View Single Post
Old 05-03-2013, 02:43 PM   #20 (permalink)
Swordsmith
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 16
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
I did swap the fuel line for an alcohol resistant one, but haven't heard of a flame arrestor, will look into it.

I do wonder what about ethanol would require this while gasoline, another liquid with highly flammable vapor, does not. Still, I can't see why the many companies which make flexfuel cars would be spending the money for a piece of gear that doesn't do anything, so if you're right and this is industry standard, I'll certainly look into the reasoning.

(edit to add) here's a quote from EHow:
Quote:
Ethanol burns hotter and faster than regular gasoline, so vehicles that burn it must have more heat-resistant engines; metals in fuel lines, fuel injectors, fuel tanks, piston rings, fuel pumps and other components must be made of ethanol-compatible materials. Fueling and spark advance calibrations must be adjusted. Anti-siphon and spark arrestor features must be added to the filling spout because of ethanol's conductivity and increased flammability.
So they say the reason for the spark arrestor is that ethanol is both more conductive (more likely to generate a spark, I guess?) and more flammable.

The 1.4T engine in the Sonic was designed for E85, so I didn't have to replace most of the components they list here, the injectors I replaced because I needed a higher max volume. I did address the spark advance as part of redoing the tune to run E85.

Last edited by Swordsmith; 05-03-2013 at 02:52 PM..
  Reply With Quote