Ethanol in petrol.

[john56]

Has anyone had any thoughts on this increase in Ethanol being introduced in 2013 ? im wondering if this will have any affect on our cars, i know the classic car fraternity are worried mainly about the corrosive issues on older engines, will this also apply to newer engines?
Be interesting to hear other views on this issue.

 

[bluestreak56]

Ive looked into this extensively due to my old cars.

Apparently BMW have said check your user manual for octane ratings but all cars should be able to run E10

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=24901

 

[mmm-five]

You may have inadvertently already put some bio-ethanol in your tank anyway, as the petrol companies are allowed to put in up to 5% bio-ethanol without having to directly inform the customer by way of notices on the pumps (including Tesco 99 & Shell V-Power).

According to BMW, all their petrol-engined cars since about 1986 have been able to run on an ethanol mix of up to 10%. Some older models and some other marques will/are having issues due to the material used in seals/pipes in the fuel systems.

However, there's a small amount of power/fuel economy loss when a normal engine is run on E5 (5% ethanol blend) or E10 (10% ethanol blend) - reported to be about 5% unless the ECU is remapped to take advantage of the ethanol.

 

[bigdog]

You may have inadvertently already put some bio-ethanol in your tank anyway, as the petrol companies are allowed to put in up to 5% bio-ethanol without having to directly inform the customer by way of notices on the pumps (including Tesco 99 & Shell V-Power).

According to BMW, all their petrol-engined cars since about 1986 have been able to run on an ethanol mix of up to 10%. Some older models and some other marques will/are having issues due to the material used in seals/pipes in the fuel systems.

However, there's a small amount of power/fuel economy loss when a normal engine is run on E5 (5% ethanol blend) or E10 (10% ethanol blend) - reported to be about 5% unless the ECU is remapped to take advantage of the ethanol.

A remap will not garner better economy. As ethanol has fewer BTU per givin volume than pure petrol. You can get the power back by dumping more ethanol into the engine.

In the end. Ethanol is quite the farce for several reasons. It takes more energy to produce it than it provides. One ends up using food grain to make it. Thereby increasing the cost of food. I believe it takes several gallons of water to produce one of ethanol.

The only thing it has going for it. Is that it is not produced in the Middle East.