> >
    > >
    > > Someone told me that ethanol is corrosive to aluminum. Is this
   true?
    > >
    > > Thanks,
    > >
    > > Doc Custer
    > >
    > > Extremely so ! Chuck
    > >
    >
    > Yes I'll go along with that, but
    >
    > I did see a documentary many years ago about Brazil and Ethanol, if
    > I remember correctly what they did was to "hard chrome" the inside of
    > the intake manifold and other components as needed also used plastic
    > components, plastic fuel tanks, plastic fuel lines, plastic
   floats and
    > so on, they used other metals that were non reactive and plastic as
    > required to overcome the issue but essentially it was still the STD
    > engine. All these things should also be OK for other fuels as well
    > these were carb based engines at the time, I'm sure you get the idea,
    > the internals of the engines were not modified, this appeared to
   work,
    > I believe that "Castro" could provide more info on this as I think he
    > is in Brazil and should have access to detailed info on this subject.
    >
    > Regards David

   Aloha David and all...

   As far as I read about, besides you should use plastic and inox steel to
   avoid the ethanol higher rate of corrosion, the major problem were the
   carburetors.
   The corrosion appears when 3 elements are present: ethanol, metal, and
   oxigen.
   Since the fuel injection system works under pressurization (1 to 4 BAR)
   there is no enough oxigen available for the corrosion.
   A problem you should consider are the eletric fuel pumps
   They should be from the new generation (no more than at least 10
   years of
   fabrication), for the Flex Fuel system to avoid corrosion on this part.
   Mostly (not to say all) fuel systems Made in Brazil are already,
   lets say,
   immune to the ethanol corrosion, since our fuel uses a misture up to
   25% of
   ethanol with gasoline, since 1975 when we started the Proalcool Program.
   There is a Master Thesis from Dr Fernando Rovai (in Portuguese but
   abstract
   is in English) you may download (not for commercial purposes, an
   agreement
   is asked in Portuguese before download) at
   Mestrado_Rovai_Edicao_Revisada_Depositada.PDF
   A part of what he found on his research is, after bench testing 6
   different
   fuel pumps for 300 hours, although some corrosion was detected, none of
   them presented any failure mode, and could be installe in vehicles
   without
   prejudice.
   Castro from Brasil (I thought we could be no less than soccer vice
   champions, with Germany in the final, but without firing passion nothing
   could be done... sorry guys, the CUP will stay in Europe) 2010 is
   comming...
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------

   You have to take your booze straight!  It's the water that does you
   (and your engine) in.

   I found this very complete and up-to-date article on alcohol as a
   fuel.  It's a little long so sip slowly.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

   Happy reading, Joel



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