I want to purchase another 3rd gen car soon.

my question: is the new gas bad for the older motors and electronics?

thanks,
Jeff

 

yes and no it is if you let is sit and you have a carb setup but these fuels will slowly and I mean slowly eat away at your fuel system packing and rubber

I will go bad a whole lot faster than normal gas and when it does the methanoyl separates and collects water and makes this gel **** that reeks havoc on fuel systems

go to any boating forum and you will see it all day long because gas sits longer in boats than it does in cars

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...5-jetting.html

More specifically:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...72-post55.html

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...36-post94.html

Read through that thread and you'll learn a lot.

The corrosiveness of E85 is higher than gasoline, but it's VERY mild compared to methanol. Most of the scare stories about ethanol are people confusing it with methanol.

Most guys can run ethanol with no problems for years. Gasoline eats away rubber line too, you know.

So the tiny percent that's in pump gas (10 percent is the limit around here from what I know) is likely not going to have any effect. They've been diluting our gasoline with ethanol for years now, and I dont know about you, but I havent heard tons of stories about it ruining fuel systems yet.

I wouldnt suggest leaving it in the tank of a car that sits all winter, though. But I wouldn't really recommend that with gasoline either.

 

It may be new in your area but we have had 10% for at least 20 years here, never had a problem in any way, shape or form in any of my cars over that 20yrs including the 7mo (Nov-May) the camaro has sat every one of those years with it in the fuel system

 

E10's OK, but E15 may cause lean issues at WOT in cars with EFI and cats as ethanol is an oxygenated fuel. Ethanol is used here on the east coast in the colder months as a replacement for MTBE.

You can compensate for it by slightly raising the fuel pressure. Where I am, though, the AFR for the fuel varies with the season. In the summer its closer to 14.7, while in the winter its closer to 14.1 as they vary the composition of the fuel.

 

It's worst effects happen in equipment that sits for long periods of time. Forget the "corrosiveness" of the ethanol, that's not the biggest problem. It's that ethanol is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture). It promotes good old rust and corrosion much more readily than "straight gas" in the entire fuel system from the tank forward.

In my area I can't say I've had a lot of problems with it (aside from it destroying the fuel lines in small engines like chain saws and weedwackers that were never really designed for ethanol fuels). My brother down by Virginia Beach is a different story. Gives him fits on his cars that don't get run very often. Products like StaBil don't seem to help.