This week we have had a car in for a a repair and sold parts for a similar problem. We’re talking rubber fuel lines that perish with the nasty E10 fuels forced on us. Here are a couple of facts about the storage life of the ethanol added petrol. When E10 is stored under shelter in a sealed container it will last one year. Once a seal is broken the fuel has a storage life of six months at 20°C or three months at 30°C. Here is the worrying part; the storage life of petrol in equipment fuel tanks or your car – is one month! When your car has been standing over the winter, the Ethanol content of the fuel will start to break down the rubber and seals that are in contact with the fuel, especially on older rubber.

We strongly recommend you check all rubber fuel hoses for damage before driving after a long period of hard standing. Once the system has fuel being pumped around you could develop a leak, depending on where the leak is, you could end up with a fire in your pride and joy’s engine bay. Or you could end up with a a rather large puddle of standing fuel which has all sorts of consequences of its own.

We suggest that if your fuel lines are looking old, cracked or damaged in any way what so ever – replace them. We stock Ethanol proof fuel lines 3/8″ here or 5/16″ here. Once the hoses have been changed to the ethanol proof style rubber, the E10 fuel should be fine in your car, apart from maybe a little timing if your car is sensitive to the ethanol.

Customer Cars

The ’67 Fastback that is having new rear quarters has been stripped back even more. We could end up taking the back completely off the car if we can’t find a solid starting point for the rebuild.

Obviously when we replace the quarters we put them back how they are supposed to be fitted, braised. We will bring you those pictures nearer the time.

The rear light panel has seen better days and the dreaded rust worm has had a field day at the joints. Nothing we haven’t seen before and she will be as good as new again. This type of work is time consuming and the attention to details, even those you can’t see makes the difference a few years down the line.

WebShop

We have started to get a few of our original Carbs refurbished ready for sale or fitting a little later on to our projects. This particular carb 4100 has been fully reconditioned for a customer and will run as good as new. The brief was to keep it’s patina so it didn’t look our o place going back into the rat style engine bay.

As they are a loyal supporting customer we obliged and got it done for them. The customer was happy as it arrived sooner than we expected back to our offices. The bonus was it arrived neatly packaged with one of our own ready for stock.

Stay Safe & Take Care!