Hi Lori,
 > I have been surprised as the response to
 > "Ethanol" being
 > bad for cars and gas mileage.  Have you tried
 > modifying the carburator
 > jets or adjusting the fuel feeding rate?
To get proper running on straight ethanol, you have to INCREASE jets sizes a 
lot. That means more fuel per volume of air. I can not see running ethanol as 
a way to increase fuel mileage unless you do a lot of other work (ie. raise 
compression to 14 to 1 or above - to take full advantage of reduced ping, and 
advancing the timing a lot also). Those would be about the minimum to do. 
Doing both of those will increase your power a lot and therefore, you would 
not have to have the pedal down as far to get the same power as before.
Ethanol is sold by a few select stations in CA, located mainly where cities 
or other fleet operators have bought special factory ethanol cars. Where I 
used to live (Simi Valley, CA) there was one such station in town. I do not 
know of any others that may be closer to where I am now. If it was not so 
darn far, I would get a 55 gallon drum of the stuff, and use it when getting 
my cars smog checked, then drian it immediately afterwards. Our smog checks 
in the major cities (or areas of higher air pollution) have been horrible for 
years.
The smog checks have been moved to ALL areas now and many vehicles formerly 
exempt (trucks over 9500 GVW) also must be checked. About the only way 
arround it is to have a car made before 1966. After that, most everything 
better be full stock with very few exceptions. There is a great demand out 
here for air cleaner housings for anything after '65, because if it is not 
what the factory put on, you will have big trouble getting past the visual 
part of the inspection. Same kind of story with air (smog) pumps and exhaust 
manifolds, although there are a few CA approved headers for certian cars 
(mostly before cat. convertors were required). I am going to hate to take my 
IH 1310 (One and a Half ton pickup, 10500 GVW, 4x4, factory raised so much 
that they did not even use the cut outs in the bed for wheel housings, 
instead, it has different covers for that section and has a completely FLAT 
bed area) in for a smog check. It has a IH 392 and I am not sure what year 
the engine is from, and IH used both Holley and Quadajet carbs. If they did 
not use the Holley in '72 I may have some big trouble.
 > You might want to check your
 > fuel.  You might be running "Gas-a-hol" rather than
 > Ethanol.
That is very possible. Almost all fuel sold in CA is now a form of 
"Gas-a-hol" being oxigenated for cleaner burning.
 > My husband
 > put ethanol in his '66 Plymouth Valiant and increased
 > the mileage.
I wish I could get your miracle fuel out here. If nothing else, it would make 
smog checks easier to pass. And (to get back to the OLDCARS topic), I could 
raise the compression ratio of my '57 Imperial to about 14 to one, rejet the 
2 x 4 bbl. carbs (factory parts for the 392 HEMI) and have about the fastest 
boat in this desert :)
Gerry
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