The Lotus Grand Tourers

Just spotted this thread and thought there may be a few things I could add to this.

Ethanol is already used in tescos 99 octane "momentum" up to 15%. It is used as an octane booster. It goes off a lot quicker than shell optimax though. It has been used in their 99 octane fuel for at least the last 5 years. I use the tesco 99 quite often and no problems.

E85 (85% ethanol)as sold in morrisons still requires the 15% petrol to allow for easy starting of engines so the full transition isn't without problems.

The benefits of using ethanol are obvious, it has a very clean burn and the octane value is a lot higher. The only problem is that it is corrosive to many rubber seals and hoses. The same problem associated with using bio-diesel because the alcohol used to break down the veg-oil in bio-diesel attacks rubber seals and hoses. This can be overcome by using nitrile seals and plastic fuel lines. More regular oil changes with a high quality fully synthetic are recommended though.

So to run an excel on a higher level of ethanol in the future may require some subtle changes like a few seals changing in the fuel pumps, new fuel lines and possibly a change of ignition timing. It wont be anything that should stop a car from running though.
The most problematic cars will be ones that haven't run in a while or not maintained properly - the ethanol will start to break down and move any brown sludgy fuel deposits in the fuel tanks and lines. Nothing a drain of the fuel tank wont sort. I have used ethanol to clear a fuel tank and lines before, the rubbish that comes out is incredible!

Personally I'd rather sniff out a fuel that had the lowest Ethanol content as possible for the Excel.
I didn't realise Tesco's fuels had a content of 15%.
Jim

Not something they readily publicise but was picked up when classic car weekly or practical classic did extensive back to back testing of performance pump fuels. Can't remember which mag it was. Tesco 99 proved highest power yields but shell optimax remained more consistent over a longer period. The results between tesco and shell were very close with BP showing significantly less power. I personally have always had good results with both tesco 99 and optimax but given a choice prefer optimax. My heavily modified Astra 888 coupe occasionally backfired on tesco 99 if the fuel got over a few weeks old and on BP ran noticably worse than tesco 99 backing up the results in the mag.

Hmm,

Switched from Shell to BP 'coz there is a local BP station in my small town. The fuel usually never gets older than a week but perhaps time to reconsider convenience vs performance.

M

A few ways around that one. Improve the fuel yourself by means of an octane booster or get fuel delivered to your door and blend in a few litres each time you top up. Demon Tweeks used to deliver 25 litre barrels up to about 115 octane, not sure uf they still do though?? Sunoco fuels also do home delivery. GO PLAY!!!!!

Guys - I'm going to lock this thread. It's meant to be a thread for factual information relating to the impact of E10 or higher ethanol content fuel. If you have facts about the Excel/Eclat/Elite and those fuels to add, please feel free to PM me.

Quick addition - I accidentally tried some E10 on the recent trip to Italy. No obvious harm done, but it ran fairly rough until I added half a tank of 98RON. Much rougher than it runs on UK spec. 95RON.

Couple of links cross posted from TLF:

First is warning in US from AAA about E15 fuel and the car companies that say warranty claims will be rejected.

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2000862202001/

Second is an article published in the Telegraph last March.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/cla ... bikes.html

A few other interesting reports

Matthew Tomkins' dissertation (Oxford Brookes) on the effects on carb. components
Hemmings 2012
Hagerty 2009