85% ethanol?

[Oddmar]

 My friend works in Bloomington, Illinois and called me today. He was passing a Shell station and saw a sign advertizing 85% ethanol fuel for $1.69 a gallon, which i guess is about 30 cents a gallon cheaper than everything else. He was wondering if we could run that in our 84-87 Toyota pickups.

From my research into biodesiel i've heard that ethanol can eat rubber fittings and hoses, but at some point "they" changed the composition of the fittings on vehicles to allow the use of ethanol-based fuels without damage.

I'd like to tell him he can run his Toy on the cheaper fuel, but i don't wanna have to rebuild his carb cause all the little rubber (or nitrile) O-rings and all his rubber hoses desintegrate on him. Believe me, when anything goes wrong with his trucks i'm the one that gets stuck doing the repairs...He keeps saying i should open my own Toyota garage. Does anyone know if our 84-87 Toy's can handle said fuel?

[mr4x42u]

I don't know what the percent it in california,,but there huge on that crap up there,but they don't advetise itas 85% like that so ,not sure if its the same,,but if there selling it,,I'd burn it.I don't know if I'd want it sitting in my tank or fuel system for a long period of time,,but I'd have no problem running it..

[kyle_22r]

from what i remember, alcohol has a lower BTU rating than straight gasoline so you're going to need to richen up the mix to make it run properly.  higher compression, bigger jets and more spark(think MSD and more plug gap) are a step in the right direction...