Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
Ethanol is not going away, eliminating it is not a viable answer. I suggest you find a way to deal with it. Have you tried adjusting ignition timing or anything?
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I agree he should do this but sometimes you need to tune the wrong way to get an fe improvement that matches your driving method.
Many older cars are rather low compression, they aren't going to deal with it much better, just a little. I and my father have experienced rather large FE drops (all historical now) on several vehicles,
A 69 2 Door Chrysler went from 13mpg (ooh) to 9mpg
an 85 Yugo 35mpg to 29mpg
a 1983 Dodge 1/2 ton oddly the same as the 69.
Thankfully all those vehicles are off the road and 2 are long gone and hopefully buried.
That said I have had other antiques that were not affected by ethanol or were minimally affected.
Some Carb'd vehicles must not be able to properly compensate for ethanol or overcompensate so to say or are simply poor designs.
Also I cannot state with a straight face that there may not have been mechanical issues with the cars I had FE drops on and I do know that after cheaper ethanol was at the pumps the 69 dropped a fuel pump (I would argue that it wasn't fuel related though)
Perhaps if someone with a bit more experience could look at an affected vehicle a fix might come up, perhaps he needs to open her up, rev the engine and slowly dump a gallon of distilled water down the intake. Then procede to power tune the thing, setting it a bit leaner than normal and setting the timing where it will end up. Not sure if this would make it worse or better, I have been told before that ethanol can be run very lean without noticable knocking which can be dangerous.
Also I have experienced more fuel filter replacements since ethanol struck, not sure if the detergent properties of ethanol might affect certain motors more than others but I do know sludge coming out of an old fuel tank can cause trouble.
NERY's since you were brave enough to water wash, have you ever tried doping the fuel? MMO, napathlene or very small amounts of Veggie oil? Around here Soybean oil (labled vegetable oil) goes on sale often for about $4 a gallon, if you are VERY confortable with potentially cleaning your engine out, get a small amount of e85, about a pint, Mix that pint with about 4oz of veggie oil for about 5 minutes vigorously. That batch should dope about 30-40gallons of e10 fuel. If you are a true tester and don't fear ridicule here try it out, my dodge jumped in fuel economy using approximately that amount. Veggie oil has a massive impact on vapor pressure among other issues (and it can plug leaks). Try it on one tank, be sure to dump the conction in and then fill rapidly to get it mixed, also don't do it if you don't run through a tank in under a month. Oh and veggie does not work in e0 as it won't mix and if it separates thats when the cleaning your engine comes in so don't let a tank sit with it in.
If that frightens you too much try Marvel Mystery Oil on a tank of e10. The one I would test last is napthlene or antique moth balls, these are a pain to get in the tank and a bigger pain to get out if you screw up and they clog something (oh and only use a couple balls per tank, too many and your motors timing will be off).
I have used the above and especially on malfunctioning cars they work well. Veggie oil was the biggest surprize. MMO has always worked well for me and my father for 30 years.
If you test one of the above post your results either no change or negative or positive. In your case your older cars may benefit from a bit of additive like MMO or Veggie or if you are brave napathlene which moves timing.
Good Luck
Ryan