Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Monday, October 04, 2010 at 13:39:25 :
I know all the problems with gasohol eating the rubber parts on old engines, but once you have modern rubber in the fuel pump and carburetor, is there any reason not to go above 10% alcohol in a fuel mixture? The reason I'm asking is I have a line on several barrels of 190 proof industrial solvent alcohol which is roughly 75% ethanol, 20% isopropanol, and 5% water. The old flat-heads aren't very picky about fuel, and I seem to remember that the Model Ts would run on straight alcohol, so if this stuff is extremely cheap, I'm thinking I'd try it. If figure if the engine stalls out or is gutless, I can just drain it out and go back to gas.
Anybody tried running on neat alcohol, or a high-proof mix, something like E85? Would the isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) cause any problem? Any issue with rust as a result of the water in the mix? I assume E85 has a fair bit of water in it too, because it's expensive to get the last little bits of water out of alcohol.
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