Ethanol question.

[88Racing]

Ethanol started being used many years ago. Late 70's to early 80's but it did not catch on here like other countries as Brazil. Ethanol got a bad name real quick. Components in vehicles were being exposed to something they were never engineered for. Take for instance a carburator. It ran many years on straight gas, building up tarnish and gunk. Well introduce something that actually will dissolve this stuff and jets started to plug. Not mention gasket material being eaten away. Ethanol is kind of a corrosive substance and if the rubber and other materials are not formulated to be used with it then the problems start.
Today's vehicles are engineered to handle ethanol to a certain degree and I think I read somewhere that the ratio should not exceed 15% unless its flex fuel rated. Why do you think that most gas tanks are now poly.
There are arguments like Jack brought up that are true for small engines. Makes the poor little air cooled motor burn to hot.
H-D does not want to see it's motorcycles to use more than 10% blend.
I work on pipe in these processing plants and if the tools don't get washed off right away it can start to pit the surface of the tools.
Ask the people that run 85% blend if they get better or worse milage then if they ran 10% blend.
Ethanol takes more energy to burn thats why the motors get hotter and it takes more to make the same energy potential as gas does.


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