally while the rest of the world competes against us on an inherently uneven basis.

And this by design.

You know the solution and it ain't sitting at home and watching the poll returns on election night. The solution starts LONG before the election by talking and changing people's attitudes about their government and any misconceptions they may have regarding WHO exactly the government works for.

Obtuse enough to not get banned? A statement of fact that our hobby - as well as the rest of the country - should pay attention.

Done. Sorry for the drift.

Joe K
 


10% fuel saves us 10% of oil used.
But, we get 10% less gas mileage, so where are we saving oil ?
MIKE :) (mikeburch)
 
for those of you that would rather buy it without, and go through the trouble of removing it, here is a link to places that sell pure gas, just click on your state. I am lucky, there are 5 places in my small rural county of Floyd that sells pure gas. Expect to pay about .40 more per gallon. Use it in my A, and every other small engine I own.

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=
 
hangarb7 said:
i... ... ... So as someone else mentioned, your problem is not the ethanol but a slight overheating on hot days.
Click to expand...

OK...let's put this to rest.

Outside temp 75. (not what I would call a hot day)

I put two 5 gallon cans in the back of the car. One was empty, the other had the de-ethanol-ed gas in it. The tank had the fresh tank of 10% ethanol with half of it drained so I had 5 gallons remaining.

I have a 10 mile loop that I drive for testing cars.

The new tank of 10% ethanol gave me problems at about 12 miles and the car became un-driveable at 14 miles.
Stopped, drained the tank and filled it with pure gas.
After 30 miles the car was still running strong.
Stopped, drained the tank and filled it with the original 10% ethanol.
Problems started at around 6 miles and didn't make it to mile 7.
Stopped, drained the tank and filled it with the pure gas.
Drove another 3 laps (30 miles) without any problem.
Stopped, drained the tank and ....ethanol
Un-drivable at 6 miles.
Put the pure gas back in, drove home, filled the tank and drove 115 miles through the back roads of Wisconsin without any problem.

No changes were made to the car at all. The only tool used was a 1/2" open end wrench to remove the lower end of the gas line to drain the tank.

Conclusion? (It must be the 5 gallon plastic gas cans, or how I poured it through a plastic funnel.......cuz it can't be the ethanol. )

It was a fun 200 miles... :) (what else can I go test???) :cool:
 
"Conclusion? (It must be the 5 gallon plastic gas cans, or how I poured it through a plastic funnel.......cuz it can't be the ethanol. ) "

Finally a good scientific explanation, because I've heard vapor lock is impossible on a Model A.:D:p
 
Been driving home from French Lick and with every tank of fuel I had to tweak the GAV and play with the advance. At gas stops my car group on this trek has all been experiencing harder starts and stumbling of the engine until getting upto speed. I have been going up in the octane and add some MMO which is helping. Haven't seen any gas stations in Indiana or Illinois that sells the GOOD gas....
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
"Conclusion? (It must be the 5 gallon plastic gas cans, or how I poured it through a plastic funnel.......cuz it can't be the ethanol. ) "

Finally a good scientific explanation, because I've heard vapor lock is impossible on a Model A.:D:p
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Clothes pins are the answer.

Joe K
 
Thanks fiddlybits for all the trouble you went through, and for sharing your findings.
I found out a while back that all my old stuff that still has a carburetor runs better on pure gas, or at least I think it does, so I try my best to put that in there.:)
 
modela@aol.com said:
Been driving home from French Lick and with every tank of fuel I had to tweak the GAV and play with the advance. At gas stops my car group on this trek has all been experiencing harder starts and stumbling of the engine until getting upto speed. I have been going up in the octane and add some MMO which is helping. Haven't seen any gas stations in Indiana or Illinois that sells the GOOD gas....
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On the way to French Lick we stopped at a Casey's and found they sold the good gas. I think that was in Iowa, but can't say for certain. I'll have to check the Casey's around the Twin Cities.
I wonder if it's fairly common in other states for Casey's to sell the good gas?
 
Thanks for the link Holdover. I found a station in Redlands, CA about 10 miles from my home in Moreno Valley. It's a Union 76 and they sell what they call "racing fuel." I Wondered what it was but never asked. I'll get gas there for my wife's 29 Roadster from now on and for my lawn equipment as well. Seems like I have to clean the carbs on the string trimmer and the chain saw every time I use them.

David Serrano
 
This really interests me especially for all my small motors which have experienced ethanol related problems, like rotted fuel lines.

I would like to hear of and others setup of their distillery. And no I'm from the ATF Bureau.
 
fact that I read about ethanol is it has to be shipped by tanker trk.it cannot be pushed thru pipelines like oil.the reason was, oil is pushed thru pipelines using water&ethanol would mix with the water. sounds reasonable to me, tom
 
bambooboy said:
fact that I read about ethanol is it has to be shipped by tanker trk.it cannot be pushed thru pipelines like oil.the reason was, oil is pushed thru pipelines using water&ethanol would mix with the water. sounds reasonable to me, tom
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I'm not so sure about that. The pipelines use "pigs" between shipment of different grades of product.
 
Ross/Kzoo said:
I'm not so sure about that. The pipelines use "pigs" between shipment of different grades of product.
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IIRC, Avgas (the only gas sold in the USA still containing lead) has to be shipped by tanker to prevent cross-contamination. They can't even use the tankers for any other petroleum products. Otherwise I'm pretty sure that the pipelines are used for everything else. (Explains why Avgas costs a lot more that autogas).

Also, IIRC, the difference between drygas and auto gas is the the former is methanol or isopropyl alcohol, and the latter contains ethanol. They react differently to water contamination.
 
Huddy, all ethanol is shipped from the ethanol processing plants by rail. None goes through a pipeline. It is usually added to gasoline at the tank farms or refineries.
The reason ethanol can't be shipped through a pipeline is that water is always present in underground pipelines. With pure gasoline this is not a problem because water and gasoline do not mix; the water always settles out to the bottom of the pipeline or storage tank, thus can be removed. Ethanol, however, readily absorbs water and becomes unfit for your vehicle, even corrosive, in a short while.
 
40 Deluxe said:
Huddy, all ethanol is shipped from the ethanol processing plants by rail. None goes through a pipeline. It is usually added to gasoline at the tank farms or refineries.
The reason ethanol can't be shipped through a pipeline is that water is always present in underground pipelines. With pure gasoline this is not a problem because water and gasoline do not mix; the water always settles out to the bottom of the pipeline or storage tank, thus can be removed. Ethanol, however, readily absorbs water and becomes unfit for your vehicle, even corrosive, in a short while.
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Makes sense.

The only good use for ethanol is to make corn likker. Or Pappy van Winkle's extra reserve.
 
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