ISO HEET Iso-HEET every tank

[burijon]

After my Qs rehabilitation I see the wisdom and cost effectiveness of making sure everything is as clean/perfect as possible as often as possible(money being the hindrance). Having only ethanol intoxicated gas in my area I have been adding iso-heet to my tank. At $1.28 at Wal-mart it's a no brainer for me.

My question: Is it overkill and/or bad to add iso-heet to every tank of gas? The bottle says it absorbs 4 times it's weight in water. Where does the water go?

Inquiring minds want to know?

[maxnix]

It is in a solution with the gasoline and ispropyl alcohol you add. Much better than being in a mixture that settles out. Then it is burned, or at least excreted, with the waste gases.

Probably not overkill at all.
Modified by maxnix at 9:33 AM 7/9/2007

[qship96]

Doesnt the ethanol in the {e10}gas already absorb any water in the tank? not sure I buy into the need to add yet more alcohol to the tank-the incoming e10 will only introduce to your tank the maximum amount of water that the ethanol can hold in suspension,which is then burned thru engine? theoretically this e10 should result in less water buildup in tank as compared to regular gasoline?

[96Qowner]

Isopropyl alcohol will not release the water it has absorbed, unlike ethanol.

In searching, I also ran across another tidbit:

The situation is different for gasoline oxygenated with 10 vol % ethanol. The gasoline-alcohol blend can dissolve more water (6000–7000 ppm at 21°C/70°F). When this blend is cooled, both the water and some of the ethanol become insoluble. Contacting the blend with more water also draws ethanol from the blend. The result, in both cases, is two layers of liquid: an upper ethanol-deficient gasoline layer and a lower ethanol-rich (up to 75% ethanol) water layer. The process is called phase separation and it occurs because ethanol is completely soluble in water but only marginally soluble in hydrocarbons. After phase separation, the gasoline layer will have a lower octane number and may knock in an engine. The fuel also is less volatile. The engine will not run on the water/ethanol layer. As the concentration of ethanol is decreased, the aromatics content of the gasoline is decreased, and as temperature is decreased, less water is required to cause a phase separation.

Gasoline absorbs 150 ppm water. 10% ethanol blend absorbs 6000-7000.

Arg.

[burijon]

Let me try to understand better. Ethanol in and of itself absorbs more water than gas(I think that's what you are saying)? So ISO-Heet isn't really doing anything for me or is only necessary maybe once a month instead of every tank?

I thought the NICOthought was that Ethanol anything is bad especially for older Q injectors?

So based on your data I would really only need to buy some octane boost and not iso-heet?

Very confused...

[96Qowner]

No, the ethanol absorbs water from the atmosphere - humidity. It absorbs more as the temp and humidity rise. When it cools, the water separates back out and settles to the bottom of the tank, along with some of the ethanol. When it warms back up they get reabsorbed, etc. So, essentially, in the morning after the car has been sitting and its been cool, you have a tank of gas with two layers - a top layer of gas with very little ethanol (and low octane) - and a bottom layer of ethanol-rich water. The same thing applies to the tanks at the gas station.

Gas doesn't absorb much water, never did.

Isopropyl is water-starved already - artificially distilled - so it sucks up water and doesn't release it. Both ethanol and isopropyl with water dissolved in it burns just fine - the water all burns off. But cooled ethanol lets water settle out of it, corroding stuff and making your gas mix unpredictable.

However: My high-mileage Accord - currently 388,000 miles, all my miles - has been run on 10% ethanol almost exclusively over 17 years. I live in a freezing climate. I have never, not once, had any sign that water or ethanol caused a problem of any sort in the car - nothing - ever. No gas line freezing, no corrosion, no coughing, nada, zip, nuttin.

[qship96]

ethanol scare is way overblown on this site-millions of drivers,including all of our families cars arnt stranded,broken,or running poorly due to them not even knowing about adding isoheet to their tanks! maybe we are a little to paranoid around here

[96Qowner]

Ah, but the G50's fuel system doesn't tolerate ethanol well.

Clearly, the Accord's does. Big difference in engines, after all.

[ScottJackson]

big difference in injectors, mainly

[maxnix]

For your edification:

http://srdata.nist.gov/solubil...9_162

http://neon.chem.uidaho.edu/~honors/alcohsol.html

[szh]

ethanol scare is way overblown on this site-millions of drivers,including all of our families cars arnt stranded,broken,or running poorly due to them not even knowing about adding isoheet to their tanks! maybe we are a little to paranoid around here

Remember that there is a big difference between HEET (methanol) and ISOHEET (iso-propyl alcohol).

Read the above threads and links with that in mind.

Z

Edited to fix my typo (I meant methanol not ethanol).

[maxnix]

Z knows HEET is methanol, a no no.

[Q45denver]

99% pure with 1% proprietary additive:

http://www.pocooil.com/MSDS%20...e.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol

[qship96]

Blah Blah Blah,many opinions and references to articles on the web.....still YOUR mom,sister,brother,father,neighbor,coworker,et al goes about their daily routine filling their tank with whatever is on sale at the gasngo and doesnt freak out over ethanol in their gas,and their cars soldier down the road while they worry about more important things in life in Maryland we have had MTBE then ethanolized fuel since forever,yet my Q goes about its business like few other cars with almost 195,000 miles on original injectors with the only cleaning ever done includes a few doses of redline s1 and techron and 1 dose of bg44 dumped into the tank

[Q45denver]

Does your state require ethanol?

'94 - 96 does not have same problems with injectors as '90-93. I've had several set on my 1990. Never had a problem on either of my 1995's.

Might be good idea to retard timing to allow for lower octane due to fuel separation?

[szh]

Z knows HEET is methanol, a no no.

Oops, I mistyped ... yes, I do know.

I will edit my post.

Z

[qship96]

maryland is all e10 fuel,and all mtbe before that unless you traveled to the far corners of the state

[Q45tech]

Problems with E10 tend to show up early in the conversion process [unless the tanks spring leaks] or a lazy [or pressured] tanker driver refills the station in the rain.

I would think that the injectors adapt physically and slowly to the elastiometric changes from E10...............I could be wrong!!!!

THe rash of injectors failures seem to come and gone after a year of ethanol substitution for MTBE.

It will take years to evaluate.

Watch out some states are proposing E20 that will just start the failure process over again. Currently 46% of US gasoline contains some ethanol from California 5.7% to E10 to E85.

[qship96]

qtech,thanks for your input-hopefully it will numb the phobia of many on the board