Gwagensteve wrote:
Here's the problem Gecko, you present as all researched and stuff, but present no sources and then post rubbish, so it gets very hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.
A) I'm not sure how many old fuel tanks you've opened. I'm yet to see "gunk" in one. I see dust and dirt, sometimes a little corrosion oxidisation from water in the fuel, sometimes marbles of fuel tank putty from poor repairs, but no "gunk"
B) Watch Roadkillon youtube to see what happens when a car is parked up with a zinc/alloy carburettor and fuel system with ethanol in the fuel. The effect is hideous. Not E85, just whatever pump gas is in CA. (like 15% ethanol) You'll her some opinions from Fieiburger on the longevity of fuel since ethanol has been introduced. This is complete common sense - ethanol is hydroscopic.
C) My source for the corrosive effects on aluminium is via the technical trainers at Bosch. However, you can do your own research - see if you can find a car sold as flex fuel capable with aluminium fuel rails. They weren't very complimentary towards ethanol as a fuel.
D) And then you post nonsense you clearly have no idea about. I'm not sure how much time you've spent in wineries or distilleries, but you won't find any aluminium. None. At all. Ever. Anywhere. Not a fitting, not a pipe, not a tank, not a valve. I can tell you if wineries could make their vats and fermenters out of aluminium they would - it's cheaper than stainless, but they can't.
E) I'm sorry I worded my response in a confusing way. I'll be clearer. The oxygen sensor in your XL-7 (and any non-flexfuel engine) is calibrated for hydrocarbon fuel. The ECU can only interpret what the O2 sensor tells it. Therefore on E85 the calibration is incorrect because the engine has no other means to determine what fuel is in it. You can play with workarounds, but that's the fact of the matter. Some aftermarket ECU's can be tuned for Ethanol fuel by entering different target lambda figures. Factory flex fuel cars have an ethanol sensor in the fuel system that then adjusts the target lambda on cruise (and make pulse width and timing adjustments to suit). Without this, you are wasting your time running higher than the maximum recommended ethanol content.
Steve.
quoted for truth... i do pity your keyboard some days Steve.
level 900 wordsmith.
