Recently by Eric Peters: A Reason To Throw Your Sail Fawn in the Woods
They may not need to ban old cars outright. Instead, theyll just kill them off quietly by poisoning them internally.
With ethanol.
Modern cars cars built since the early 90s – can stomach the stuff . They have engines designed to deal with corrosive, ethanol-doctored gas and peripheral systems (hoses, seals, o-rings, lines, etc.) made to withstand it. Being computer controlled, they can also adjust themselves to deal with ethanol-laced gas. They may not get the best mileage theyre capable of delivering because ethanol is less energy dense than gasoline but at least they run ok.
But with older cars cars built before the early 90s, before widespread use of ethanol-doctored fuel youve got two problems. One of them is relatively minor and easily fixed.
The others more serious and not easily (or inexpensively) fixed.
The minor problem relates to the older (pre-early 80s) cars static engine operating parameters. Meaning, they cant self-adjust like a modern cars computer-controlled engine to compensate for different fuel type and quality. Theyre mechanically set to run a given air-fuel ratio, ignition timing and so on all assuming a given type of fuel. In the case of of early 80s and older cars, that means regular unleaded gas not mostly gas and 10 (or 15 or 85 ) percent ethanol.
If the type/quality of fuel changes, but the engine isnt adjusted to compensate, it wont run as well it should until it is adjusted or its fed the original type of fuel it was designed to burn. If its not adjusted, what typically happens is the engine runs lean when it is fed ethanol-laced fuels. One result of that is it will run hotter. This was precisely what was intended openly when oxygnates such as ethanol and MTBE were added to gasoline beginning in the late 80s and early 90s. It was a way to lower the tailpipe exhaust emissions of pre-computer-controlled car engines because they could not adjust themselves and in this way, the fuel altered the operating characteristics (and exhaust byproducts) of the engines in those cars.
The downside in addition to the noticeable reduction in gas mileage that resulted was that these older engines were often harder to start, would not idle as smoothly as they did previously, tended to stall more and lost some horsepower, in addition to the drop in gas mileage. An engine thats made to run hotter than it was designed to run will also tend to wear out faster.
The fix for this is fairly easy. You (or your mechanic) simply adjust the carburetor to run richer, alter the ignition timing and so on. Now the engine will run ok even though it probably wont give you the gas mileage it otherwise would have just like any new car force-fed ethanol.