Any informed information from anyone regarding this headline out there?

"Classic car owners warn parts could ‘perish’ under new fuel but some models may not suffer"

 

I think this is about the ethanol content of fuel being raised and it perishes a lot of rubber parts in carburettors. Glyn might be able to give us a more indepth report on this being a Tribologist.
It might mean that we have to change some of the rubber fuel components for a more ethanol friendly substance to combat leaks and possibly fires. I wonder if we would have any come back on the petrol manufacturers who over night could put our classic cars into a dangerous position without warning us fully on the implications of the new ethanol content.

 

Rob ~ what is the new fuel?

If it's a say 10% ethanol blend then certain elastomers on old cars will fail & need to be replaced with ethanol/alcohol tolerant ones. In the presence of water fuel system components could corrode. Keep your gas dry.

 

The old nylon fuel hosing used by Jaguar as an example seems quite tolerant of alcohols.

The new hosing sold by many as "the right stuff" looks original but is not alcohol tolerant.

In my car while it was in our alcohol supply area ~ 10 to 12% max it was not.

Approx 3 weeks exposure to gasohol. (see pic)

Old fuel pump diaphragms are also suspect. SU's latest are alcohol tolerant. I have German Hardy pumps fitted to my car & they are happy with 100% alcohol. Huco pumps used by some were not & the diaphragms disintegrated in the presence of alcohol. Since fixed by Huco. They were very responsible with customers that had trouble.

 

Here in the 'States experiences with E10 vary greatly. It's a source of great consternation in the car hobby world. It's everyone's favorite go-to whipping post which, IMO, sometimes prevents owners from seeing other problems and corrective measures.

If your old Jag still has 1950s-60s-70s vintage hoses, gaskets, etc in the fuel system you may well run into problems...although one might question how long those things are realistically expected to last even without ethanol.

Here in the 'States most of what you nowadays buy for oldie cars is designed to be E10 tolerant. I'm not sure how far along other countries are in this regard.

In my neck o'the woods E10 has been standard issue for at least 20 years and I've had no problems....but my Jags have all been 1980s-1990s vintage.

Long term storage in wet surroundings can be a problem so the already-mentioned advice to keep your gas dry is appropriate....just as it has always been appropriate in the decades before E10 was commonplace.

Cheers
DD

 

Prior to the launch of E10 in South Africa all those years ago the motor industry was given 1 year & as much free fuel as they wanted to test their vehicles for compatibility. I represented our oilco on the national fuels committee before going into an international job. Even after doing all that corrosion & elastomer compatibility issues were endless. Terne plate coating being stripped out of fuel tanks & issues where yellow metals catalysed corrosion of alloys used in carburettors, car paint incompatibility, even stupid things like the rubber used in Ducati fuel taps etc. etc. We even had issues where the same carb used by BMW & Mercedes gave trouble on BMW's & not on Mercedes. Why? ~ because Merc's carbs were built to a higher spec & plated. In Brazil where a huge amount of both hydrous & anhydrous alcohol is used many fuel system components are made out of pure zinc without a hint of yellow metal near them or in them

Most modern fuel system materials on the market are likely to be OK but there are still exceptions. Ask the question.

It's a crap shoot & luck of the draw with materials used by manufacturers. You might have issues & you might not.

The "right stuff" nylon tubing shown above is of US manufacture. It's been withdrawn recently.

Keep your gas dry to prevent phase separation. That's when alcohol becomes more of an issue.

 

This is a link sent to me by Footman James who are classic car insurance agents.
https://www.footmanjames.co.uk/blog/...r-classic-cars

It states;
"Classic cars will still be able to run on E5 petrol, as the Government has pledged that there will be continued supplies of E5 petrol when E10 goes on sale, however there is an economic sting in the tail for classic car owners, as it may only be sold in the form of ‘Super’ grade unleaded."

I already run "Super" unleaded in my 1968 S type Jaguar and will continue to do so even though it is a little more expensive for the amount of miles I actually drive the car in a year the extra cost is minimal. Our problem might lie when we are running low on fuel and pull into a garage that does not sell "Super". Do we then chance a small amount of E10 to get us down the road to the next garage which sells "Super"?

 

If you don't want to run E10 dump some in a partially filled tank so you get some dilution & run on that tank to get it out of the system soonest.

 

I am not a purist but have never had an issue with my cars and most are all classics. Where I may differ is things like fuel lines I have put new hard lines and ran braided lines for fuel, and in my Z cars they have been rebuilt with modern metals for the valve train and are all ported to not have issues with lead free fuels. I think if most of these cars as they get older eventually need to have their engines rebuilt, then have a good motor builder use nickel bronze guides, and just building it high quality with the normal materials, etc. used for any performance engine not be worried about using modern hoses that are different than what the car came with and it is not an issue. Drive these cars and have fun, don't be worried and start driving less, etc...