<VV> Ethanol in gas

[CorvairEd at aol.com]

contactsmu at sbcglobal.net writes:

Would  like to throw this out for discussion.  There seems to be an  
inevitable move to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline  
nationwide.  What are the implications for our cars and how can we  
modify to decrease any possible adverse effects?

Stephen  U





Well gang, to tell the story again, I ran my 61 Rampside (w/102 hp engine)  
on straight methanol back in 78 right after I bought it for about 3  months.  
No problems but, of course, we here in the valley in southern  Calif never see 
cold temps.  The truck went through smog test with zero  emissions.  Years 
later I was asked to build a 110 Corvair engine to run on  straight alcohol for 
use in a home built fiberglass test car.  I took on  the project and did a lot 
of research.  I checked with the unlimited racers  down at our local dirt 
track about any problems they ran into using alcohol and  they told me that you 
can't use metal fuel lines or tank and no aluminum  carburetors.  That put a 
kink in things till I checked with the owner and  he informed me that the car had 
PVC lines and tank.  So we installed an  electric fuel pump at the tank with 
an on-off switch on the dash.  When  through driving the car for the day just 
turn off the pump and let the carbs run  dry and what little alcohol is left 
in the bowels would evaporate.  So, no  alcohol left behind to damage the 
carbs.  Other things that were needed to  make alcohol run efficiently were 
increase the compression ratio to 16 to one  and the addition of a custom grind 
camshaft.  The camshaft was produced by  OTTO Parts which was still in business at 
that time.  I also had to  put much bigger jets in the carbs.  When finished 
the car was a killer  car.  It was very light and acceleration was impressive 
to say the  least and you could light up the tires on start up anytime you 
wanted  to.  The car now resides somewhere around Littlerock, Arkansas.  

Ed Corson  (CORSA member)
Corson's Classic  Corvairs