Ethanol Petrol

Hi,

There's an United petrol station down my street which has been selling
ethanol petrol and claims its grade is 98 octane. I tried using it on the
Volvo 240. But it seems to make it sluggish. I was using BP Ultimax 98
octane for years and seems better.

Is it my imagination or is ethanol 98 octane not worth getting?

Cheers,

WW

 

Our 1983 240 GL (Canadian with the high compression aka hot-rod engine) loves
that 10% ethanol gasoline sold here in Canada by Mohawk/Husky. No sluggish
behaviour even though the engine has 400,000 km on it.

Maybe your engine is not broken in yet ;-)

 

What is the octane rating and whereabouts is the station?



Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

 

They claim that the octane rating is 98.

The fuel station is in Melbourne Australia- part of the United chain of
petrol stations. They all sell ethanol 98 petrol.

On TV, a group of experts claimed that ethanol petrol was just as good as
normal petrol. I really don't know what to believe.

 

I believe fuel in Australia is expressed in RON, not octane (which is
the RON + MON average). That is why the Australian rating is apparently
higher than US. In any event, using 98 RON (or even 95 RON) fuel in a
240 is a waste of money; the very slight increase in power is more than
offset by the cost of the fuel. If you really want better performance,
over-inflate your tyres.

 

Thanks but my question was to Ken because he mentioned Mohawk/Husky. I am
interested because I am in Canada. We have Sunoco which is sold in
selectable grades all the way to 94. It can contain up to 10% Ethanol.



Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

 

GAS that is Liquid Petrolium Gas ,is a higher octane than BP Ultimate or
Optimax but less powerful,its around 115 octane .You use more of it but its
cheaper .Ethanol is less volitile but cheaper .Check what the old Metholated
spirits is now made up from yes 99% pure ethanol suger cane by product .Its
hydrascopic which is good in small amounts but in lager amounts it will rot
your fuel seals 5% maximum is recommended unless the car is designed to run
on it .

 

I have not seen Mohawk stations east of the MB/ON border, but I have seen a
Husky station in Nipigon, ON.

Mohawk/Husky has at least 2 different blends of gasohol with the lowest octane
rating as 97. That is the one we use in the 240 GL. When we were in BC in 1992
and 1994 Mohawk blends had only 5$ ethanol while in the 3 "prairie" provinces it
was (and still is) 10%.

You might want to do a www.google.ca search for Canadian sites of Mohawk/Husky
stations.

Ken
Winnipeg

 

Hello Andrew,

Are you sure about that? All I know is that the Volvo manual says to use a
96+ Octane. But the Petrol stations state their rating in Octane not RON.

Only a few stations have 98 Octane.

As for over-inflating the tyres- what PSI should it be at 30 - 35 ?

 

Well, I've been more certain about other things, which is why I started
"I believe..." The manual for my '92 940 says minimum 91 octane,
recommended 95 octane. I've been running standard unleaded for years
with no knocking. The commonly available fuel grades in the USA are 87,
89 and 92, so I believe they *really* are octane and match our 91-92, 95
and 98 "octane" figures.

As far as tyre pressures are concerned, I'm no expert; my tyre seller
tells me to over-inflate compared to the owner's book, and I'll get much
longer life and better fuel economy. 31psi front, 39psi rear for full
load and towing is recommended by Volvo, and bump both up by another
4psi if you're on the highway (assuming you have standard wheels). If
you run the tyres at full load pressure when there's just you in the
car, all that happens is that you feel every bump; it doesn't hurt the
tyres.

 

its poor fuel and you use more of it Like auto gas LPG is about 115 octane
but doesnt deliver the calorific value Petrol does .Bp Ultimate seems to be
the choice or if you have too Shell Optimax .Did anyone notice Shell posted
record profits this year ??????

 

It's that bad?

Then why do we get better mileage with 95 octane (10% EtOH) cf ULP?

Seeing as the car doesn't ping on ULP or PULP, I don't see the point of
going higher than 95. Yes, we did trial it and found a minimal improvement
cf 95, but not worth the extra dosh. United (which is just up the road from
us) has PULP cheaper than ULP!

As to record profits, have you seen the price of copper?

Hammo