At the time I think it was Al G. who
said so far he hasnt found any auto fuel with ethanol in it. If I got that
wrong I apologize. So far I havent found any auto fuel that DOESNT. As far as I
can tell from my reading ALL auto fuel in CA has at least 6% and most is at 10%
now.
Yes; Mike, I may have said that. Upon
reflection, I haven’t been testing for ethanol for nearly two years,
because to that point I found none. At that time I had also come across
something to the effect that there were still CA regulatory requirements not
allowing ethanol; although the debate was going on about replacing MTBE with
ethanol – which I think has now happened. I found this statement on
the Consumer Energy Center website: More than 95 percent of the gasoline
supplied in the state today contains 6 percent ethanol. I guess I’ll do some checks again.
I have not noted any issues with my
fiberglass/EZ-poxy tanks, nor any other part of the fuel system. I have
not found a single drop of water or ethanol/water at the sump drain, nor any foreign
matter in the fuel filter.
And I never keep the tanks full. I’d
say, on average, when the plane is sitting in the hangar the tanks are half or
less. I have been using only Chevron in the plane, although I’ve always
used any less expensive, off-brand fuel in my vehicles without any issues.
Have you actually detected the ethanol
in the fuel via the water/fuel test?
5) Dislodging contaminants from
previously used fuels.
Vapor lock is not an issue as long as
you have gravity feed to your HP pump, and don’t have a small sump where
you return the fuel after the fuel rail where the that fuel temp can get high.
I have never come across any evidence
that aluminum is affected by ethanol, although ethanol water mix may cause
surface corrosion of some alloys.
Al G