23 replies to this topic

[69k1100]

It takes approximately 40% more ethanol to achieve the same btu as straight petrol. Some modern cars can automatically adjust for this change by upping the injector duty cycle, carburettored cars however will need more drastic modifications.

Straight ethanol has an octane rating upwards of 110 ron, so you can run higher compression levels and more advance to make up for the drop in btu.

Ethanol will break down many of the seals in an engine not rated for it, this extends to oils seals via blow by.

http://iqlearningsys...mpatibility.pdf

If you rebuild your engine to take ethanol there's tuning benefits aplenty. But it's not an easy route. 10% probably won't do much harm though.

Edited by 69k1100, 13 October 2014 - 10:44 AM.

[timmy850]

We have had E10 fuel for 5 years now, and very few stations carry E85 as well. E85 has shown big gains on modified turbo cars with a new tune

I've avoided E10 since we used it in our family car on one tank and it stuttered around till we refuelled with regular petrol.

The majority of cars on sale here have "E10 suitable" stickers inside their fuel lids too.

I am a bit sceptical about growing perfectly good corn that millions of third world people would like to eat, instead it gets made it into fuel to power our cars... But that's a discussion for another forum I think.

[CityEPete]

I've been to Spain twice this year, the first hire car was an Aygo in june then a Micra a couple of weeks ago, they were both set up for this E85 fuel, they were both flat as pancakes with terrible missfires, hhmmm?

[Big Man]

In my old two litre frontera petrol I got approx 45-50 miles to a tender. Not scientific just put a tenner in when fuel light came on. Driving was the same route back and forth to work.

I then read about adding acetone to the fuel. If memory serves it was 1.5ml per ten pounds put in.

Now I am aware of the placebo effect, however I got 75-80 miles for the same tenner and car just sounded that bit better, Not sure if ethanol will have the same effect though.

Cheers

Bm

[69k1100]

Micro organisms are being developed to replace corn so that's a good step forward, but the real problem is ethanol is more hygroscopic than ordinary fuel. So I'm guessing rental cars that get used rarely will be a major problem of run on ethanol.

[The Matt]

If you drive in Europe, there's been Ethanol mixed into the petrol for yeeeeeeears now.  It's labelled as such, though.

 

Not sure about the affects on the fuel lines, I've heard several people complain that it can damage the flexi rubber hoses.

[jaydee]

Someone i know had a lot of problems with fuel deposits and corrosion on a total rebuilt jag..you usually take this with a pinch of salt.

In the last 2-3 years replaced a few rotten fuel tanks on italian minis, im used to think they simply got water into and were left rusting away.

But well, since they introduced ethanol even my fuel tank started rusting, never had an issue before, coincedence? mmhhh

[jakejakejake1]

As mentioned, the Ethanol absorbs water when left for any time, this is the main issue. 
Any modern fuel hoses will be fine for use with ethanol, and any anodised/ treated aluminium should be fine as well.
 

Its worth noting that to create the same power you require approximately 40% more ethanol compared to petrol, but it does have the advantage of having a much higher octane rating (typically around 110 for E85). This is turn allows higher boost levels or higher compression ratios which can increase the power or efficiency of the engine its used on.

 

Also, ethanol burns cooler than petrol as well.

[carbon]

Most petrol on sale in the UK already contains Ethanol, and has done so for several years.

 

There is a requirement on UK transport fuel suppliers to ensure that '5 percent of all road vehicle fuel is supplied is from sustainable renewable sources' which in practice means that petrol contains about 5% ethanol and diesel contains about 5% biodiesel.

 

There were plans to increase this to 10%, but this is under review.