kevscrivener
Moderator
Those of us old enough to remember the phasing out of leaded petrol in the late 1990's will recall all sorts of doom stories about engines grenading because the modern stuff would wreck the valve seats etc.
At the time there was a company called Bayford who were one of the very few who continued to supply leaded petrol, and I used to carry a list of sites with me when I was out and about on the Ironhead, using them as much as I could. When I moved down here in 2003, I decided to have Matt's Engineering do a top end overhaul because I was concerned about premature valve seat erosion. Matt assured me that it wasn't necessary, as unleaded tech in the USA was way ahead of ours. He was right; I did have him do the top end as much for cosmetic reasons as anything, but the valves and seats were fine and just needed lapping back in again.
I think the E10 thing will turn out similar; once we've been using it for a while, and provided as Fuz says we take sensible precautions when we lay vehicles up for a while, we'll wonder what all the fuss was about. After all in many countries they drive about quite happily using much higher percentages of ethanol in their fuel.
At the time there was a company called Bayford who were one of the very few who continued to supply leaded petrol, and I used to carry a list of sites with me when I was out and about on the Ironhead, using them as much as I could. When I moved down here in 2003, I decided to have Matt's Engineering do a top end overhaul because I was concerned about premature valve seat erosion. Matt assured me that it wasn't necessary, as unleaded tech in the USA was way ahead of ours. He was right; I did have him do the top end as much for cosmetic reasons as anything, but the valves and seats were fine and just needed lapping back in again.
I think the E10 thing will turn out similar; once we've been using it for a while, and provided as Fuz says we take sensible precautions when we lay vehicles up for a while, we'll wonder what all the fuss was about. After all in many countries they drive about quite happily using much higher percentages of ethanol in their fuel.