When I bought my truck I got gas at a little gas station in Bristol that didn't say anything at all about their fuel being an ethanol blend and it ran pretty well. I got it to Crossville and had to get gas and I noticed that the truck didn't seem to run as good. I can't really quantify it, it just seemed to have a little bit more of a tip in stumble. I got gas at the Shell station and it even said the fuel contained up to 10% ethanol. Before I left town I found several gas stations and they all said they contian ethanol. In Bowling Green, I know BP does, but several stations still have no ethanol markings at all.
All I can figure is that 10% ethanol is simply going to be a fact of life everywhere soon, but for now it just depends on what region you're in. I also know that there were several outboard motors on the lake in Crossville that were running really badly and this was attributed to the ethanol. This makes me wonder if the 302 in my truck might also be affected. I've never really noticed a problem in my other vehicles, but they're fuel injected and can compensate based on feedback from the O2 sensors and such. I'm thinking that on the carb, some minor retuning might actually be required.
Anybody bumped into this before? Penney for your thought.
All gas stations run a winter blend and a summer blend. I find I do need to tweak the tuning a bit after they change over. The real problem is those places in the country where E-85 is the only thing sold. Glad I don't have to deal with that.
You and me both! I did a little looking after I posted this and found that TN is required to label anything sold with more than 1.5% Ethanol, where KY is not. I may get the same lousy gas in KY, but they just aren't required to label it.
We have E85 at most stations here in Minnesota. All our gas has 10% ethanol. Sometimes you can find some that doesn't have any ethanol but its marked for off-road use only and then they change an extra .10 for running it.
I live in mn too. I only put about 12k on my 429 in my 75 truck and had to rebuild my carb, and replace my holley fuel pump. Both were new on the rebuild. I am not sure but seems to be hard on the gaskets.
10% ethanol has been in most of our fuel where I live for years. It just doesn't cause nearly the problems some folks imagine. There ARE lots of people who are more than happy to take your money and fix the problem your truck may realy have, however. Lets think about this....if your fuel has 10% ethanol, and ethanol has 2/3rds the BTUs of gasoline, your new 10% blend has about 97% the BTUs of the ethanol free fuel you used to have. Is your carb set SO lean it can't deal with a 3% reduction ? Most vehicles new to ethanol in the fuel just need a new fuel filter, and some need the carb cleaned out. Ethanol IS a very good solvent, and any trash in the fuel system will get loosened up and floated into the filter and the float bowls.
10% ethanol has been in most of our fuel where I live for years. It just doesn't cause nearly the problems some folks imagine. There ARE lots of people who are more than happy to take your money and fix the problem your truck may realy have, however. Lets think about this....if your fuel has 10% ethanol, and ethanol has 2/3rds the BTUs of gasoline, your new 10% blend has about 97% the BTUs of the ethanol free fuel you used to have. Is your carb set SO lean it can't deal with a 3% reduction ? Most vehicles new to ethanol in the fuel just need a new fuel filter, and some need the carb cleaned out. Ethanol IS a very good solvent, and any trash in the fuel system will get loosened up and floated into the filter and the float bowls.
DinosaurFan
You're very likely correct. All of the driveability problems that I noticed after getting ethanol fuel continued and got worse after I got back home. Now where I've got gas in town is not labeled as an ethanol blend, but it turns out they they're not required to label it in KY! So who knows, it could be the same stuff. I took my carb apart and found a bunch of rust and other crud. I took the whole thing apart and cleaned it real good. I replaced the fuel filter as well. Now the truck is running awesome.
Now I would not be surprised if I have some more troubles with the rubber fuel line components at some point, but the truck is 35 years old anyway, they're due to be replaced.
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I wouldn't worry about it
