m Ransley wrote:
Coastal water I hear they drink it down south.

Adding alcohol does not degrade gas if it has water in it, it in fact
increases octane and it is common in the midwest to be 10% alcohol from
the pump. Pure alcohol can absorbe something like 10% water and not have
a volume increase of the alcohol. Alcohol is harder to start on and less
power , but absorbes water alowing it to be burned. For a car that
nocks besause it needs higher octane you have 2 choises retard timing or
add alcohol . But just hard starting could be 20 different car problems
and not bad gas.


Your points are valid but any water in the gas
degrades performance, i.e., energy value per
gallon. If water is the hard starting problem,
then draining the carb and replacing the filter is
probably the first course of action. If the car
starts, it will probably draw all the water into
the engine in a short period so continued hard
starting is unlikely to be caused by water in the
gas.