The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Ethanol question

My 216 disaster keeps getting better.
In my quest to get to the root cause of the poor running at anything other than idle, I took the carter YF off and was going to check the accelerator pump, no gas shooting out. I found grey sludge in the bottom of the float bowl. Put things back together and tried to start it.

Put gas down the carb and it fired and died.

After the usual checks, found no gas to the fuel pump. I did find some more grey sludge in the glass bowl fuel pump. I replaced the the in line filter prior to the fuel pump, no sludge in the old filter. Blew air back through the fuel line lnto the tank. Making the assumption the tank is still OK. The fuel pump had no vacuum when checked with a vacuum gauge.

So, will try a different fuel pump in the morning.

My Question is, will ethanol sitting in the float bowl or in the fuel pump cause the metal to deteriorate and be the cause of the sludge?

Can't specifically answer your question but I personally won't run ethanol in anything period!🛠

Yes, bad stuff. Now we need to be careful up here at least, to not confuse the 88 octane, e15 with "normal" ethanol. This slop is for the newer multi fuel? cars and specifically says don't use in vehicles made before 2001. My daily driver is a 90.

I am wondering if my fuel pump failed due to something rotting away inside. probably a long shot.

Lots of unknowns with all this, but my sop is to not use ANY thing other than "real gas" fuel is any of my pre 2000 engines, including yard maintenance tools. My Gravely tractor ops Manuel says the under 100% gas is good to use, but the repair shop guys have told me that advice helps keep them in business. To each their own, but ....

Your sludge is coming from your tank. Of that, I have little doubt.
10% ethanol fuel blend has volatile additives in it to make the ethanol perfrm similar to regular unleaded without ethanol.
The unwanted side effect is that this blend is an excellent solvent of the accumulated deposits which normally lie dormant and secure on the sides and bottom of the tank.
This awful blend (which should not be forced upon us in my opinion) moves this otherwise harmless accumulation down stream, causing all kinds of hard to diagnose problems.
It also eats the Carter 2100 YF accelerator pump diaphragms in 1-2 years.
Carl

Carl,

I don't disagree, but this means the particles are so small that they got by an in-line fram filter. That is a real problem.

Ethanol will cause rubber not designed for ethanol to degrade over time. It is also an excellent solvent. Whether that is the root cause of your issues may or may not be true. Having said all that I put an NOS fuel pump on my '38 five years ago and the diaphragm is still working well. My car gets a mixture of E10 and non ethanol gas. We have two stations that sell non E but when on tour I usually have to run E10. The main problem I've had with E10 is a sometimes difficult hot start because the alcohol boils off & fills the intake runners with vapor.

Mike, I had a similar problem, but the sludge color was rusty reddish brown.

My tank had been cleaned and sealed with a thick, rubbery red product long before I bought it. It eventually peeled away from the tank in large sheets (which I discovered by accident when changing a fuel sending unit). I'm not sure if ethanol caused this or not, but the end result was that I was getting sludge in my glass pre-filter bowl and a fair amount was getting past the filter and settling into the float bowl of the carb. I'm not sure if the sludge was rust particles from the tank or the disintegrated liner, or both.

The problem went away when I changed the tank.

As to your question about whether ethanol can eat away metal, I have never heard of that happening, but it can wreak havoc on many non-metal parts and coatings. And as you probably know, it attracts moisture which causes all kinds of problems including rust in the tank.

Matt

Ethanol free gas locations are on this map.
https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

Don

For all the reasons mentioned prior............I avoid ethanol fuel like the plague in every engine that is NOT regularly used.

That is the key IMHO.
Ethanol attracts water, will settle to the bottom of tank over time. I will run E10 but don't let it sit in tank over winter. Don't know about other states but in Oregon the only non-ethanol fuel we can get is premium.

I have been running E10 in my '50 with a fresh rebuild for 10,000 miles without issues other than having to change the accelerator pump diaphragm every 2-3 years.
Carl

Here in Kansas City, we have had ethanol for years. My truck hasn't seen any thing but ethanol laced fuel since 1999 when it first got back to running condition. I haven't seen any problems with it, it will set for months during the winter and still run fine come spring.

I found on EBAY a Methanol resistant pump diaphragm for the Carter YF and YFA. I have yet the need to buy one, but I probably will try it in the future. Just an FYI.

Search for "Carter YF pump diaphragm"

once you get the few rubber parts swapped out, it does no harm, I have been using it since it has been introduced with no problems. The only problem I have had with ethanol is it dissolved the gas line in my weedeater. if you are leaving the truck sit for long periods of time just use stabil and some 2 stroke oil, my dad found that out on accident when he used the weedeater gas in the lawnmower too, the tank stayed pristine. And then in the spring it might smoke a bit, but probably not.