RE: 90 V8 hesitation/stalling

[Gary Kaklikian <Gary.Kaklikian@digital.com>]

Just be thankful you don't have to use the oxygenated ("ethanol-enhanced")
s#$! that passes for gasoline here in the winter! The extent of hesitation
and other driveability problems seems to vary depending on the vehicle, but
it's common to lose 10-15% fuel economy. My 5000 owner's manual recommends
discontinuing use of ethanol-enhanced fuels if you experience problems like
this, but it's not really an option here unless you're willing to drive 50
miles out of your way to buy gas (just can't recover that lost fuel
economy!) 

Also, it seems like fuel filters clog soon after switching to the winter
fuel. I'm not sure if the ethanol is "cleansing" the tank and lines or what,
but you have to wonder about the long-term impact on the fuel system.

Gary Kaklikian
86 4kcsq (mucho hestitation with winter fuel)
86 5kcstq (runs ok with some top end power loss, but gas mileage drops about
15%)
93 BMW K1100 RS (for sale, and really hating ethanol)

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas, Nathan [mailto:nthomas@imps0014.us.dg.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 12:17 PM
To: 'Andrew.Schnellinger.B@bayer.com'
Cc: 'quattro@coimbra.ans.net'
Subject: 90 V8 hesitation/stalling


In my experience these cars are very sensitive to gas quality,
so your diagnosis might be correct.  I've found that running 
high octane gas is the best, and it is also wise to avoid 
no-name gas stations who may not have gone to much length
to insure they don't have water/sediments in their gasoline.
It's a bit of a religious debate, but Amaco, Exxon, and Texaco
all seem fairly solid to me.  If I don't run 93 octane gas my car
has a cyclic hesitation on acceleration, and if I buy that gas
from these three vendors, I find that it goes away almost
completely within a couple of tanks.

nate