A number of years ago we were in Estes Park, Colorado, in our 1973 Volvo 164,
dubbed "Righteous" by my son-in-law. We took off through Rocky Mountain National
Park with my wife, myself, Daughter Esther, Daughter Peggy and her husband and two
of their children after filling up in the town of Estes Park. (I noted a sign on
the pump AFTER I filled the car which said that the fuel contained Ethanol, but
could get NO information on how much from the attendant inside.)
We rode about 25 miles into the park and the car started to falter and finally died
up in the mountains by a meadow. We quickly diagnosed the problem as fuel starvation.
Car was D-jet fuel injected. I unhooked the gas line at the fuel rail and turned
on the key - nothing came out. So we unhooked it at the pump and turned the key
and got LOTS of gas. I blew back through the line from the front and got about a
double handfull of brown, rust-colored gooey stuff on the ground from the back.
We hooked it back up at the rear and turned the key again, got plenty of gas in
front and so put the whole thing back together. We were on our way in about 40 minutes
from the initial failure, but I shudder to think how it would have been had we
not had some idea what we were doing. Since then I have avoided alcohol-containing
fuel at every opportunity.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!