unleaded ethanol fuel

[dazzed]

does anyone know what ethanol does to fuel? in aprox 1998 lead in fuel was slowly reduced in australia, to become unleaded , that was a bit of a hurdle for some motorist that found out the hard way, now we are being introduced to a unleaded ethanol fuel if you like or not its here ,so the process of fuel is changing the type of fuel we use in our cars, so if i use pump gas which is unleaded, and has ethanol in it and i constantly use it in my 240z L28 what are the procedures i need to take to ensure that it runs well on this type of modern fuel ? even in modern engines what effect does it have on vehicles in the long run? i would be interested to know what experiences people have had with our current fuel situation. cheers dazzed.

[Jimbo]

G,day Dazzed,    Great post It will be good to hear what  the replies are... Thanks mate ..Jimbo

[PZG302]

Wouldn't know what effect ethanol would have on the engine, but the main problem I see is the less energy available from the ethanol blend, despite the supposed higher octane rating. You will see your economy decrease by up to 10% and power drop as well.

 

My advice would be to run 98 premium, which I do in all my cars. I find the 98 gives me up to 100km extra range on the highway and up to 50km around town, basically negating the extra cost at the pump.

 

The cars I am using 98 on are:

1. 2007 BF XR8 ute

2. 2007 BF RTV ute

3. 1989 Mazda MX5

4, 1974 240Z running injected L28, my circuit racer.

[C.A.R.]

Apart from what PZG said, Ethanol blended fuel is also more agressive in destroying rubber fuel lines.

[Toecutter]

I do remember some discussion on this a while ago. Just looked it up. Some video on there too re tests but they look almost like infommercials to me.

 

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,2443.0.html

 

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,2635.0.html

 

 

Sulio

 

[Zedman240®]

+1 with Lurch on that one. Heard it degrades certain older rubber fuel lines. Try a little experiment with a jar of that ethanol fuel and a piece of fuel hose immersed and leave it "ferment".

[dazzed]

i think that an appropriate amount of ethanol is ok, manufactures specify that if anymore than 10% ethanol is used in fuel they will void the owners warranty, im positive that there is a very high level of ethanol in the fuel currently, dont think for one second our fuel companies will tell you everything thats going on , the fuel pump on my mercedes died recently, bosch high pressure unit type thing, so i fitted a new one and of course changed the fuel filter at the same time ,even tho i only changed the filter a year ago, and have only travelled a mere 7000 km , these type of filters are huge probably hold half litre of fuel or so , so i cut the old one open and it was absolutely chockas with ethanol, which was the course of the fuel pump failure , i have only used mobil 6000 as  car goes better on 6000 than 8000. toyota spcecifies 80,000km in the hand book for fuel filter change, then its out of warranty coincidence or what

[RBZ 260]

all my current cars run on BP ultimate 98.

 

but when we had my fiancees N15 pulsar we were experementing with different fuels.

 

best outcome was the ethanol blend 95 octane stuff besides the 98 ultimate.

 

was 6c cheaper it felt like it had same power as 98 (minus the cost) though km traveled were slightly reduced.

 

we had the car for 2 years and no trouble at all.

[Glen]

I have to say i used to always go to caltex, then i decided to go to BP for a change, i got a quite a few more KLM's out of my cars.... They have proven on some of those current affair shows that not all the company's are the same. Anyone using caltex try a different company. I will never go back there.

[PZG302]

For my cars I use both the Caltex Vortex 98 and the BP ultimate. It generally depends on price and also availability for where I am when I need to fuel up. I have had no dramas with either fuel, so I also think it depends on where you are as the different refineries blend the fuels slightly differently for the different conditions, ie a Brisbane refined fuel will be different to one refined in Melbourne or Sydney due to the different expected weather conditions.