Alcohol is alcohol.  When you buy rubbing alcohol at a drug store, it is
usually a mixture, and is so stated on the label.  Alcohol will mix with
water, and stay in solution (won't separate like oil and water).  Yes,
there are different kinds of alcohol, like methanol, ethanol, and
isopropyl alcohol, but they are all available straight or as a mixture
with water.

Fuel dryer is alcohol.  Water will condense in your fuel tank and a
small amount will collect under the gasoline, where it cannot evaporate.
If you dump a pint of alcohol in your gas tank every so often, it will
absorb the water and allow it to be burned off.

Karl WOlz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
Behalf Of
> Roger Sisler
> Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 5:31 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: R134 conversion
>
> I once took apart a vanagon reciever- dryer,just to see what what was
> inside.  The reciever is seperated into an upper chamber, and a lower
> chamber.They are the same size. These chambers are seperatecd with a
wire
> mesh about 8 gage in thickness. The upper chamber is empty. The lower
> chamber contains the desicant. This desicant is in the form of little
> balls ,about the size of buck shot. This lower chamber is packed full
of
> this stuff. All in all , it looks to be a very heavy duty unit. I
think it
> will survive a roasting. It has a bit of oil inside, so do be careful
and
> considerate of this when baking. There is no easy way to remove this
oil.
> When converting to a 134a system , this may be ok. 80 percent of the
> systems oil must be removed for proper conversion. If the rest of the
> system is cleaned well, the 1 or 2 ounces in the dryer will be
> ok.                      As for mineral spirits, works well for me,
and is
> approved by several sources. I put a vacuum pump on the system for
about 20
> hours to get all condensables out.I think any alcohol has water
already in
> it, except for grain alcohol.