Ethanol in fuel and recommissioning a laid up car

[Nick Jackson]

I may be buying a 2.5PI that’s not been on the road for 7 or 8 years. As current petrol contains the evil ethanol product, what should I replace on the car to provide the best protection for the engine and fuel system? Presumably the fuel lines, but how do the metering units and fuel pumps react to ethanol?

Thanks a lot.
Nick

[johnnydog]

Hi Nick,
I'd be tempted to drain any remaining fuel in the tank from underneath, and then put a couple of gallons of super unleaded in it. I use either Shell V Power (but it's expensive) or Tesco 99 Momentum which I prefer to use if just for the reduced cost. I use it in my modern cars and they run really well. I use Millers VSPe additive which helps combat the effects of ethanol in older vehicles, but it also helps to stabilise the fuel and also adds up to 2 octane (RON). Modern unleaded fuel 'goes off' within several months, and Millers VSPe helps prevent it degrading as quickly.
Having done the above, I'd just crank it over until it fires, and see how it runs. You may be pleasantly surprised!
I have never done any modifications to the fuel system on my Triumphs, but run them on 99 Super Unleaded with Millers VSPe and have never had any problems.
Just be mindful the older Millers additive is VSP (no ethanol protection) not VSPe.

[Mike Stevens]

Hi Nick,

Good to see you posting on here!

As far as I understand, you should be Ok with the 5% ethanol stuff but definately not the 10% variety. I don't have my PI running at the moment, but the Stag and my 1949 LandRover run on the 5% OK and they are just about standard but with any new hoses etc being to current specs. There may also be some modern additives that solves the problem.

Good luck.

Cheers, Mike.

[Nick Jackson]

Thank you both for your replies. It seems the Millers VSPe is the go to product in these circumstances. I must admit that I’ve never used any form of premium unleaded fuel before, but that’s mainly because in the last 10 years or so, I’ve not had a petrol driven car! Whichever 2.5PI I end up buying I can try the premium unleaded.

I now have another thought. If the laid up car has 8 year old fuel in it, is the metering unit, fuel pump etc. going to be gummed up inside with sticky old petrol?

[johnnydog]

Personally, I don't think you will have a problem. I would certainly drain off the old fuel, and once replenished with new, my bet it will be ok (assuming it was running ok before being laid up).
I have a carburettored 2000 which had been laid up for approx 6 years before I put it back on the road. I drained the fuel from the tank, and put new in and it ran as if it had not been off the road at all!
The main problem I had was disposing of the old fuel (I questioned why I had left it with about 6 gallons of fuel in it in the first place ). Several of our group members suggested using two gallons at a time with fresh fuel, but I decided not to. It may have been the simpler option though, as you can't now dispose of old fuel like you used to be able to do ueqrs,ago at your local waste disposal centre.....

[Nick Jackson]

Thank you, very helpful.

[simon.williams]

Hopefully your metering unit won’t be gummed up after « only » 7 years. My 20 year old one was, but was possible to un-gum by taking all apart (but in hindsight I should have gone straight for a recon one and saved myself a lot of work). You will soon find out if it doesn’t fire up, or no spray at the injectors. Feel free to ask as I think I have been through about every fault finding aspect of the injection system in the past 6 months, all the way from a broken drive dog to a non-working PRV valve. And if anything else is kn*ckered, chances are I’ve had that too!