The area I live in switched to E85 or 15% ethanol. How will this effect the fuel line, stopper, gaskets and o-rings, operation of my DA-50 ?
Also, is ethanol hydroscopic ?

E85 is 15% gasoline.

It's 15% ethanol here.

Do they do everything backwards in Texas?
Ethanol is hydroscopic. E85 will effect the fuel line, stopper, gaskets and o-rings, operation of a DA-50 everywhere but in Texas.

duh !

E85 consists of 85% ethyl alcohol and 15% petroleum. Now if we could remove the petrol from it we would have a fine adult beverage!

Wow, E85 in Texas? The only other place i've seen it is Minnesota. Dodge makes a version of the engine in my truck that will run on E85 and I would've gotten it, but it's not offered.

I'm originally from TX by the way.

E85 is coming soon to Arizona...

Yeah...if its 15% ethanol,85 gas...then it's not E85. Just bought a Chevy Tahoe with the "flex fuel" E85 engine. Now I wish they wought supply the fuel around here in Maryland with the way the fuel prices are going

Now we are going to want gaskets and diaphrams and whatever else we need that's impervious to alcohol based fuels. Does anyone know if E85 has a more tolerable aroma(wives/girlfriends) than your standard 87% octane?[:-]

No problems with gaskets...The metering diaphragm might need to be replaced more often, costs about $2.90..

E85 requires approximately 35% more fuel flow than straight gasoline thus you must richen your mixture, not sure about oil compatability. Should be about 10% more power.