95-E10

Everyone in the US has. It's all we can get around here.

I have no problem with the 2002 or the E28 with 10% ethanol fuel. The thing about ethanol is that it's a pretty good detonation prevention agent. It's not as hazardous as lead or MTBE, both of which are stuff you really don't want around you.

The other thing about ethanol is that it's a great solvent, and it will dissolve gums and varnishes that precipitate out of regular gasoline. This is a good thing in the long term, but in the short term it can mean a lot of old gunk in your gas tank goes into solution and may clog up the fuel filter and the backflow valve... or even worse, the fuel injectors and the pressure regulator. A 10% mix isn't too bad, though, and won't do too much of that.

There are fuel lines made from rubbers which aren't compatible with ethanol out there, but as far as I know anything BMW has made since the seventies should be okay with 10%, although it might not be good at all with 85%. If you want to run 85% you will need to change fuel lines on some older cars.

Some folks have claimed that because the optimal mixture ratio for the new 10% ethanol fuel is a little different that if you have a car with an older open-loop fuel system you may have to rejet your carbs. Personally I haven't noticed a problem with the 2002.

--scott

Oh I don't know 250ml of pure ethanol is enough to kill most people...

"R. Mark Clayton" a écrit dans le message de news: aNudnWh86qs snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

Thanks for the replies. Meanwhile, I've been told that the current unleaded 95 also contains 6% of ethanol. Wrt the margins the designeers usually take, I'm feeling quite comfortable on this point. However to produce ethanol is more expensive than regular fuel and the yield is a little bit lower. Where's the cost saving ???

The two gas stations near home have abaldonned the regular 95. I'll try the

When you add ethanol, you remove MTBE or lead. That's a cost-saving and it's also a major health benefit too.

My guess is you're more apt to see fouling problems by going to the higher octane, but try it and see.

--scott

snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:h4pj9i$k8v$ snipped-for-privacy@panix2.panix.com:

are you perhaps meaning 85 octane as I have not seen 95 in a verrrry long time outside the airport gate. If so you need to use the next step up if it is ethanol. here that would be 87. the ethanol dosn`t work well below 87 because that is reg gas blended with ethanol at 10%. anything below that is using some crap gas blend to get 85 (or less than 10% blend) and many cars and bikes will not run fer crap on it. as to the saving concept, it is energy positive to make ethanol. anything else you see is not correct, or old information. the processes used now are much more efficient now than before. last figures I saw it was about 120% so there is a net gain along with removing the nasty NTBE from the mix. KB

I believe he is referring to the European octane rating which is roughly 5 points above the US (R+M)/2 average "pump" octane. So his 95 = US 90 and his "superpremium" 98 = US premium of 93.

BTW, 85 octane (US) is normally only found at higher elevations where the octane requirement is a bit lower.

Tom

"tom_k" wrote in news:xNqdnQztp8-xJO3XnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

unfortunatly I ran accross this crap gas in Minnesota. KB

"tom_k" a écrit dans le message de news: xNqdnQztp8-xJO3XnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

Correct Tom ! In France we basically have Unleaded 95 RON that already contains 6% ethanol and unleaded 98 RON that's supposed to multiply the mileage by 10 ( ~@ ^@~ ) They just introduced the E10 that is 95 containing 4% more ethanol and roughly suppressed the regular 95 from almost all the gas stations About 40% of the cars are confirmed by the manufacturers, not to be compatible with the E10 ! A complete mess from the government since people will be compelled to buy

I googled a bit and found this site providing generous explanations and quite convincing figures.

Have a look on para. 9 concerning the manufacturers' opinions. Although it addresses more than 10% between 9 & 10.1, the gap is small.

This table extrtacted from para. 4 speaks by itself. Volume % Volume % Energy of 1 gal % Reduction Ethanol Gasoline of fuel, Btu/gal Compared to Gasoline

Assuming that the mileage follows the volumic energy, moving from 6 to 10%, tends to demonstrate that the mileage is reduced by 1.4 % ! and by 3.3% from 100% gazoline fuel basis. OTOH the 98 not being the 95, I'm wondering what would be the related figures. All this isn't dealing with all the other side effects.

Regards

Interesting - so I gather that the your "superpremium" 98 will not contain any ethanol and the 95 will be upped from 6% to 10%. There are still some areas in the US where one has a choice only between non-ethanol 87 US octane (= approx. 91 Euro), or E10 rated at 89 (93~94 Euro). In other words, they are using ethanol primarily to boost the octane rating. Luckily, my 128i ran well on the 89 E10, although I usually try to burn only US 93.

I purchased a pellet stove a few years ago which would burn corn as well as wood pellets and used about 20% corn for the first heating season. But with the mass distribution of E10, the price of corn has now made it much too expensive to use as a heating fuel - plus storage is a problem as it's tough to keep the mice away! Tom

Mice drink your gas? That sucks!

Hey Jeff, these are tough times! Tom