[Healeys] Fuel Additives (was Re: Gas mileage to conclave)

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Sun Jul 13 21:20:35 MDT 2008


Good topic.

FWIW, I've bought gas all over the western US and Canada, presumably 
with everything from MTBE and ethanol to who-knows-what additives and 
never had a problem with my carburettors or fuel line attributable to 
the gas.  I rebuilt my carbs maybe 15 years ago and replaced the fuel 
line since then as well.  My guess is that any fuel system components 
manufactured in the last 15 years or so are made with rubber (buna-n aka 
nitrile or other) that is resistant to these solvents.  Same goes for 
the fuel pump diaphragm, which also has a thin "shield," which appears 
to be mylar or similar.  Anybody running original rubber fuel components?

AFAIK, the only cork on my BJ8 are gaskets on the king pin lower trunnion. 


bs


Alan Seigrist wrote:
> Marty -
>
> I doubt Ethanol Mix would reduce your mileage that much unless you were
> using E85, which you can't use unless you have a flex fuel vehicle.  If you
> were using E10 (quite possible) it should only reduce mileage about ~3%.
>
> With respect to corn ethanol - I think pretty much everyone agrees this is a
> boondoggle (except corn farmers of course), but then again getting a process
> started with corn is easy and fast and now I think the country is looking to
> switch to sugar cane and sweet sourghum in the near future, and eventually
> switchgrass.  For diesel the bio fuel source most commonly used is rapeseed.
>
> Ethanol is NOT good for Healeys because it is a very good solvent and thus
> tends to deteriorate natural rubber and cork gaskets - which means it will
> degrade pretty much any SU carburetor out there except possibly the HS4 and
> HS6 (used only on MkIIs).  This is moot because the standard fuel flex line
> used in Healeys is rubber, and the standard SU fuel pump uses a rubber
> diaphram.  For more info have a look here:
>
> http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3251/is_5_235/ai_n25474139
>
> Until the US is willing to make the effort like Brazil to create a true flex
> fuel standard platform in their vehicles, ethanol is more or less a bit
> wasteful.
>
> Avoid at all costs!
>
> Best,
>
> Alan
>
> '52 A90
> '53 BN1
> '64 BJ8
>
>   
*******************************************************************
Bob Spidell           San Jose, CA            bspidell at comcast.net
*******************************************************************


More information about the Healeys mailing list