Not very long ago the EPA OK’d 15% ethanol in gasoline. They originally OK’d it in 2010, but a class action law suite delayed this. Unfortunately, they ultimately have been able to get it OK’d. It is debatable if adding ethanol in gasoline does more good than harm to both the environment and to your car. Because of the harm that this gas can do to your car, I decided to look into what can be done to avoid it and why it is so bad for some cars. I also, wanted to see what could be done to mitigate the effects of this on an old Porsche (like my daily driver which is a 1983 Porsche 944).

Manufactures of various automobiles have come out saying that cars older than 2001 should not use the 15% ethanol gasoline blend (with some voiding any warranties on the car if the 15% blend is used on even some cars newer than 2001). The reason for this is that these fuel systems where not designed for ethanol use. Because they weren’t designed for it, many parts of the fuel system (especially rubber parts) can begin to fail due to the use of this fuel. Beyond this, if a car is not ran very often (for example a car that is mainly driven on the weekends) the ethanol can cause condensation to form in the gas tank and we all know water in your gas is never a good thing.

So, what can we that own an older Porsche do to keep our cars from having trouble with this new higher ethanol fuel?

Read the rest at theporscheguys.com