Ethanol (feints) as fuel additive

[Craiguzzi]

Can I add the ethanol that is not for drinking as fuel additive?
It is about 94%, a couple of litres per tank and it won’t be a total waste.

[RC Al]

Depends on your car - if it has a fuel type sensor you may be ok, personally i wouldnt do it, there is other stuff put in e10 to make it work with the petrol, save it for the windscreen washer bottle

Ive tried a few mileage experiments with e10 vs unleaded and 95 and on a au falcon and a 07 territory, the 95 wins the fuel economy race - fords really dont like e10...
When i tried it in a relatives 03 mazda bravo ute fuel guzzler (its worse than the territory) none of the fuels made a difference as there isnt a management system to adjust the ignition curve to suit the fuel, so e10 gets put in it regularly

On a side note, e85 cars chew nearly twice as much fuel, i dont see the point, a bottle of (the right) additive is way better value

[RuddyCrazy]

I've got an old wacker leg rammer I picked up at a garage sale and if i want to do some heavy wacking i just put some foreshots in the tank and it wacks like no tomorrow. Now this is a 2 stroke engine and not a 4 stroke car engine, I use E85 all the time in my 1990 Subaru Liberty and it runs fine on it. Also run my house genset on it too and it runs fine.

As to putting the fients directly into the tank one would have to be careful about the ratio of fuel to fients as too much could result in some serious problems.

[RC Al]

Have you replaced your flexible fuel lines and use an e85 compatable fuel filter in the subi bryan?
E85 eats regular grade fuel hoses and rubber bits (o-rings and the like) in your fuel system
You could be playing with a literal fire - i believe you got a new genset in the last few months too - might want to ask where you brought it from if its ok for e85 so you dont end up with a warranty issue?

[bluc]

94% which means 6% water and other stuff. Do you want water(and other stuff) in your motor? Pretty sure when people make it for fuel they add a product which absorbs water and impurities to take it to 100% im no chemist but think its called anhydrous ethanol or similar..

[RuddyCrazy]

Have you replaced your flexible fuel lines and use an e85 compatable fuel filter in the subi bryan?
E85 eats regular grade fuel hoses and rubber bits (o-rings and the like) in your fuel system
You could be playing with a literal fire - i believe you got a new genset in the last few months too - might want to ask where you brought it from if its ok for e85 so you dont end up with a warranty issue?

Nope aint done a thing to the Subi and my last visit to the mechanic to get wheel bearing done I did him to have look over the engine and he reported everything was fine. With the genset I got it from Paramount Browns and in the past haven't had a problem using the E85 eating the fuel lines etc.

[Arismac]

94% which means 6% water and other stuff. Do you want water(and other stuff) in your motor? Pretty sure when people make it for fuel they add a product which absorbs water and impurities to take it to 100% im no chemist but think its called anhydrous ethanol or similar..

Quite correct "Bluc". I use my heads for spirit lamps and the likes but not internal combustion engines. The risk of damage does not make it worth it.

[wynnum1]

Gas turbines can run on Ethanol with the water in it .They built some cars but may have had some problems .Tank and helicopters use gas turbines and electric generator but have to be adapted for Ethanol and a couple of thousand horse power which is going to get you moving.
They sell small diesel gas turbine back up generators for mobile phone towers seems gas turbine needs less maintenance so running a generator on Ethanol could be possible one day with the water in it..

[db1979]

Depends on your car - if it has a fuel type sensor you may be ok, personally i wouldnt do it, there is other stuff put in e10 to make it work with the petrol, save it for the windscreen washer bottle

Ive tried a few mileage experiments with e10 vs unleaded and 95 and on a au falcon and a 07 territory, the 95 wins the fuel economy race - fords really dont like e10...
When i tried it in a relatives 03 mazda bravo ute fuel guzzler (its worse than the territory) none of the fuels made a difference as there isnt a management system to adjust the ignition curve to suit the fuel, so e10 gets put in it regularly

On a side note, e85 cars chew nearly twice as much fuel, i dont see the point, a bottle of (the right) additive is way better value

The enthalpy of combustion of petrol is higher than e10. There's the price discount on e10 (not sure if it's standard Australia wide) but I know it used to be 4 cents per litre in Queensland. On this basis when e10 first came out it was economical to run e10 but now that both fuels are more than double the price they were when e10 first came out the price subsidy isn't worth the lack of efficiency.

[Darwin award]

I stay away from the stuff, the hydrophilic qualities of ethanol in a humid environment like Darwin and the cost of cleaning rusted injectors means my fores and heads get used as weed killer....Afterall the piddling volume I make hardly keeps up with the weeds as it is!

[Craiguzzi]

I have seen water injection used on cars in the past.
Methylated spirit added to fuel tanks is a good way of removing water from tanks, I assume the same effect would be achieved with ethanol.
1 or 2lt in a 60lt tank is roughly 1.5 to 3.5% this low concentration may have little negative impact on a petrol engine?

[db1979]

Methylated spirit added to fuel tanks is a good way of removing water from tanks, I assume the same effect would be achieved with ethanol.

Methylated spirits is pretty much the same as ethanol. It used to be ethanol with about 5% methanol added. Now it's got something else instead of methanol that makes it taste and smell really bad, and it forms an azeotrope with ethanol so it can't be distilled out.

[wynnum1]

Methylated spirit added to fuel tanks is a good way of removing water from tanks, I assume the same effect would be achieved with ethanol.

Methylated spirits is pretty much the same as ethanol. It used to be ethanol with about 5% methanol added. Now it's got something else instead of methanol that makes it taste and smell really bad, and it forms an azeotrope with ethanol so it can't be distilled out.

Methylated spirits does not contain methanol in Australia too toxic and not good if your job has to use and get exposed and with non fatal exposure gives bad headache.

[EziTasting]

I have seen water injection used on cars in the past.
Methylated spirit added to fuel tanks is a good way of removing water from tanks, I assume the same effect would be achieved with ethanol.
1 or 2lt in a 60lt tank is roughly 1.5 to 3.5% this low concentration may have little negative impact on a petrol engine?

DITO... mind you I only own old style cars... or MCycles; none of those fandangled cumpooterised injection model cars that park themselves ‘n stuff. I like to drive!
Do it once a month as a fuel system clean-out as it takes condensation out of the tank/s fuel lines and burns hotter to clean out a build up of carbon...