5 replies to this topic

[cbyrne]

hi i have been using e5 petrol or 5%ethinol mix. i have found it to give a little more throttle responce due to the increased octaine. seen as how most petrol cars are ment to run on 95-98ron is there i limit to the mini A sereis engine or will e5 kill the car. any help very usefull...

[Sprocket]

Most European fuels now contain up to 5% ethanol at the pump as part of the move to more 'green' fuels

You should be able to run a larger percentage of ethanol, but the fueling of your engine will start to change, requiring retuning to cope with it. Higher percentages of ethanol are also said to degrade aluminium components and some types of seals.


As a rule, if its available at the pump to put in pretty much any car, it wont be a problem, but the likes of E85 requires an engine specificaly designed and set up to use it.

The octane rating should in theory rise with ethanol mix fuels, so I doubt that is anything to be concerned with, but like I already said, the more ethanol percentage, the more you have to adjust your fueling.

[cbyrne]

how can you adjust the fueling on a spi. advance the dizzy a touch?

[Sprocket]

You cannot.

The more ethanol thats in the fuel, the more fuel it uses, the factory ECU wont be able to keep up. You could fit a larger injector or increase the fuel pressure to try and get round it, but i think there are few people who will have tried this, so you may be on your own, and for the benefits, its probably not worth the extra trouble. You'll be visiting the filling station more often

You might get a better response asking this question on some non UK European forums where the use of higher ratio ethanol/ petrolium fuels are more common. Chances of finding some one here in the UK that knows about these ethanol fuels and has run Minis with it, particulariy the injection variants is probably going to be impossable. Pretty much most of the UK population are un aware that they are filling their car with an E5 blend at certain stations. I only know so much as I have looked into running mine on E85 just for the fun of it.

[xrocketengineer]

Hello,

On our side of the pond the standard is 10% ethanol. There is talk about going to 15%. What it does to the average car with an oxygen sensor is that the sensor interprets the extra oxygen in the fuel as a lean mixture and tries to compensate, decreasing the mileage. My understanding is that up to 15% ethanol, most cars will be able to handle with just increased fuel consumption.
My big Nissan truck can run on E85. I filled it up only once at the only place where it was available (and expensive), the space center. The mileage went down the toilet by about a third. So it was not worth it.
Another interesting side note: Some people at the space center had filled up with E85 the tanks of government cars that were not equipped for that resulting in expensive repairs. I am assuming that the oxygen sensor would detect so much oxygen that in fact would end up flooding the engine trying to compensate. The fuel system probably had to be drained and flushed.
Additionally, ethanol absorbs moisture increasing the probability of fuel tank corrosion and on of other parts of the fuel system. This is a big problem here with boats. Another issue with boats, is that ethanol reacts with fiberglass which is the material of the fuel tank in many boats. Boat owners are paying and arm and a leg for ethanol free fuel at the marinas to avoid these issues.

Hope that helps,

Ivan

Edited by xrocketengineer, 11 August 2009 - 11:45 PM.

[cbyrne]

E10 a bit strong but saying that do my uncle has a chevy v8 with a blower. runs on the high octaine you the over there at the pumps!