Mar. 2, 2006
Rear View
E10 is unhealthy
to older cars and small engines
Ethanol: The magic elixir that is going to save us from obeisance to Middle East oil. In a vehicle that is designed to run on ethanol, usually a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol with the remainder being gasoline and known as E85, it can be just the alternative the U.S. has been searching for. However, in a vehicle designed to run on gasoline, ethanol can be a slow and agonizing poison.
In the past couple of columns I have made an effort to counter the pie-in-the-sky claims of the ethanol industry regarding E85. Simply put, it ain't all it's cracked up to be. The state of Minnesota mandates a blend of 10 percent ethanol (also known as E10) in all unleaded regular gasoline sold here. Even that amount of ethanol can be corrosive to fuel systems, especially in older cars and small engines.
Ethanol is also known as grain alcohol. It is made from vegetation, usually from corn in the U.S., but it can also be made from plant waste such as wood chips or corn stalks. Scientists call it "biomass." Like alcoholic beverages, ethanol is created by combining the natural sugar in the plants with yeast and heat.
The use of ethanol as a fuel for internal combustion engines is hardly new. Henry Ford was a strong proponent of ethanol as fuel, and his Model T was capable of running on the stuff. Ford even bought up several breweries in Michigan and converted them to the manufacture of ethanol, but gasoline was still cheaper to produce and sell, so it won out as the fuel of choice for decades of drivers.
It is still more expensive to manufacture ethanol than gasoline, but federal and state subsides have brought the selling price of ethanol to below that of gasoline. However, since the thermal efficiency of ethanol is equivalent to 1.5 gallons of gasoline, it is still cheaper to use gasoline in the long run.
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On the plus side, the addition of ethanol increases the octane rating of the gasoline, and it pretty much eliminates the need to add a gas line anti-freeze such as isopropyl alcohol to remove any water from the gas during the winter months. On the down side, the greater evaporation rate of E10 can cause a "no start" condition known as vapor lock, particularly on very hot summer days.
Bad for older vehicles
What the PR pieces for ethanol don't tell you is that E10 is not a simple substitute for gasoline. It is quite corrosive to certain materials, including rubber and brass, which have long been used in fuel systems for all engines. The ethanol industry claims that E10 works just fine in any vehicle back to the 1970s, but in the real world it can cause problems in cars built even into the 1990s. I believe that the pumps which dispense E10 should carry a warning label, something like "WARNING! This fuel contains 10% ethanol. It may cause damage to the fuel systems of small engines or to vehicles built prior to 1990. Use at your own risk!"One of the most common failures is to the sending unit in the gas tank that powers the gas gauge on the dash. The 10 percent blend of ethanol is strong enough to cause the sending unit float to stick and send a false reading to the gauge, leaving the driver to think he or she has more gas in the tank than there really is.
Auto technicians in the Twin Ports who work on cars from both Minnesota and Wisconsin say they have noticed a trend toward more fuel injection system repairs, particularly fuel injectors, on vehicles from Minnesota since E10 was made mandatory. Likewise, shops that specialize in exhaust repairs have seen what they consider to be premature catalytic converter failure in Minnesota vehicles. They are quick to point out, however, that newer cars do not seem to have these same problems, so it appears that auto manufacturers have reacted to the corrosive properties in ethanol with better materials.
Because this fuel system erosion takes place over a long time, auto manufacturers are often slow to react. The vehicles in question may even be out of warranty before the damage becomes apparent. The up side for them is that you will be forced to buy a replacement vehicle in less time, so there is little incentive to correct the problems.
Non-Oxygenated Premium is better for small engines, seasonal engines, and older cars. |
While non-ethanol premium is available at about half the gas stations in northern Minnesota (companies that carry it locally include ICO and Little Stores), it can be difficult to find in the Twin Cities metro area.
Bad for small engines
Small engines, particularly those that only see seasonal use such as snowmobiles, snow blowers, motorcycles, lawn mowers, outboard motors, and similar, have a particular difficulty with E10. Due to more rapid evaporation than gasoline, E10 can leave gummy deposits in carburetors, which then need to be cleaned out or rebuilt. Once again, it is wise to use non-ethanol premium (sometimes called "snowmobile gas") in any small engine to avoid this annual maintenance.It is also a good idea to take extra precautions prior to storing a seasonal engine. Drain the tank and run the engine until there is no fuel remaining in the lines, or at least add a gasoline stabilizer such as Sta-Bil to extend the shelf life of the gasoline.
The future
The Minnesota legislature last year passed a law that all gasoline must contain 20 percent ethanol (E20) by the year 2013. Other than flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) built to run on gasoline or E85, none of the vehicles built today will be able to survive very long on E20. Even if you bought a new car today, it would likely be unable to cope with that much ethanol in the blend and would suffer fuel system damage.Once again, it is a victory for the auto manufacturers, as it will be necessary to replace any vehicle more than seven years old, unless the owner of that "older" vehicle defies the "for Collector cars only" (at least 20 years old) portion of the law and uses non-ethanol gasoline.
Fortunately, the law does have a clause that vehicles sold in Minnesota must be able to run on E20. If the manufacturers don't comply, then E20 becomes a bad idea that will simply die.
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