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Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:07:23 -0700
From: Dale Rogers <dale.r@cox.net>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Ethanol production
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Mike Wills wrote:
> I dont recall seeing scores of cars pulled over on the shoulder of the 
> road with failures directly attributable to ethanol use.

You haven't?  I don't understand how you've missed them - the columns of 
black smoke should have pointed straight to them.

Maybe you only drive at night?  |;)

Okay, there was a bit of hyperbole there, but I can't help but wonder if 
the increased numbers of on-the-road car fires I'm seeing as I cruise 
the freeways of AZ and NV isn't due, in part, to alcohol.  The Saturn 
dealer wouldn't let me have the part for analysis (it was a warranty 
replacement), but at only 30 months old, we had to have the fuel pump 
replaced because it had fractured and was spraying fuel out the top of 
the tank and onto the ground.  But for the lack of a spark, my wife 
would have been immolated. 

A few years back, our oldest son bought a 91 Lumina, with the 3.1L V6 
engine.  It's virtually identical to the 2.8 in my '89 wagon, with which 
I'd never - in the 15 years I drove it - had a fuel problem.  He'd had 
it about 3 years when I walked by the car right after he'd parked it and 
smelled gasoline.  We opened the hood and he started the car - the fuel 
pressure regulator (under the upper half of the intake manifold) was 
leaking fuel.  Another roadside fire narrowly averted.

Currently, we're both driving dual-fuel Fords, so I'd expect that ~they~ 
are set up to resist the effects of ethanol.

I wonder how long the new Saturn fuel pump housing is going to last - or 
what else will give out.

Dale R.
COZY MkIV #0497
Ch. 12