PENNY WISE, POUND FUELISH; Ethanol blends and your vintage car: Are they a potent mixture?(Revs)

Byline: KEN GROSS

With all the hype about E85, as in "Think Green, Drive Yellow,'' you'd think America's addiction to petroleum-based fuels-not to mention the challenges of dealing with unpredictable Middle East suppliers-was about to change.

Think again, especially if you own a vintage car.

Despite what those cheery General Motors ads infer, there are still relatively few pumps nationwide offering E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline). Vehicles that can run on ethanol are flex-fuel-compatible, so they will perform just fine with pump gasoline. Some states, including Virginia and Maryland, mandate E10 ethanol, with up to 10 percent ethanol blended in all grades of pump fuel, to help conserve fossil fuels.

Here's the bad news: Ethanol acts as a solvent that can loosen the sludge, varnish and dirt that accumulate in a fuel tank. Ethanol also absorbs water, and the ethanol-water mixture may separate from blended gasoline and sink to the bottom of a fuel tank, where the fuel pickup is located. This mixture can clog fuel lines and block carburetor jets and may be incompatible with older rubber compounds and some metals.

There are already unsubstantiated but seemingly sincere tales about ethanol-laced fuel's corrosive effect on gaskets, fuel lines, carburetors and pumps. Several leading old-car restorers already recommend 115/145-octane AvGas or 102-octane CAM2 racing fuel to customers with collector cars.

Rumors abound (reminiscent of the Y2K madness) that old cars and vintage boats will be adversely affected by ...