Ethanol in fuel.

[Curly3]

It's like reading about Cancer causing foods, if you listened to every opinion there'd be nothing left to eat.
Maybe surprisingly but I agree with Mont,  I wouldn't put it near any rare/race engine that I've rebuilt.
Just like climate change, the jury is still out.
Apologies in advance for the non old bike analogy.

[Mike52]

The general consenses in the past was that methanol improved engine cooling and I suspect ethanol would be the same.

That statement is true.
But
Petrol runs at a ratio of 14.7 parts air to 1 part fuel [ approx ]
Methanol runs at 5 parts air to 1 part fuel. [ approx ]

If you were to run methanol at 14.7/1 then the results might be very disappointing.

When I was young I helped build a short track sidecar and was the passenger.
One day the owner decided to try methanol [ put it in the tank with the petrol jetting ] and that was the end of our short track racing.
POP

If ethanol is anything like methanol then replacing 10% of your fuel with it would result in a leaner running motor. [ with the original jetting ]
Having a knock sensor and a computer constantly adjusting the timing would work but my husky doesn't have these advancements so I'me stuck with premium.
Here,s a link to the BTU's of different fuels  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency
Interesting stuff.

[Nathan S]

 The reason brake master cylinders don't rust these days is because the modern master cyl. are not vented to atmosphere. Go back a few years when m.cyl's were vented to atmosphere and rust used to get every where including inside wheel cylinders.
 

Wasn't my point... Take an old, cast iron car master cylinder, and strip the paint off. Now put it back on the car and fill it with brake fluid.
Does it rust more on the inside or the outside?

-------

Ethanol is much less corrosive than Methanol.

[monaro308]

Stoich for petrol is 14.7:1 A/F ratio
E10 is 14.1:1
E85 is 9.8:1
Using E10 is equivilent to running your engine at 16.2:1....ie leaner.
When testing began on the c/dores for E85 at work,the fuel pumps had to be replaced with pumps with viton seals in them.
All the fuel lines to stainless.
Previously we would drill holes in the top of the Swirlpot/fuel pump and run a tube in it for ease of draining fuel at the back of the vehicle.
These tubes were sealed with araldite to the plastic top of the swirlpot......never a problem with unleaded and i think E10 was ok too.
Come testing for E85 and the araldite would last about 1 day and go soft.
Then we tried the u beaut green stuff 2 part mix recommended by the top gurus.....turned to rubber in about 3 days.
Like anything,tune to suit the fuel.

[middo24]

E10 is crap I can not find anything good about it mmm maybe starting fires , my car looses about 100km per tank my wifes car is about 70km on E10 so its not cheaper to use, you cant use it in aircrafts, advised against use in mowers & brush cutters, honda strongly advise against using it, if you leave in the tank of a motorcycle for a few months it destroys alloy fuel taps new & old & as for saving the enviroment my car has a 70 litre tank after doing the calculations I use 3 litres more of the "BAD" stuff (petrol)to travel 600km, & as for the so called experts like dr karl whatshisname trying to explain this on ABC radio, the guy talks bullshit . like most government things looks good on paper but in the real world IT DONT WORK & im only a boof head with a mechanical background dealing with friends that ask me about their car, boat, mower & motorcycle problems that when they stop using E10 the problem goes away, >:(GRRRRR,  any way on a lighter note1st round retro mx was great fun no E10 lots of 2 stroke smoke mmmm  

[Nathan S]

.... my car looses about 100km per [70 litre] tank .... I use 3 litres more of the "BAD" stuff to travel 600km

Your maths doesn't work! 

[GMC]

I don’t follow a lot of the modern fuel stuff as I basically don’t care but I don’t see that these blends are meant to be more powerful or more economical or cheaper, they are meant to be alternative.
Fossil fuels won’t be around for ever and we need to come up with something else, and like any new design or product it will be a learning curve of what works and what doesn’t,
Just look at how much bikes and cars have evolved over the last 100 years.
Fuels will evolve a lot over the next 100 years also.

Run the modern fuels in your modern car and save the good stuff for our old stuff

What ever happened to Power Kero?

[Mike52]

E10 is crap I can not find anything good about it mmm maybe starting fires , my car looses about 100km per tank my wifes car is about 70km on E10 so its not cheaper to use, you cant use it in aircrafts, advised against use in mowers & brush cutters, honda strongly advise against using it, if you leave in the tank of a motorcycle for a few months it destroys alloy fuel taps new & old & as for saving the enviroment my car has a 70 litre tank after doing the calculations I use 3 litres more of the "BAD" stuff (petrol)to travel 600km, & as for the so called experts like dr karl whatshisname trying to explain this on ABC radio, the guy talks bullshit . like most government things looks good on paper but in the real world IT DONT WORK & im only a boof head with a mechanical background dealing with friends that ask me about their car, boat, mower & motorcycle problems that when they stop using E10 the problem goes away, >:(GRRRRR,  any way on a lighter note1st round retro mx was great fun no E10 lots of 2 stroke smoke mmmm  

If it turns out that what you say is correct don,t expect an apology middo.
Not on this forum anyhow.
Cheers Mike

[Lozza]

I remember when if you wanted to fark someones motor, you put sugar in it....I dont buy the ethanol crap....or Lozza's scientific reasoning....how many bikes do YOU actually ride and race Lozza?.....not all the shit you read on the "net" is true or real life.....a bit like on here sometimes.

At the moment 1 race bike. I.ll ask how many people pay you to tune expensive engines (not fit parts), how many times you go to the dyno to prove or disprove a theory ?

Just  wondering how all these modern cars loose all this performance when they have all the electronics to cope with different fuels.
The 100 octane united will be next on the list to test/tune/dyno, looks very promising for some free hp

[Nathan S]

Mario, do you have any figures for fuel consumption on E10 vs E0?

[pancho]

 Ethanol is less corrosive than methanol???
 I know methanol does a job on your die-cast carby if you forget to drain it out after a day's racing, but you should have seen the inside of the fuel tank and the fuel filter after it was opened up!
 I haven't seen as much rust. The inside of the fuel filter,all the gauze etc was reduced to dust..
 On this vehicle e10 did so much damage even the airflow meter was burnt out because off backfire when it couldn't get anything else to burn!
By the way it was a toyota delica, no new tank available, second hand tank cost $1000.
 cheers pancho.

[lukeb1961]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hygroscopic

HYGROS: Greek - wet or moisture.
HYDRO:   Greek - water

There, now it makes slight sense rather than none at all.

[oldyzman]

I agree with David to a large extent.
Brett

[Nathan S]

....
That said, the set of carbon fibre Boyensen reeds* in my GG200 appear to have had the resin 'washed away' in places.
They're well rooted anyhow, but I'm wondering if ethanol might be the cause?

And the "well-rooted anyhow" part: