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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Wednesday, January 09, 2013 at 15:25:51 :
In Reply to: Re: ethanol gas& my m37 posted by Kaegi [24.16.253.154] on Wednesday, January 09, 2013 at 14:18:30 :
Heet is methanol, not ethanol. My chemist friend explained the difference to me, that different alcohols have different degrees of solubility with hydrocarbon fuels.
The question came up because I'd noticed some water sloshing around on the bottom of the tank of my wrecker. The fuel cap is right on top of the tank so it's easy to see down in. I didn't want to buy a few dozen little bottles of "Heet" so I thought I'd just dump a gallon of industrial alcohol (ethanol denatured with isopropanol) in and it would dissolve the water in with the diesel and all would be good. Instead the alcohol just sat there and floated on top of the diesel. Strangely after a week or so it had all eventually dissolved into the diesel, or possibly it evaporated. It seems that ethanol is more soluble in gas than diesel is, but maybe only slightly more so, and it may or may not do a good job of absorbing any water that's in the tank. Methanol is more expensive than ethanol, even on an industrial scale, so there must be a reason that products like "Heet" use the more expensive alcohol.
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