AD5OS, with that many miles on the car I would bet that at some time one of the injectors developed a leak, and some "expert" put cheapie import o-rings on them from the discount store...
Hey, some other Dave, I'm thinking that Denis was veering off from sealing bits in the fuel system not being rubber for a long time. I was just ignoring that part, in concentrating on the ethanol fuel issue.
Here in the States we can
still buy a cork-based gasket for an older small-block Chevy valve cover.
As for magnesium, your right there, too. There are several magnesium parts I can lay my hand on within 2 minutes, including old aftermarket small-block Chevy valve covers, that are a lot newer than side-spare cars...
Our beloved Wiki follows that up with "The application of magnesium AE44 alloy in the 2006 Corvette Z06 engine cradle..." (That's from
Magnesium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) and that's a lot newer than cars that even had full-sized spares in the trunk!
Recap: 1) Yeah, I'm betting E85 can be used in pretty well the whole lot. The major carmakers over here most likely have their hands in Big Oil's wallets.
2) Maybe with the leaking issues of cork, France banned them long ago. Who knows? Maybe Denis!
3) Magnesium is still in use here because it's cheap and light. Maybe there aren't any magnesium mines in France...
