Dorset Bob is right but to be perfectly clear and comprehensive to all, I can say that corrosion problems might (might and not should!) occur provided the three conditions below are meeting at the same time:
- you should have E85 only in your tank (E5 or E10 lost in a tank of 90 or 95% common fuel, that's peanuts!),
- you should leave you tank with less than a quarter charge, the fewer the worse,
- you shouldn't use your car during 6 months at least, preferably one whole year or more
Why?
Ethanol is not at all corrosive but the car being at standstill, and due only to meteorological & natural phenomena (outside temperature & hygrometry), condensation may appear in the nearly empty fuel tank hence that water mixed with the remaining highly ethanol proportioned fuel may produce formic (or methanoic) acid.
Moreover then better to have a plastic tank than a metal one for that reason. Every modern plastic tank is strong enough to be safe.
To make a long story short E5 or E10 will have no detrimental effect at all on our cars. Hence neither tank, nor gaskets, nor hoses you name it could be harmed by so little a proportion. You can sleep well: MG Rover cars and all others since 1990 are absolutely safe.
But in reverse it's useless to say that carburettors & non unleaded fuelled cars should never see a drop of ethanol. They weren't made for that.
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Rover 75 V6 2.5 Auto Connie born 1 July 1999, 24 kOhms resistor, 10 kOhms manual starter, full E85, modified airbox, full derestricted SS exhaust line, power & torque remap -> 202 bhp
- This vehicle was the 7,517th 75 to run off the production line, out of 112,381
- This vehicle was the 1,190th 75 2.5 V6 Contemporary to be made out of 8,214
- This vehicle was the 2,032nd 75 in Atlantic Blue Pearlescent (code: JEY) to be made out of 2,572 Atlantic Blue Pearlescent 75s
Last edited by Dorchester2; 1st March 2021 at 07:25..
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