The issue with ethanol, is partly what it is, and partly what it does.
Ethanol is a Hygroscopic, Miscable, Versatile solvent. This means it absorbs moisture, (and the water it absorbs does NOT need to be in a liquid state) it will do it in any proportion, and it will mix with a variety of many other things as well.
It's hygroscopic nature is the reason it is used in scientific experiments and chemical processes as a DESSICANT. When a laboratory sample needs to be dehydrated, it's placed in a vacuum chamber with a dish of anhydrous ethanol, a slight vacuum, drawn, and the temperature raised a bit, moisture from the sample is exhuded, and captured in the ethanol.
In a garage-test, a sample of ethanol, left in a cloth-covered mason jar in a midwestern garage will increase it's MASS simply by extracting it from the air... and you'll SEE it do it, given an appropriate amount of time for your local environment, but you'll need a SCALE to accurately MEASURE it... because when you add one cup of ethanol to one cup water, you end up with SLIGHTLY LESS THAN two cups of VOLUME... but the concordant weights match.
As POLAR compound... it readily gathers ionic compounds and organic solvents like acetic acid, ethylene glycol, chloroform, hexane, and trichloroethane.... and many others.
Ethanol cannot be transported via pipeline like petroleum products- once it is exposed to moisture, it absorbs it, and any contaminants (particularly those listed above), it inherits the circumstances of the contaminants. Acetic acid being a big one- white metals, particularly castings, where dissimilar metals exist) react in a galvanic corrosion process. This is frequently misinterpreted as 'cleaning', as acetic acid (absorbed from the air, with moisture) etches the inside of fuel systems and breaks down polymers (rubber and plastics).
In an anhydrous state (meaning, no water absorbed) It's flashpoint is 57.2 degrees F (for comparison, gasoline is -45F). This changes once it's absorbed other compounds, and as such, it is very difficult to obtain an optimal combustion mixture.
While it's touted as a large reducer of emmissions, this is only the case when complete combustion occurs- When incomplete combustion occurs, ethanol yields significantly larger amounts of 'bad stuff' (formaldehyde and acetaldehyde).
As Tim noted, the humidity of an individual's area DOES impact degradation of motor fuel... but the impact that moisture ingress has can be decieving. A vented steel fuel tank feeding a steel fuel line to a cast iron carb with a brass float is NOT the same as a controlled-vented plastic tank with stainless lines, in-tank fuel pump, steel injectors with ceramic nozzles.
If a fuel system is clean, perfectly sealed, and absolutely no way for any contaminants to conjoin with ethanol-blend systems, there is no way for it to cause problems.
The reality is, that there is no way to maintain a clean, perfectly sealed system... EVER. It WILL wind up with contaminants, and those contaminants, once in combination with others, result in reactions that cause damage. Because of this simple fact, and ethanol's hygroscopic nature, the worst thing anyone could ever do to ANY fuel system, is leave it sitting.
Straight gasoline won't attract really bad stuff. What it WILL do... is evaporate... and it will ALWAYS evaporate the lightest-fractions-first... as time goes by, the lighter ones leave, and the heavier ones stay behind... leaving thick gooey sludge... in much the same way a refinery separates greases and bunker oils from kerosenes and gasoline.
Fortunately, for those of you that have tractors running Propane... as long as the filters catch any dirt, and the regulators don't get stuck from sitting (spring fatigue, etc), they'll be good basically eternally, because it IS a sealed system... it is very, very hard to contaminate.
For gasoline engines, regardless of WHAT you put in the tank, shutting off the fuel valve and running the carb dry, and/or opening the carb drain to run it dry, will ALWAYS offer chances for better result. Filling the tank to ALMOST the top is also a good idea, as it eliminates volume for air to occupy, but be careful- as temperature changes, the fuel must be able to expand and contract... add too much, and the system will generate pressure and leak out somewhere, usually in a very undesireable way.
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Ted J wrote:
