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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Why don't we use E85 Ethanol fuel in the UK?


marc_p

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I remember reading about water and meth injection back in my MR2 days and being told that methanol will eat away at aluminium parts of the engine if the mix was wrong. Would this be the case for Ethanol as well, im assuming not, Tesco's Momentum 99 uses bio ethenol to up the octane rating iirc.

 

If it can possibly be harsh on the fule lines, does make you wonder what else its effecting.

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A work colleague told me today that in Venezuela where he lives it costs him 1.50 US dollars to fill up the tank of his Dodge Ram 5.7lt Truck...! ILMAO that's freaaken cheap as..!

 

Below is a quote I took from msn news.

 

The car show in Venezuela's capital was filled with men who gravitate to the SUVs, peering through their windows and slipping into their leather seats.

 

Many said they were looking for a powerful engine, but no one asked about gas mileage. In oil-rich Venezuela, gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies, and SUVs are selling briskly.

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E85 is great and I looked into it a long long time ago, sadly our government at the time ruined any chance of us using it :(

 

There was even talk of Morrisons removing the few pumps they do have available as no one is using it.

 

You can buy Race E85 but the price is shocking and I have no idea why it would be better than E85 sold at the pump, surely E85 is E85 :search:

 

 

To run it you would need to have the car mapped for it plus to get the same power you would need an alcohol safe fuel system that it approx 35% bigger as it requires more fuel to get same power.

 

Flexfuel is something different, the flexfuel sensors work out the ratio of E85 vs petrol and allow the map to be updated based on the ratio, this is how most dual fuel cars work as you can fill up with E85 and top up with petrol if E85 isnt available, the mega-squirt ECU supports flexfuel and I believe Motec may now support it, as for other ECUs I have no idea, I know its been mentioned on the Syvecs forums and may be added in the future.

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I've been doing some more reading and, using the US as a model, I've seen the same thing crop (no pun intended) up time and again. Even if all the land capable of being used for growing was utilised for E85 production then it would still only produce about 10% of the US yearly fuel requirements! Now, headline attention grabber or not, it does seem to be born out by scientific types with their calculators.

 

Pretty much rules it out as a viable fuel in my opinion. The same goes for all other green alternatives. I've not yet read of anything truly green or sustainable. The best we can hope for is the tech guys get to grips with nuclear fusion.

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The best we can hope for is the tech guys get to grips with nuclear fusion.

 

Have you seen anything on the ITER project Red? A few of the engineers where I work have gone over to work on it and it does look very interesting (although I've yet to find the time to read up on it fully)

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