Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JamesV6CDX]

I noticed while filling at Morrisons they sell a BioEthanol fuel - 15% petrol, 85 % ethanol.

It's 104.9ppl, so a penny cheaper than unleaded.

To convert, you need a kit to alter injection timings etc, which is around £600.

WHY!!! ?

[Radar]

It makes no sense. They can't even play the green card since the method of manufacture is extremely inefficient and has pushed the price up of wheat/grain.

[Marks DTM Calib]

So, its less efficient and only a penny cheaper.......

[JamesV6CDX]

So, its less efficient and only a penny cheaper.......

And also very difficult to cold-start on, which won't do the engine any favours!!

[eddie]

Ah! but your missing the point,its GREEN,its got to be good for the planet,innit!  Ideal for Prius drivers.

eddie

[Kevin Wood]

Difficult to see why you'd bother, TBH. :-/

It does look interesting for highly tuned engines due to the high octane rating (105 octane for e85 IIRC).

The fact remains that you'll get significantly less MPG even if the engine is properly tuned to run on it - which involves a sensor to detect the quality of the fuel and adjust accordingly, since you might need to cope with a tank of petrol, e85 or any mixture in-between.

A penny a litre won't compensate for that, so you are effectively paying for the opportunity to have more expensive bread.

Oh, and certain materials in the fuel system don't get on with alcohol so you might need to replace quite a few parts during the conversion.

Kevin

[JamesV6CDX]

Difficult to see why you'd bother, TBH. :-/

It does look interesting for highly tuned engines due to the high octane rating (105 octane for e85 IIRC).

The fact remains that you'll get significantly less MPG even if the engine is properly tuned to run on it - which involves a sensor to detect the quality of the fuel and adjust accordingly, since you might need to cope with a tank of petrol, e85 or any mixture in-between.

A penny a litre won't compensate for that, so you are effectively paying for the opportunity to have more expensive bread.

Oh, and certain materials in the fuel system don't get on with alcohol so you might need to replace quite a few parts during the conversion.

Kevin

I think I'd stick with petrol or LPG!

[Kevin Wood]

I must admit, I'm struggling to see how you can spend 600 quid converting to e85 though. Same ballpark as an LPG conversion and that's a complete new fuel system - ecu, injectors, plumbing, tank.

Surely E85 only requires some sort of piggy-back ECU, perhaps bigger injectors and a fuel quality sensor.

All for an allegedly greener fuel that's no cheaper.

Kevin

[platty]

So you would break even after 60,000 litres then? Sounds like a deal to me

[Kevin Wood]

So you would break even after 60,000 litres then? Sounds like a deal to me

I don't think you'd ever break even. E85 increases fuel consumption by up to 25% unless you have a very high compression engine, which precludes running it on petrol.

Kevin

[platty]

I don't think you'd ever break even. E85 increases fuel consumption by up to 25% unless you have a very high compression engine, which precludes running it on petrol.

Kevin

So to summarise Kevin, its a complete and utter waste of time?

[Kevin Wood]

I don't think you'd ever break even. E85 increases fuel consumption by up to 25% unless you have a very high compression engine, which precludes running it on petrol.

Kevin

So to summarise Kevin, its a complete and utter waste of time?

Correct.

However, if it were more widely available I'd be inclined to build an engine with higher compression and run it on E85 and LPG as a dual fuel.

Kevin