Pele

iTrader: (28)

There's two things not compatible with ethanol... Natural rubber and aluminum.

Rubber is easliy replaced with viton, teflon, and other such materials.
Aluminum can be coated or anodized to prevent ethanol damage.

Would anodizing the carb do anything negative to it? I'd have it dismantled and cleaned thoroughlly before any sort of coating was going on it. (Anodizing would also prevent any sort of corrosion from forming on it, so the carb won't get pitted over time and will always look good.)

Also, are there carb rebuild kits that contain viton and teflon gaskets instead of rubber or cork? Perhaps this is a norm by now?

I don't forsee fuel collecting in the intake manifold, but it might be a good idea to anodize that too.

Those items and the fuel pump are the only items I see that would prevent a 1st gen from running on ethanol.

WackyRotary

Who told you that? Rubber made before the 60's probably will have issues with ethanol or grain achohol which I assume you are refering to. Never heard of ethanol being really bad for aluminum either? Were did you get this information? Ethanol is in gasoline in many states at 10% ethanol blends. This doesn't cause major problems.

KeloidJonesJr.

iTrader: (8)

Carefully...

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

Concidering that ethanol appeared in the early 70's, years before our cars hit the street, I see no reason for concern. I have never seen a 'Do No Use' ethanol warning on our cars anywhere.

On the older, pre-emission piston engines, ethanol did a good job of cleaning up fouling plugs that had been run on regular.