Been quite a few scare stories in the press about how E10 petrol - coming here later this year - will damage many older cars. Much of it the usual press bollocks, after all E5 has been around for quite some time, and is known to attack older 'rubber' flexible fuel pipes. Which don't last forever anyway. Much of it generalization, but one specific was mentioned. It attacks the solder used on carburetter floats (those made of brass). Any comments?
I used an ethanol added (~10%) petrol in the fifties, sixties and seventies in my Triumph T100 motorbike and in my Ford RS1600 car. It was called Cleverland Discol and proved to be an excellent fuel with a perceived extra zip.
Nope, but if I had a classic car:
Or petrol lawn mower.
Well seems a little odd. I have used ethanol as cleaners for all sorts of things with no strange effects. Of course it has to depend on the solder. The current lead free stuff is crap in and of itself. Brian
Can you explain though why there is a different smell to the exhaust on Ethanol powered cars. Its like its sweet and almost sugary on the tip of ones tongue, or is this just me and my peculiar sense organs!
Brian
I'm not a chemist, but as far as I know, Ethanol doesn't attack solder. However, Acetic Acid (Ethanoic Acid - oxydised Ethanol - vinegar) does react with Lead and maybe there's some of that present.
The reaction product is Lead Acetate which used to be called 'Sugar of Lead' because of its sweet taste, and maybe that explains the sweet smell referred to by Brian Gaff later.
[Lead used to be hung in beer which has gone off to remove the vinegar and replace it with Sugar of Lead. This is no longer done. Health and safety gone mad, I say.]
The Romans used 'sugar of lead' to sweeten their wines. Said to be the underlying cause of the fall of the Roman Empire as they all slowly went mad and lost their powers of reason.
I always thought the smell of the exhaust of high-performance engines such as in sports and racing cars at hill climb meetings etc was due to the use of 'Castrol' somewhere in the fuel mix (whatever Castrol was), but I'm probably wrong.
This doesn't answer the question of whether E10 fuel will damage petrol lawn mowers, though.
I can remember when unleaded petrol was being phased in, and some cockwombling fire chief scored weeks of publicity saying it was a bad thing as it was more flammable that real petrol.
Which suggests (as always) the 80:20 law still applies, and 80% of reportage is utter bollocks.
Only by people who can't handle complex narratives.
"Castrol R" based on castor oil.
Of course most petrol had lead in it up to the nineties.
"Castrol R", it was the classic engine oil used in early racing engines, do a web search and you can read all about it.
Quite. Such as those who'd imbibed too much wine sweetened with sugar of lead!
Chris
Lead in the petrol caused the sweetnes, Castrol was a vegetable oil used in racing and left a very distinctive smell when burnt.
But until a few decades ago nearly all petrol contained lead, lead tetraethyl, as an anti-knock additive, and I wasn't conscious of car exhausts smelling particularly sweet. But a car running on Autogas (i.e. propane, LPG), that was different. You could usually tell when you were following a car running on Autogas, from the smell.
Possibly, though unlikely. Bioethanol is made from fermentation of sugar (from cane). Sucrose is said to be slightly soluble in ethanol (about 1 in 170), so I wonder if any could be carried over in the final stage distillation process. If it was, and that was burnt, it could account for a caramel odour. I would very much doubt it, though, and it would need a very sensitive nose to detect it.
Don't think it was the same the and the resultant smell was nice but weren't you able to apply a shot (or shots) of 'Redex' (an Upper Cylinder Lubricant) in with your fuel?
I'm pretty sure all those lads running 'racing' bikes / cars of the day would use it, as did my Dad in his Austin A40 a few times (as he would let me add it). You just told them how many shots you applied (if it was self service). ;-)
Those were the days when you could have loads of things out on the forecourt and they wouldn't generally get stolen ... including the tyre inflator (that would be on a quick connector).
Watering cans, Redex shot dispenser, buckets with water and a sponge and squeegee in, small oil display racks etc.
Now it's just firewood, disposable BBQ's and bags of charcoal, flowers and bottled water?
Cheers, T i m
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