Unscientific E10 Experiment

[busheytrader]

A sunny Saturday morning and the usual competitive petrol stations were surrounded by heavy traffic. The tank was close to empty.

So. Off to the Esso station in Bushey Heath where only E10 was available for the bargain price of 161.9p a litre. In went 10 litres for my V8 morning fix. According to my ears, eyes and seat of my pants, I couldn’t tell the difference from E5. (I said it was unscientific) I even drove up Shenley Hill at 10mph in 4th gear and floored the accelerator to see if it would pink, it didn’t.

I diluted what was left with some E5 from Costco the next day at the same price. Esso wanted 174.9p for the privilege.

Has anyone else tried E5 in their wedge?

[Howard_B]

While the gauge was showing totally empty there was still more than a gallon left in the tank when I had to drain it (due to diesel contamination - don't ask!) so you were probably running on a hybrid E7.5 mix.

During the last Club Triumph Round Britain Run I filled up my 7V8 at least once with E10 without any noticeable issues, but prefer to use E5 to reduce the issues with hoses failing.

Cheers

Howard

[irco]

Unfortunately fuel these days is an unknown quantity.
By law E5 can have anything between zero & 5% ethanol and E10 must have at least 5% up to 10%. So we are at the mercy of the producers, some of whom reportedly don't put any ethanol in their E5.
I suppose it'll be down to the cost of ethanol. If cheaper to produce they'll put the maximum in but if raw petrol is cheaper they'll put in the minimum.

[FI Spyder]

I don't know that it's cheaper, ethanol is more expensive that gas (that may vary according to location) and it takes 1.5 liters of ethanol to equal 1 liter of gas. Any way you look at it, there is no advantage. Here is Canada you don't have much of a choice, most gas has 10% ethanol except for Shell premium and Co-op premium plus a few others, you'd have to look at your location the find what is available. It was a US thing to buy favour with the agricultural community (anything for votes) but never made any sense economically, functionally or any other way. It would be removed but for campaign contributions that would stop. The few advantages of ethanol are far outweighed by the disadvantages. I just use regular (10% ethanol) in my TR7 and don't worry about it (all rubber in contact has been replaced with modern rubber. It does go bad very quickly so I add stabilizer over the winter when it's not in use.

[irco]

If Ethanol is more expensive than petrol it kinda stands to reason companies will use the minimum required by legislation.
So if using E5 chances are it's 0% & E10 likely to be only 5%, thereby saving costs for petrol companies.
Personally I use premium E5 with Castrol valve master plus which contains an ethanol stabiliser + if car not in regular use i.e. through winter I try to ensure it gets at least a 10 mile run once a week to keep fresh fuel in lines & carbs.