Gull's new 98 Octane Biofuel

[Mr Revhead]

Prime Minister Helen Clark, who poured the first Gull biofuel at Albany on Auckland's North Shore yesterday, said efforts were being made to lift the standards of imported cars so New Zealand's car fleet would be less old and more able to use biofuels.

running that through my politician spin removal machine gives me:

lets make the fuel companys provide fuel that you can only run in late model cars, thereby forcing ppl to gie up older cars. doesnt matter that that will force a lot of ppl to give up cars altogether as they wont be able to afford them, we'll be bending over to the greenies so we will look good

[darkwolf]

Can anyone tell me why carburettors are more likely to experience issues with this fuel? I would like to run it in my car but if it turns my engine into an external combustion engine I won't be happy. ENGINE:3S-F, 26 June 1989.

[Mr Revhead]

alcohol is corrosive.

i dont know how much this blend will actually effect things, prob not as much as some ppl claim, but over time it will cause issues, weather that time is 2 months or 2 years i dont know.

[cogent]

might aswell burn this E10 in the 13b since its gonna run like shit anyway eh warwick

[Voyeur]

Half right Warrick,
Ethanol is corrosive, but the main problem with carburettors, is that ethanol has a higher specific weight than the other crap they put in our petrol, couple that with long runners (longer than direct injection) there is a risk that the ethanol will fall from suspension and pool, in the bottom of the runners.
The problem with Japanese imports, is most of the seals in the fuel system are EDPM, if you change them to VITON, thenyou should be able to run the vehicle on ethanol based fuels, along with a retune.

[Mr Revhead]

carbs re fuel falling out of suspension, mentioned that on page one


so its the seals? yeah i wasnt sure if the 10% mix would affect the carbs etc like 100% methanol would
could still possibly affect them over time though

[Voyeur]

[/quote]carbs re fuel falling out of suspension, mentioned that on page one

Yea i saw that, just thought i would explain, before somebody asked why, exactly. You can run carburettor, as long as the port velocity is high, and not too long, it comes down to manifold design. K series engine should be ok. V8 with large plenium below carb not so good

[barryogen]

so its the seals? yeah i wasnt sure if the 10% mix would affect the carbs etc like 100% methanol would

They're talking Ethanol here... not Methanol... otherwise anyone with an alloy engine should be very worried

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

One of the drawbacks of methanol as a fuel is its corrosivity to some metals, including aluminium. Methanol, although a weak acid, attacks the oxide coating that normally protects the aluminium from corrosion:

6 CH3OH + Al2O3 → 2 Al(OCH3)3 + 3 H2O

The resulting methoxide salts are soluble in methanol, resulting in clean aluminum surface, which is readily oxidised by some dissolved oxygen. Also the methanol can act as an oxidizer:

6 CH3OH + 2 Al → 2 Al(OCH3)3 + 3 H2

This reciprocal process effectively fuels corrosion until either the metal is eaten away or the concentration of CH3OH is negligible.

[fuel]

Mitsubishi All petrol engine vehicles since 1986 will operate satisfactorily on E10. Mitsubishi vehicles with carburettor fuel systems built before 1991 may experience hot fuel handling concerns and may experience a lower level of durability in some fuel system components.

Fkn awesome, so glad I have a fuel injected Mitsubishi right about now

[Mr Revhead]

oh i know its ethanol, what i didnt know was how corrosive ethanol is compared to methanol.

[barryogen]

oh i know its ethanol, what i didnt know was how corrosive ethanol is compared to methanol.

Maybe we should take a closer look at Brazil where they already have massive amounts of Ethanol production, they seem to have solved many of the issues already, so maybe the issues are not as bad as they seem.

Most of what I have read about the corrosiveness of Ethanol seems to suggest that it is over hyped, and that it has less corrosive properties than tap water, I'm not a scientist, so I'm not trying to say I'm right, just that most of us here are very un-informed about it, and will probably need to read a fair bit about it before commenting with certainty.

[Adamal]

So how much is it gonna be per litre?

[no_8wire]

less than 98 but more than 91...

[darkwolf]

So how much is it gonna be per litre?

After Uncle Helen gets its hands on it and taxes it to cushion its "surplus" probably about the same price maybe higher than BP Ultimate.

[ee904age]

So how much is it gonna be per litre?

I think approx 3c more than current 91.

[Ae92typeX]

$1.615pl at Gull Albany at present

[Adamal]

I have to say, thats a pretty reasonable price in comparison to the rest of the market

[Ae92typeX]

as long as it dosent corrode ones car away lol

[2jayzgte]

F**K I'm off to the airport to get Avgas and have no plans on using this new fuel.

[Ae92typeX]

lol, there goes your oxy sensor...not as scary as a flaming injector though