[TR] Ethanol

[Dave1massey at cs.com]

Greetings;

There is a lot of gossip around this topic but I also think there is a lot 
of guilt by association, as well.  There are a couple of symptoms that come 
with plausible explanations.  One is that the old rubber bits do not 
tolerate ethanol and you will find yourself replacing fuel line and rebuilding your 
fuel pump and carburettors before too long.

Another symptom is that ethanol can (will) dissolve the accumulated varnish 
in the tank which may cause filter clogging.  This is particularly an issue 
on fuel injected engines (such as TR8, SD1).  Once the varnish has been 
etched away the problem goes away.

Here in the Midwest we have been using 10% ethanol for about 20 years and 
both the TR3 and the TR6 suffered fuel pump issues.  The diaghram turned rock 
hard and the pump would not pump.  Other than that it was a clean 
switch-over.

It ain't the end of the world.

Cheers

Dave

In a message dated 6/5/2013 10:08:39 AM Central Daylight Time, 
flywheelcoventry1 at yahoo.co.uk writes: 
> I'm simply
> curious to know what you guys think and may have discovered in the 
> unavoidable
> use of ethanol in your tanks? AFAIK you've been using it a lot longer than 
> we
> have - and without any problems if the lack of posts on this list are to 
> be
> believed? When I drove "uncle jack" across the States and Canada in 2009
> (18,000 miles in just two months driving) the only issues with fuel were 
> two
> blocked fuel filters and a failed Facet pump in Vancouver. Since then, 
> I've
> not seen anything from Phil Ethier who now owns "uj" about ethanol probs 
> he
> has (or hasn't) had and all this leads me to believe the whole scenario 
> could
> be something of a 'red herring.'