Slightly OT, but it's an interesting question.
What's the likely damage / recovery strategy if a petrol car is filled with a tankful of bio-ethanol? (Morrison's finest E-85, which is AFAIK
85% plant-derived ethanol, 15% petrol).AIUI, the octane is somwehere around 5-star levels, but the calorific value is lowered. There's nothing in it that should hurt lambda sensors, and one tankful isn't enough to cause the long-term problems with rubbers and elastomers. So I'm guessing it's OK to just burn it off, expecting reduced performance in the meantime. Probably wise to top up every quarter tank though, and dilute it as fast as possible.
Car is a mid-90s Ford Escort, of no great loveliness.
(time passes) What has actually happened is that the owner has now paid =A3100 + new tankful to have it pumped out. The pump guy reckoned that "If it was a diesel it would have been OK", but that a petrol engine needing pumping. On the whole I think they're just plain wrong and they'd got confused between bio-diesel and bio-ethanol.