from Wayne:|
| Bruce Carter asks about MTBE and ethanol in gasoline. We have these
| in Colorado too, in the winter. They put in 14% MTBE or some similar
| fraction of ethanol. The theory is that they decrease the unburned
| hydrocarbon emissions from poorly tuned cars in cold weather. I run
| my '68 Datsun 2000 roadster VBC (virtual British car) on either with
| no trouble and no noticeable difference in running quality from the
| normal summertime mix. I doubt that Bruce's problems are caused by
| MTBE or ethanol.
|
| My newer cars ('85 Prelude and '87 Mazda truck) do show some mild
| signs of lean running on the winter fuel, especially on warm days.
| If a car was just on the ragged edge of too lean, these additives
| might cause it to run a little worse.
|
| The ethanol blend is just what used to be called gasohol. It's great
| stuff for older cars, since you get a couple of octane points for
| free (or maybe even for less.) I can run regular with ethanol, otherwise
| I have to use unleaded premium.
Which brings us to a question I've been wondering about:
Could we get a boarder line car past a smog inspection by putting the
right blend of ethanol and other things normally found in racing fuels
in the gas. So it runs a lot cleaner and leaner at least for that tank full.
In theory this should work. I wonder how far you could take it? Racing
fuels normally run a lot leaner with the same jet settings. (which is
why they don't yse the same jet settings)
/dickn
Wayne also sez:
| As for the list, I don't think it's broken. I wish it were a little
| more like the old days, when it felt more like a small group of friends
| sitting around the fire chatting...........
|........... I enjoy the stories and the banter more than the technical
| stuff.
though I like the stories I don't always have time for them. If we need
to reduce the volumn, what if we broke it into BritCar_Banter and
BritCar_Tech?
|If we all continue to show some self-restraint, I think we'll
| be OK. I agree that a newsgroup would probably be disastrous.
Amen to that
|