Is E85 fuel available in the UK

obi_waynne

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I've read good things about E85 fuel but it's left me with a few questions...

Does anyone sell E85 fuel in the UK?
Will it run happily in a petrol car or does the fuelling or tuning need to be adjusted?
Are there any downsides to running E85?
 
Now that you come to mention it, I have never seen an E85 pump in a petrol station :blink:
 
Bio-ethanol fuel - fuel from renewable crops which has a high octane content.
 
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Fuel. From crops??? If we can do this why is everyone having a tivvy about fuel running out??
Do they do a diesel version?
 
It takes an acre to fill a fuel tank (*or something horrendous like that) - personally I'd rather our farmers keep growing food - but the high octane nature of the fuel has many benefits and a very high knock resistance.
 
Waynne - be careful with octane numbers here. It's possible to have a 105 octane alcohol derived fuel with massive knock resistance but the calorific value of ethanol is nowhere near that of mineral fuels.

This is one reason why Tesco's 99 RON Momentum fuel is not well regarded.
 
Lots of places in the USA sell E85, and people with classic cars generally try to avoid it. the primary reason is the corrosive effects of the ethanol on rubber fuel system parts. Many people complain that it damages their fuel injectors and fuel pumps.

I can't say that the claims are true, but I try to avoid buying gas with more than 10% ethanol. (My car is 20 years old). New cars are safe for ethanol.

I agree with the other comments that corn is better suited as food. Ethanol production from corn is an American political move to benefit corporate farmers. It makes corn more expensive on the world market for the third world. It probably has no noticeable effect on the price of fuel in the USA.

Just my $.02, as they say!
 
E85 means that the fuel is 85% Ethanol and 15% normal petrol...

and yes it has a lower BTU but much higher octane rating, so running richer and advancing your ignition timing will extract the extra power....
When running E85 you generally use 1/3 more fuel so cheaper fuel isn't always better.

Also Morrisons sold E85 for a time and then retracted it because it wasn't popular enough to be profitable, also it was barely cheaper than the regular stuff... and therefore was more expensive, I know a lot of GM and Saab cars can actually use the benefits of E85
 
Also the Government has halted the hike in Ethanol in petrol after a protest was heard from Classic car owners, so it will stay at 5% for now.

Also for Diesel owners we have Biodiesel.... and it seem that it's the other way round, older cars will run biodiesel without any glitches and newer cars will have more problems,

The problem is the prosessing, if it isn't done properly then it can gum up injectors and block DPFs and if too much Methanol is used it can eat fuel seals...

Old diesels will run anything, I've ran mine off engine oil (engine oil in the fuel tank) in an emergancy,
 
Is anyone near you selling this stuff now? I still can't see it down our way and have been keeping an eye out for it.
 
Well I did not want to say, but, as long as there is a sixpence left under my pillow, then I'm good to go ;)
 
e85 isnt difficult to get as it is available through specialist suppliers .

It will produce more power if the car is specifically mapped for it and bigger injectors may be needed.

pretty pointless on the road and expensive but maybe worth it for a blast up at santapod as long as the motor can take it.
 
Can it be used as a petrol replacement then or does the car have to mapped. I was assuming it would run OK on e85 but would go better if mapped for it.

I also was led to believe that e85 can damage components in certain engines.
 
as i said as long as the motor can take it.
I would have thought most of the engines that really benefit from running e85 would already be modded to the extent that e85 wouldnt be a problem
 
I can't say I've seen E85 for sale in the UK myself, but its widely available in Europe. I've seen it at tonnes of pump out there. Given its limited availability here I've not really looked into the effects of E85 myself, but from what I gather from others you'll be looking at being able to run anything from 2-6 degrees additional timing on it, but you'll also need to be injecting 20-30% more fuel depending on the engine to get the best from it - due to as HDI-says, there being less energy stored in said fuel.
 
Well I did not want to say, but, as long as there is a sixpence left under my pillow, then I'm good to go ;)

Os you must be liveing on the wrong side of town ?-/.My grand daughters Tooth Fairy pays $5.00 per tooth not 5 cents :)
 
Over here it has been said that the quality of pump 85 can vary and it is recommended that one carries a test kit to check OR have an E FLEX sensor that is wired to the computer in the fuel line to protect the engine OR buy a dedicated motorsport E85 where the ratio is guaranteed.
 
They used to sell it on the Wiral near Liverpool. I used it mixed with methanol on a nitrous injected motor once, but it was such a pain in the **** to get hold off I gave up and went back to high octane petrol
 
Gutted there's no e85 around here. Hey had a pump in Cardiff a few years ago but I think it's gone. I can get an awesome E85 tune for mine :( Some monsters in the states :)
 
That's all we have. It sucks. The alcohol they put in has less energy than the gas it displaces, so your mileage and power levels go down. That's only the beginning of the problems though. Alcohol attacks aluminum! All aluminum, carbs, intakes, heads...you name it. Alcohol also has the nasty problem of being hydroscopic, meaning it likes to absorb water from all around it. We all know what water in fuel tank is good for.

Anything you can do to block E85, you should. It costs more to purchase also, because the alcohol is more expensive. That last fun fact, is because they are using FOOD to make the alcohol, your food costs, across the board, not just corn will go up. Ours did.

This was short sighted head in the sand approach to oil shortages. It was argued that is would hurt rather than help, but nobody listened. Now, it has done all the bad things it was foretold to bring, and we are thinking about getting rid of it and just eating the food instead.

What a concept.
 

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