I saw this post from a member on the 2002FAQ and thought it may help e9'ers who have to deal with ethanol gas:
Called Pierce Manifolds to order a rebuild kit and asked one of their techs if there was anything out of the ordinary I needed to watch for - he asked if the car is driven much, and said if not, to look for fine sediment and / or cloudy fuel in the float bowl.
Apparently, because ethanol is both hygroscopic (absorbs water) and highly volatile (both of which make sense - it's alcohol), the ethanol component evaporates much more quickly than the gasoline - the remaining fuel becomes highly corrosive and can attack carburetor body castings, The guy said in cars that aren't driven regularly, he's seen float bowls that were so corroded the inner surface felt like 180 grit sandpaper - the corrosive nature of the partially evaporated fuel is hard on paper element fuel filters as well.
He also said ethanol can erode tiny particles from other fuel system components from the gas tank on forward, and that most normal fuel filters won't filter out small enough particles to keep the crud out of the carb (which turned out to be my problem). To avoid both issues, he said they make three standard recommendations to people who are forced to use fuel containing ethanol, and whose cars don't get driven every day:
Called Pierce Manifolds to order a rebuild kit and asked one of their techs if there was anything out of the ordinary I needed to watch for - he asked if the car is driven much, and said if not, to look for fine sediment and / or cloudy fuel in the float bowl.
Apparently, because ethanol is both hygroscopic (absorbs water) and highly volatile (both of which make sense - it's alcohol), the ethanol component evaporates much more quickly than the gasoline - the remaining fuel becomes highly corrosive and can attack carburetor body castings, The guy said in cars that aren't driven regularly, he's seen float bowls that were so corroded the inner surface felt like 180 grit sandpaper - the corrosive nature of the partially evaporated fuel is hard on paper element fuel filters as well.
He also said ethanol can erode tiny particles from other fuel system components from the gas tank on forward, and that most normal fuel filters won't filter out small enough particles to keep the crud out of the carb (which turned out to be my problem). To avoid both issues, he said they make three standard recommendations to people who are forced to use fuel containing ethanol, and whose cars don't get driven every day:
- Replace the fuel filter with a #9101 fuel injection filter - originally designed for early efi 240 Z's, it's the only fuel injection spec filter they know of with old-style nipples that will accept standard slide-on fuel hose and clamps.
- If possible, replace the mechanical fuel pump with an ethanol compatible electric pump, and splice a cut-off switch into the power lead. When parking the car for several days, use the switch to cut the fuel supply to the carb and let the engine run until the carb runs dry so there's no fuel left in the float bowl.
- Add at least a half bottle of "Carb Defender" to every 8-10 gallons of gas to neutralize the acids in the ethanol.