Now that Morrisons have started selling E85 (85% bioethanol 15% petrol), I was thinking it could be a very cheap and easy octane booster. I have a couple of local Morrisons that sell it therefore if I fill up a jerry can I should be able to add X litres to a full tank of V-power to get a 5-10% bioethanol/petrol mix. This should increase the octane rating by a point or two, it is in fact what Tesco 99 is made from i.e. 5% bioethanol. The general consensus is 5% is definately safe on engine parts and 10% is unlikely to do any damage.

So how many litres is the standard coupé fuel tank?

63litres in total.

63 in the tank and a few in the lines and pipes.

Ross

Do you know if any of v-power is made from this?

Ross

Thank you! So 3-5 litres of bioethanol should do it... I shall try this weekend

You could be right Ross, I didn't think V-Power had bioethanol but perhaps it now does? Nothing coming up on a Google search...

If it does already contain bioethanol then need to know the % otherwise could over egg the mix and start to rot the fuel lines!

Thats what i was thinking. There is a morrisons petrol station round the corner from me, and i'd be VERY interested in copying this for safety reasons.

Ross

Doesn’t DaveG work in petrochemicals? He would probably know.

V-Power is NOT bioethanol based.
I can't use any e85 as my fuel swirlpot/surgetank is aluminium and it will corrode it.

In my head i just said "yummy"

Ross

I use 30% E85 and 70% 98 octane petrol in my car. I can´t feel so much difference. Can anyone here calculate the new "octane" value for this mix?

Next year I´m thinking of mapping my car for E85.

Really? From my understanding 30% would have implications for rubber and aluminium components, who advised you to do this? In terms of performance it won't make much difference other give you much better anti-knock protection which is always nice.

I would like that safety buffer, esp on a track day or rr session.

Ross

OK it seems E10 i.e. 10% ethanol blend, is commonly used across the pond and around the world without any changes required to the car. I shall be trying some today... assuming it is available at the pump

AFAIK Tesco 99 has poorer anti-det properties than V-Power so I'm not sure it is a blanket better for ignition advance.

The other way round John. V-Power makes more power but Tesco has better anti-det. Anyway, adding 10% bioethanol to V-Power will only serve to increase the octane rating hopefully by 1pt so perhaps 100 octane. E85 is rated at up to 105 octane which would be a very cheap race fuel!

People here in sweden have been mixing e85 with petrol for quite a while. 30% as freddan72 uses is not very uncommon at all. Even more common is 100% e85 (with mapped car or uprated fpr) People have run like this for years and engines last.
And as I said in my other post, people tune e85 cars and get amazing poweroutput. 350bhp with e85 on a standard 2.0l engine with a mitsu td04 15t is quite impressive.

No issues with fuel lines? I assume most people are simply adding 30% bioethanol without mapping just for the environmental benefits?

Very interesting topic this one.

You could easily change the OE fuel lines to PFTE as quite a lot of it is hardpipe anyway under the car. Probably nopmore than a days work to swap the lot.

The issues that are less obvious are probably more related to the fuel pumps we use and whether they will arc etc. as that has been a problem I believe because E85 has much more conductive properties.

Re Tesco 99 - I saw it on a knock link on a V-Power mapped car and there was a lot more noise. Whether it was actually knock I don't know. Also it depends on your compression ratio whether you get more power due to more energy from the fuel or more advance from the igniton.

I know Rob at PT uses Tesco 99 because he says it's more resistant to knock albeit at the expense of a littl power. Adding some to V-Power should hopefully get the best of both worlds... only one way to find out

No, no problems with fuelrail or fuelpump.

We have a site here in sweden wich covers e85 conversion, where they discuss risks etc. According to their information materials that can handle petrol can also handle bioethanol, usually its the other way around that is the problem. Materials wich handle bioethanol without probs might have problems with petrol. This according to rubber and hose manufacturers material-tables.
Of course this might be different in other countries wich do not have the same level of quality on bioethanol.

The only big problem as i see it, is starting your car on a cold day when you use bioethanol.

Flea: In think the number one reson people do it is because of the lower price on bioethanol here in sweden.

Have to admit I always found Tesco 99 RON had good strong midrange at the expense of a little bit of power compared to say Shell Optimax.

Joe

Tesco = 99ron
Optimax = 98ron

Ross

chicken donar = 108RON

Is that with or without chilli sauce?

Doesn't adding bio ethanol give rubbish MPG?

Chilli sauce is king!! Everyone knows the after-burner effect

Here in Brazil, all the gas nowadays have 25% of ethanol, it's impossible to buy 100% pure gas...
When the car was imported to Brazi, back in 96, it was around 15% of ethanol... the engine was de-tuned (to 137hp)

And, yes, ethanol gives u rubbish mpg... my brother drives a Citroen 1.4 C3 FLEX (any combination of ethanol and gas)
when he uses ethanol, it consumes 10-15% more... but, you get some extra horsepower, the engine makes 89 hp with ethanol and 86 with gas, IF i remember well...

Well I am currently running on a 10% E85 and 90% V-Power. So far no problems (as expected) although I can't say it has given me more or less power although th idea is it should be safer. Need to get it on the rollers to see if it makes any difference.