Ethanol in petrol (Alkylate petrol)

renetriple

renetriple

Full member
Location
near Rotterdam, Holland
Hi all, a few weeks ago a colleague at my work attend me on a type of petrol that has not the bad ingredients that today's petrol have.
Common problems such as water in petroltanks, clogging carburettors and degraded plastic parts in the petrol path we have with oure bike are due to this ingredients; Mostly 5 'till 10% ethanol and other strange substances such as benzene.

The most well known brand for this alternative petrol (alkylate petrol) is Aspen http://www.aspen.se/Aspen_(eng)/Consumer/About_alkylate which does not give the above problems. It's mainly made from the more volatile fractions from the oilcracker and thus more pure. It do not contains the heavy fractions which in their turn result in carbon deposits after been burned.
Next week I put Aspen+ in the Lav so that I do not expect to have any problems when starting it after the winter  ;)
Aspen+ has an Octane number of RON 98 so that's the reason I take it without risk of knocking in the SFC1000 with high comp. pistons.

Are there other people that also have alkylate petrol in their bikes (maybe Aspen4, this has an octane number of RON 95) and what are your experiences? Especially with knocking (at accelerating and high speed knock) and starting.

grtz,   Ren?
 
I don't know anything about the fuel you are describing but if you are just putting it in for storage I would think draining the tank and carbs would be a better solution. What isn't there can't cause problems.
 
fuels mixed with ethanol have
  • a shelf life of 3 months, after that they loose their properties. The old stuff had a shelf life of 5-10 years!
  • dissolve glassfiber fuel tanks made polyester resin; mostly cheap as and 70-ies stuff
  • dissolve rubbers in your fuel system (if you haven't upgraded to modern materials yet
  • carbs, valves, valve guides and valve seals ware faster as the fuel doesn't have the lubing properties it used to have without ethanol (that is why some mix 2-stroke synthetic 1:200 in their classic 4-strokes)
  • ethanol attracts water so if you beloved classic sits around more then it drives the fuel tank will rust from the inside out; steel and aluminium!
  • fuel economy drops 5-10% because combustion with ethanol is less efficient; with older bikes you have to adjust your carbs to make a richer mixture (+3-4%) as ethanol "leans out" the mixture by its different combustion properties

So for my classics that don't see the road every day I use Shell V-power 97 which still is without ethanol in Holland. The day they start mixing ethanol I'll switch to Aspen. My everyday 1999 Peugeot runs on 95 E5 but not too well, here 98 E5 is much better. Peugeot recommend not to use E10 in this model so I'll stay away from that....
A list of vehicle manufacturers and their recommendations is on http://www.acea.be/images/uploads/files/20110801_List_of_petrol_vehicles_compatible_with_E10_petrol.pdf
Regrettably the info is on cars but you can guess from the dates in the list if you can estimate if your bike is in the safe zone ::)
 
Surprising that there are almost no reactions at this item so it's maybe unknown for everybody. But about the Shell V power I didn't know, so this can be a good alternative.
The other points still stands; more fouling in the combustion chamber and ofcourse after long standings glue-ing / gumming inside the carburettors and so more difficult starting. Not to say about the fact that it's more poison, but also that it's 2 times more expensive than normal petrol...
Next week I put it in the Lav and we'll see.

grtz,  Ren?
 
in contrary, when changing to ethanol it will clean your entire fuel/combustion area and you have to change your oil more frequently the first 10.000 kms as all deposits will come loos and end up either in your exhaust system or the engine oil/filter... :o

Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol
"Ethanol is miscible with water and is a good general purpose solvent"

It will actually clean out the engine because of it's solvent properties :-X

Check with your local Shell national office if V-power in your country is indeed without ethanol, it depends on state/national fuel regulations if it is in or not...

And any modern fuel wil gum your carbs.... to much additives in 'm (I have no problems with Dutch V-power). Allthough Aspen may be the exception but experience will tell what happens if you leave your bike over winter without draining the carbs and start it up next spring
 
they mixed it into the petrol in south africa in the mid 80s (lots and lots of sugar cane in za) and it didn't really cause much in the way of problems except with old classics (ie bikes/cars from the 50s-60s) - i seem to recall the old harleys suffered most and some people had to change their fuel lines. putting a bit of 2 stroke oil in the fuel isn't a bad idea anyway. we always did it with sasol fuel (a coal based product) because it was a bit 'dry' to use the local term, but sasol had no ethanol/methanol in it!
 
I just came across this thread yesterday
http://www.bikersoracle.com/vfr/forum/showthread.php?t=115718
about the very same thing.
It has been discussed quite a bit on our forum here too if I remember correctly (always a worry!!)
 
Interesting article Tippie.
By my knowledge here in Holland (and maybe Europe) most of the gasstations have E5 with 5% ethanol but after maybe a few years we are going to the 10%  :o
One thing I'm sure, I do not want to have this stuff in my bike which give problems as rusty petrol tanks and clogging carb's.
Yesterday I got my Aspen 25L drum and put it in the bike  :D
 
I used  Aspen fuel when I first started racing here. It cost then, about 8 years ago, 3 times the price of 98 octane pump fuel. Fuel cost almost as much as entry fees. Everyone I know here now uses V Power 99 Racing from the petrol station without problems, both on the road and track. I have no idea what it contains.
I certainly hope I don?t need to buy Aspen to use on the road.
 
well - I tend to put some "fuel-line cleaner" (which main ingredient is grain- or ethyl-alcohol. 1% of that alcohol pure ) into the tank before winter, which makes the water in the tank mix with the patrol and therefore does avoid the water stands below the fuel and causes the tank to rust. Before I did that, I regularly had issues with water in the carbs in spring. Never ever since.

cheers

Lothar
 
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