Gasahol Or Not? Any Up To Date Advice Pls?

[rayinkrabi]

Hi All, I realise this has been covered a lot in recent years, especialy on this forum, but after spending ages researching it again, my head is spinning with facts and I wonder if the same doubts / arguments still hold for a brand new motor?

my 2 week old Ford Fiesta states 'only unleaded fuel' plus ' E20 capable' on the filler cap..it's the word 'capable' that concerns me, if Ford are happy for it to be used with 20% ethanol then why not just state' use E20' ? (or is it because E20 isn't that widely available yet?) My second concern is this info below from Wikipedia..ok, I know Ford will say the engine isn't designed exclusively for gasoline so this info is not relevant but does this mean all the disadvantages listed can not and will not happen?

I value your opinions so any advice will be very welcome, particularly as the cost difference tween 91 and E20 is now over 11 baht / ltr. Cheers, Ray.

(p.s. I'm tempted to go with Katabeachbum's advice from Sept 2011 to use E10 for the time being till this is cleared up.)

'Disadvantages to ethanol fuel blends when used in engines designed exclusively for gasoline include lowered fuel mileage, metal corrosion, deterioration of plastic and rubber fuel system components, clogged fuel systems, fuel injectors, and carburetors, delamination of composite fuel tanks, varnish buildup on engine parts, damaged or destroyed internal engine components, water absorption, fuel phase separation, and shortened fuel storage life. Many major auto, marine, motorcycle, lawn equipment, generator, and other internal combustion engine manufacturers have issued warnings and precautions about the use of ethanol-blended gasolines of any type in their engines,^[ and the Federal Aviation Administration and major aviation engine manufacturers have prohibited the use of automotive gasolines blended with ethanol in light aircraft due to safety issues from fuel system and engine damage.' (thanks to Wikipedia..a great source of info)

[IMHO]

The Fiesta can be fuelled with E20, E10, Benzene 91 or Benzene 95. There's no problem using E20 because the fuel system (which is the first point of failure if running Ethanol in non-compat vehicles) has been designed for it and the ECU tuned for it.

Not that I'd use E20 in it - you'll get less performance and less fuel efficiency when using it - which probably answers your question "why don't they just say: use E20"...

Other cars in Thailand have no problems running E85, and there's millions of cars in Brazil that run all day on E100 - it's not a black art to make an engine and it's fuel system reliable on Ethanol/blends

[OMGImInPattaya]

There's been several recent threads in the moto forum re ethenol blend fuels recently (by me and others) with the information you seek. Why not use the search function and READ them.

[culicine]

The fiesta can used many fuels, as IMHO stated. Though the economy and does vary. Regular 91 really isn't worth it - far too expensive and the gain in performance / economy over E10 makes in not economically viable (for my honda, at least). I've used gasohol 91 in a 9 year old car for a number of years with no ill-effects. What you want to compare is gasohol 91 with E20. Check the economy and compare with the cost to see which is cheaper overall. Calculate the liters / 100 km and see what is cheaper. If you don't mind a slightly lower performance of E20 (I've never tried it as it's not recommended for my car), and it's cheaper overall, then use E20. If you wan't to maximise performance then maybe use gasohol 91. I found gasohol 95 degraded performance and economy in my honda. It was designed to run on 91 in the first place. I'm pretty sure you don't need gasohol 95; there wouldn't be any performance gain over gasohol 91

[rayinkrabi]

There's been several recent threads in the moto forum re ethenol blend fuels recently (by me and others) with the information you seek. Why not use the search function and READ them.

nicely put..(Not)..I have indeed read a lot of the info available as u say, but not all of it because there is soo much out there dating back many years and therefore outdated.

I also felt many of the comments were simply biased opinions not based on up to date facts. This is why I researched deeper and was concerned that some, such as Wikipedia, still talk about (what seem to me) serious disadvantages. I now put this down to extra caution (esp in the aviation world) on their part.

This is why I must thank IMHO and Culicine for their replies clearly based on personal knowledge and facts, hopefully this will also help other TV members with the same questions.

Btw, because of this I've decided to go along with the E10 Gasahol 91 advice as it's nearly 9 baht less per litre than 91 and a (near) 20% saving on fuel cost is not to be sneezed at. which is another reason I was after 'up to date' advice as much of what I read was from when there was little or no difference in the price of gasahol and benzine.