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[Healeys] Ethanol effects on rubber

Subject: [Healeys] Ethanol effects on rubber
From: m.g.sharp at sympatico.ca (Mirek Sharp)
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2018 11:29:46 -0400
References: <474a5503-f5d4-633a-7e0b-109a6c5d2b61@comcast.net>
Bob, Absolutely interested!  Thanks for taking an experimental approach to this 
oft-discussed issue.

Mirek

-----Original Message-----
From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Bob 
Spidell
Sent: June-22-18 3:19 PM
To: Healeys
Subject: [Healeys] Ethanol effects on rubber

Just when you thought you'd heard the last on this ...

Having bragged about my scientific creds, I decided I needed to do some 
'scientific' experimenting.  I bought a new HD8 diaphragm jet from Tom's and 
put it in a jar submerged in denatured alcohol.  If you're not familiar with 
denatured alcohol, it's ethanol--i.e. booze--with one or more denaturing 
chemicals to make it unpalatable to drink.  When I first did this thought 
experiment, I thought DA was mostly ethanol, but the quart I bought at a 
hardware store claims to be 45-50% ethanol and the remainder methanol (and 
probably some water as both alcohols are hygroscopic).  Though this mixture 
doesn't represent the 10% or so of ethanol in gasahol, IIRC from my college 
chemistry and lab technician days that methanol is even more corrosive than 
ethanol.  So, this should be a good test of the rubber part of the jet's 
resistance to these solvents (and the brass part too, I suppose).  I put new 
jets in my BJ8's HD8s two years/12K miles ago, and should have done this then 
in case the results were scary, but maybe this will tell us something. I'll 
check the jet periodically for degradation and, if anybody's interested let you 
know.

Cheers,

Bob



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