bobbagum
Guest
Hi, I've been lurking for a while and this is my first questions, this forums seems to be most knowledgeable in the technical stuff, so here's the problem...
In my part of the world (Thailand) 95 Octane Petrol is getting harder to come by, especially in the remoter parts as it is being gradually phased out by 'Gasohols' which is a mix of Gasoline(Petrol) + Alcohol, usually plant-based ethanols in the trend of moving towards biofuels.
The problem is that while the Ethanol is pretty good as an octane booster it is quite corrosive towards plastics and rubber of any kind and would wreck havoc on the fuels system such as pumps, o-rings and hoses. The actual ethanol content is quite low at only 10% and most of the locally made cars and bikes are taking it just fine, the BMW dealer here is saying outright that the bike is not compatible with ethanol, most of the Europeans cars here is incompatible anyway.
So, given the choice between filling up with 91 Octane regular petrol or the 95 Ethanol, what would do the less damages... It is quite hard even in the city to find proper 95 Octane fuels. At one point the government almost make a compulsory switch to Ethanol and now they are promoting more ethanols with E20 (20% mix) and E85 (85% Ethanol) and even the 91 octane fuel is starting to appear in ethanol flavour as well, so it looks like the day of the pure 95 octane petrol is numbered... I really envy the UK with your 98 Octane Optimaxes...
Also another side effect of the ethanol fuel is that it has noticeable drop in power compared to the regular petrol of the same octane rating, would this throw off the ECU in some way too?
In my experiences using the fuel in cars and various bikes, the 95 octane ethanol is about similar in performance to the pure petrol 91 octane. Some cars feels a bit sluggish on the ethanol. In carburetted bikes, the ethanols makes the engine very hard to start, even with the engine still warm.
Well, that's quite a long first post, that would be all from me now, hopes there'd be good for discussions... thanks
In my part of the world (Thailand) 95 Octane Petrol is getting harder to come by, especially in the remoter parts as it is being gradually phased out by 'Gasohols' which is a mix of Gasoline(Petrol) + Alcohol, usually plant-based ethanols in the trend of moving towards biofuels.
The problem is that while the Ethanol is pretty good as an octane booster it is quite corrosive towards plastics and rubber of any kind and would wreck havoc on the fuels system such as pumps, o-rings and hoses. The actual ethanol content is quite low at only 10% and most of the locally made cars and bikes are taking it just fine, the BMW dealer here is saying outright that the bike is not compatible with ethanol, most of the Europeans cars here is incompatible anyway.
So, given the choice between filling up with 91 Octane regular petrol or the 95 Ethanol, what would do the less damages... It is quite hard even in the city to find proper 95 Octane fuels. At one point the government almost make a compulsory switch to Ethanol and now they are promoting more ethanols with E20 (20% mix) and E85 (85% Ethanol) and even the 91 octane fuel is starting to appear in ethanol flavour as well, so it looks like the day of the pure 95 octane petrol is numbered... I really envy the UK with your 98 Octane Optimaxes...
Also another side effect of the ethanol fuel is that it has noticeable drop in power compared to the regular petrol of the same octane rating, would this throw off the ECU in some way too?
In my experiences using the fuel in cars and various bikes, the 95 octane ethanol is about similar in performance to the pure petrol 91 octane. Some cars feels a bit sluggish on the ethanol. In carburetted bikes, the ethanols makes the engine very hard to start, even with the engine still warm.
Well, that's quite a long first post, that would be all from me now, hopes there'd be good for discussions... thanks
