What is your opinion on ethanol??

Was driving alond Victoria Road heading east up the hill towards Top Ryde and there is a servo on the left hand side that sells 100% ethanol.

I will say - i would like to think it is better. It would support our cane industry??

Anyone run it??

Nice on the rocks with a twist

can you sniff ethanol???

Seeing as it is out of sugar - is it as bitter as petrol???

It would be better for the environment to use a renewable fuel, HOWEVER...

Ethanol can corrode some materials in your:
* Fuel tanks
* Fuel lines/hoses
* Injector seals
* Delivery pipes
* Fuel pump and regulator

Vapour pressure of ethanol is greater therefore probability of vapour lock or hot restartability problems will be increased.

Ethanol can cause the engine to run lean.

Vapour pressure of ethanol is greater and leads to increased evaporative emissions.


All this was found easily on Google... I'm sure there's more!

nice bug Purplr

Thanks! I got it on Saturday from another guy on this forum

I reckon you should give that ethanol a go in all your vehicles Barry, & let us know the results

id stay away from it as it burns hotter and with a lower octane rating, they put this in most of the cheap imported fuel.

yep, are you sure it was not supposed to say 100% ethanol
free ?

Nope Kim - it says 100% Ethanol

Have a look - its not far from you. On Vic Rd on RHS going to West Ryde

Can we try it in the blue bus??

I wouldn't put it in any car of mine!

Just drive up to Mackay in QLD, pull up to a BP station and try a tank of the E10 Ultimate / Ethanol (10%) mix that is being trialled up there in a commercial trial.

IIRC, BP are seriously looking into making it a permanent fixture in the QLD fuel market (as they have cheap access to the raw feedstock required for economical ethanol production via the sugar cane industry), so hopefully its here to stay.

Like Purple Martin said, you need to be very careful with the mixture of petrol / ethanol in engines that are designed for gasoline only, as you run into seal swelling issues and they will run lean too (ie in fuel injected cars that think they are burning a higher calorific value, denser fuel like petrol).

If you engineered the fuel storage and delivery system in the vehicle in question to be able to cope with the differences in fuels (ie changed all the seals to alcohol friendly ones, and upgraded the injectors and tuned engine management / rejetted carbies to handle the increased flow required (just like methanol) then there should be no reason why you couldnt use pure ethanol ? Not sure what compression you would be able to run though.....

Additionally, the mexcans have run Gasahol (a 50 / 50 petrol / ethanol mix I believe) for many a year.....

One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.. lol
Be a lot of DUIs around

i saw it too, i wouldn't use it for the rust problems. but i wonder what octane rating they give it.

You stole my idea chewy. I was gonna say that

Men, there are a few ides here that are a bit wide of the mark.

Cutting petrol with ethanol has been going on commercially for years.
Its usually around 10%.
There are quite a few enterprising dudes that actually bother to still up this stuff at home and re-jet their engines to suit.
With no other modifications to an engine apart from re-jetting, running alky can yield around 5 to 8% power increase but roughly double the fuel consumption.

Adding ethanol/alchohol/methanol RAISES the octane rating of petrol.

Loosely speaking:
petrol correct air/fuel ratio is around 14:1
Alcohol correct mixture is around 7:1

Alcohols are hydroscopic and therefore take up water in SOLUTION so its NOT undesireable to have it in there.
An old trick to control condensation in fuel tanks is to regularly pour in a litre or 2 of metho every now and then.

The low percentages of alcohol does lean the mixture to a degree but the increased octane rating compensates for this.
Things tend to go wrong using percentages above around 15% requiring re-jetting.
There are No dramas with rubber seals and gaskets in the low percentages used in alchohol cut fuel.

Diesel fuel is also cut with alchohol and termed Diesohol.
This has been trialed in truck and bus fleets around the country for many years with no ill effects.

Pour it in your tank and run away with it. You will not notice any difference in a low compression dak dak.

L8tr
E

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Hi Purple Did all you guys Know that the humble bug in brazil runs on Ethanol. thats why in the late 80's the cylinder heads coming out of Brazil had really high compression heads. but back in those days we had real petrol which could cope with the high compression. years ago there was a bogas petrol station at raymond terrace and they cut there fuel with 20 to 30 % ethanol and my bug ran like the wind all the way to byron untill the gas ran low.
The whole Ethanol Debate is a farce all petrol stations have a small percentage of water in there tanks which gets through to your gas tank thats why they rust out.Where as ethanol can in high concentration can absorb some water and there for take the water out of your tank.Just like adding metho to your tank.
Also in some states in the US have petrol that is cut with 50% ethanol and they have no problems. The story goes that the fedral gov wanted to do the same in Australia but the oil companys started the ethanol smear campain and it looks like they have got most people hoodwinked about ethanol I say bring it on first thing tomorrow i"ll go and fill up with ethanol.
Also the ethanol burn is cooler due to the formation of h20 in the combustion process, great for an air cooled car

I used BOGAS which has Methanol in it , ]about 10% or lower I believe I read somewhere....] for a number of years in My Mitsubishi Magna and Lancers.....
I only switched as I get 4 cents off at Caltex/Woolworths stations...

Its Law in the US to use ethanol with Gasoline, to help the Sugar Cane farmers.... The same should be done Here...

We have a service station in Scone that has a sign up saying
NO Ethanol.....

Lee

http://community.webshots.com/user/vw68autobug 

Hey Guys. The Commonwealth Department of Environemnt funded a trial cost $4mill looking at the impacts of 20% ethanol in petrol on old and new cars. This trial showed that in old cars they run leaner (hotter) and there were problems with corrosion and rubber parts going soft. In new cars over 80,000 kms some emissions blew out and valve recession increased and piston deposits inceased. On the basis of this trial it is illegal to use more than 10% ethanol or E10. E10 is safe in most new cars but not always safe in old cars. Some European manufactuers advise againts E10 in new cars. It has a cleaning effect and when put in fuel tanks that are dirty it tends to free up all the deposits and therefore clog the filters etc. It shouldn't have any real bad effects on a Vw engine, it improves octane. Factory rubber parts should be OK but fuel lines and pump diaphrams of dobious origin may go slightly soft over time. Fortunately Brazillian bit should be fine because they are tolerant to E22.

I always found that ethanol doped fuel caused havoc with my cars. Mostly due to overheating. This is with 2 aircooleds and a ZL fairlane (ULP EFI). Never really understood what ethanol did. Oddly enough I switched to PULP for everything.
Then I put in additives.
Just before my van's motor went again, straight after the topend rebuild, I opted for ULP instead (which had ethanol) as the repairs hurt my hip pocket. 30km later dead van. Still dead too. This time around I am never using ULP.
It was a QLD summer so the heat coupled with the high compression of brand spanking rings, and high compression pistons (didn't know that at the time). So it wasn't 100% the fuels fault. But the extra heat didn't help.
With a rejet etc, I wouldn't mind running ethanol doped fuel, but my van ran too hot anyway.