Ethanol on a ZX?

oscarloco · Post by **oscarloco** » 28 Jul 2006, 21:39

With the oil prices raising, the government of my country is studying the posibility of distribuiting an ethanol-gasoline mixture (E-85 I think is the name). Does anybody know if it can be used on my ZX without any danger?

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 29 Jul 2006, 00:42

No problem.

In Sweden they have been using E85 as fuel for standard cars for several years now. All cars should readily run with up to 50/50 petrol/E85 mix no problem.
If you feel unsure then start out with 25%E85 & 75%petrol - and then gradually increase the E85 content for every tankfull.
I cant be sure on your exact engine management system export variant - but I would expect you can end up running E85 clean on your engine.
But dont test it out that way first off -

Ethanol (E85) has a higher octane rating than petrol - bit like old fashion "super" grade petrol. But you cant really enjoy the full effect unless the engine has a rather high compression ratio.
Your standard petrol engine will have approx 1:9.5 compression ratio - and E85 is best run with compression ratios of some 1:13.

Its NOT like the earlier LPG gas setups - you wont feel the engine loses power - but it does lose some 5% running on clean E85.
Besides there will be coldstart problems on really cold mornings with frost.

Ethanol is very environment friendly. We should all have access to use it for our cars - at reasonable cost.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » 29 Jul 2006, 11:58

Back in the 1960s, I'm sure one of the UK petrol companies used to offer a petrol/ethanol blend, can't be sure but I think it was 'National'.
I think it was promoted as giving cooler running

Dave.

dnsey · Post by **dnsey** » 29 Jul 2006, 14:07

I remember Shell 'With IPA' (Isopropyl alcohol).
A similar idea no doubt, but I wonder if there was a significant proportion of alcohol in it (remember how a lot of things were sold before the Trades Descriptions Act)!

dnsey · Post by **dnsey** » 29 Jul 2006, 14:14

BTW, the 'benzole' of National benzole was a by-product of coke production, and was blended with petrol for motor fuel, so perhaps the ethanol was also obtained cheaply somehow.

oscarloco · Post by **oscarloco** » 31 Jul 2006, 16:41

I've heard that rubber seals are prone to damage for using Ethanol as it is a very strong solvent. How true is this?

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 31 Jul 2006, 18:51

oscarloco wrote:I've heard that rubber seals are prone to damage for using Ethanol as it is a very strong solvent. How true is this?

You think ethanol is worse than petrol ?

The guy who said that must have a living from selling petrol ...