According to this week's Classic Car Magazine petrol manufacturers are being persuaded to add ethanol to their petrol to bring the Uk in line with other european countries in terms of cutting down on the use of fossil fuels.

The magazine reports that adding ethanol is particularly bad for classic cars due to the corrosive effects and are cautioning owners about its use.

In the article they state that Shell say they already put ethanol in V power which makes me wonder if it will cause problems for JDM cars.

Can anyone comment on this?

 

I know Tesco 99 has Ethanol in it, but I was under the impression V Power didn't?

 

yeah i thought tesco has chemicals to make it 99

whereas v power didnt?

 

V power if you like has a octane boster type mix added to get the 99 ron
Tesco blend it with bio ethanol to get the 99

 

why do JDM cars differ with respect to being a classic vehicle?

 

I'm not saying they necessarily do, I just thought that if Japanese cars run on different fuel in Japan, did the fact that some compannies might start adding ethanol it might be problematic for them too.

It was only a thought really.
I suppose my query is applies to some cars.

America apparently adds 85% ethanol to their fuel. France 5%

I dont know if Japan do.

I just thought that if its corrosive it cant be good for cars build of certain materials. I'm no expert though

 

You're thinking of E85, which is a different fuel to the normal petrol.

Shame we don't get it here, because it's a lot better for high power builds than the products we get here

 

Ethanol is good isn't it. Lot of the big power guys on here use a 10-20% mix albeit their cars are mapped for it.

TX.

 

You are thinking of Methanol.

 

think thats Methanol TX

is e85 bio ethanol? that may be what tesco add.

 

think thats Methanol TX

is e85 bio ethanol? that may be what tesco add.

 

I'm pretty sure it's ethanol, the E85 stuff They mix it with standard fuel, say V Power or T99.

TX.

Edit - E85 is 85% bioethanol & 15% normal fuel.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wi...ne/bioethanol/

 

ethanol or methanol.

I used to use 10% e85 + 90% vpower (mapped for it, of course), and compared to e.g. vpower with NF Octane booster it was miles better.

Pain in the **** to keep mixing fuels at the petrol station and availability is rubbish at best, so I've now gone back to straight vpower.

 

ive been thinking about 10% e85 but the mixing of fuels .. seems too much of a pain

 

Government 'persuading'? Demanding, more like.

 

Sadly.

 

I heard Morrisons were stopping doing E85 due to lack of funding from the Government, so much for going all green appears the Government only want to go green when it suits them or more to the point when there's money to be made out of it.

 

if they do, im thinking most scoobs may need a map for the different affect the fuel will give (firing timing - air mix ect)

 

Yes me too.

I would have thought is would be relatively straight forward to install another tank 10% the capacity of the existing tank for ethanol, add in a couple of pumps and some kind of swirl pot device to give you the perfect 10% mix all day every day...

 

To me, that sounds like a massive PITA...

 

What, more of a PITA than trying to maintain the correct mix manually?

 

I found that my Methanol add was easy.
a 2L lemonade bottle with every full tank.

 

But doesn't that depend on how empty the tank was in the first place?

Edit: I mean over time you might loose track of the mixture.

 

Yes, because a second tank is an extremely difficult proposition. Id only consider it on a car where a far greater amount of body prep was already being entered in to - dedicated Time Attack, for example.

 

Fair enough. I was just thinking back to my old FS1-E days. A right pain in the **** that was to keep mixed right.

Different kettle of fish I guess.

Ah, the smell of 2 stroke oil in the mornings... that takes me back

 

Pedals and clip-ons? That wasnt right...

 

Well the rules were it had to be restricted to 30mph or have pedals on to be considered a moped.