Ethanol Fuel Instead Of Petrol

[alex801]

curious to no if anyone has had good results using ethanol as a motor fuel, iv been doing some research and its mixed reviews, mechanics seem to frown upon it (they should no what there talking about) but users of it mainly seem very happy with it, worst case losing a bit of mpg as ethanol doesnt have quite as much energy as petrol. some reports say that all rubber and plastic componets on the fuel system need to be replaced and some reports say its just good to go. i belive that modern day petrol is made up of 10% ethanol anyway

anyway just thought id see if anyone has any first hand input on the topic

Alex801

[Cyker]

As I understand it, Ethanol isn't a proper like-for-like petrol-replacement like biodiesel is for diesels, so you can't actually run an petrol engine on it pure unless it's been modified or designed specifically to do so.

I know few people who've tried E85 (85% Ethanol blend, common in some North American states and bits of Europe) in their cars and found the car was really down on power and running rough 'tho, but nobody I know has tried it long term because of that.

I do know it's death on many types of two-stroke motor tho'!

[BALIKBAYAN]

I tried to run my old Carina some years ago on E85. It worked fine, but it became very thirsty. I went back to petrol because the fuelcost/km became bigger than it was driving on petrol. All I did was to change to another fuelpressure regulator so I could adjust the fuelpressure. You need more fuel for a good combustion. The engine was hard to start during the winter because of the E85. I normaly needed 3 starts to get the engine to run. That means that the Battery ran flat quite often too.

E85 is much cleaner than petrol and you have very clean exhaust. The combustion chamber will be much cleaner too. E85 might loosen up old diposes in the fuel line so you might get problem with the fuel line. I didn't have any, but that is what might happen. The E85 is not more aggressive to rubber things than petrol, but it loose up old buildups that make old petrol lines tight.

I would not go for E85 again. It is too expensive. It is hard to find in some countries. The car will be hard to start when it is cold, below zero. Those minus are bigger for me than its plus. The plus with E85 is very good, but the minuses are not any good for the user.

[alex801]

thanks for the input

[t-spiritpete]

thanks for the input

Hello Alex,

I don't want to start a whole new debate here but my brother had great success using a very small amount of pure Acetone to a full tank of petrol, he says it gave 10-15% improvement to the MPG and a slight increase in power when used in his two Carina E's and then with the early Avensis.

Regards .... Pete.

[BALIKBAYAN]

thanks for the input

Hello Alex,

I don't want to start a whole new debate here but my brother had great success using a very small amount of pure Acetone to a full tank of petrol, he says it gave 10-15% improvement to the MPG and a slight increase in power when used in his two Carina E's and then with the early Avensis.

Regards .... Pete.

I thought you only used acetone to diesel engines. 5cl acetone to 50 lit diesel.

The better fueleconomy is because the acetone makes the fuel to atomize better in the cylinder and then you get a better combustion. But I have not heard anyone using it with petrol though.

[t-spiritpete]

thanks for the input

Hello Alex,

I don't want to start a whole new debate here but my brother had great success using a very small amount of pure Acetone to a full tank of petrol, he says it gave 10-15% improvement to the MPG and a slight increase in power when used in his two Carina E's and then with the early Avensis.

Regards .... Pete.

I thought you only used acetone to diesel engines. 5cl acetone to 50 lit diesel.

The better fueleconomy is because the acetone makes the fuel to atomize better in the cylinder and then you get a better combustion. But I have not heard anyone using it with petrol though.

The same theory applies to petrol engines except you use twice the amount per 50 ltrs.

Pete.

[taximan1256]

Just an observation but i have been using millers gold fuel addative and a strange thing happened while it was in use, I was tempted to give this a try to see if any notable differance could be achieved ie in performance and economy, I followed the instructions to the letter as i have a new engine in the car and didnt want to damage it in any way but after the first fill and 300 miles i had an error code p0200 car cut on m42 outside lane, cleared the fault (injector circuit open) and drove home, filled up again and within 200 miles the same thing happened this time when accelerating in third to 3000 rpm slight miss then cut out restarted as normal after pulling up. I ran the tank down as far as i could and filled up a couple of times with straight diesel and have had no re-occerance of this fault in the last 3000 miles hence to say the only thing i gained was a wierd experience so think i will just stay on normal fuel from now on.