ethanol in uk petrol?? best fuel brand??

[Eta-Beta]

Ok , van started a backfire, took his fuel pump off and found it kind of full of black jelly silicon type goo. Now doing a bit of search on the net, kind of takes me to usa site, but found that ethanol is being added to petrol to some degree without us knowing, maybe up to 10% as instructed by the government. Also mentioned is that this ethanol being added is very bad for older cars 10 years +,as it rots rubber seals and inside of fuel pipes. Also if a vehicle as been stood without running for a period of time ,this ethanol can turn to jelly and clog up the system. so wonder if this is the case. anybody know if uk petrol contains this ethanol,, somebody mentions that shell petrol does not,,, and supermarket fuel is "pooh",, Any info on this appreciated and may help us to avoid clogging up our sytems

[big red bus]

Had this happen last year on my golf that had been standing for a while. Knackered both pumps and had to remove tank etc. Fuel had turned jeelyfied almost like vaseline. I put it down to just standing. Guess the only answer I can give is not to leave vehicle standing or unrun for a long period of time. Not much help I guess but hey

[langb20]

Ethanol is indeed making its way into petrol and is driven by government legislation (because green = £££, afterall it's not about chopping down rainforest to grow sugar/corn to turn into biofuel is it?? )
Refiners have to meet a certain percentage 'bio-fuel' % in finished product - be it in diesel or petrol
depending on production/availability etc. each refiner may choose to use ethanol in petrol or bio-diesel, most of the brands in the US state 'E10' at the petrol pump (10% ethanol) not sure if here in the UK they are required to state the actual biofuel content yet, but you can bet that cross-contamination from tankers is happening all the time, especially at supermarkets because they are more likely to be buying fuels from different sources
you are right that supermarket fuel is 'pooh' - the reason it is so cheap is because they minimise the additives that go into it - the kind of stuff that shell/bp/texaco put in theirs, all designed to help lubricity and reduce carbon build-up etc. so you save money each fill-up but long-term you'll need more car maintenance/cleaning... you pays your money and takes your chances

[eatcustard]

Petrol has to meet standards

Supermarket fuel is the same as the main brands, where do you think they get there fuel from?

[toomanytoys]

IIRC, all UK petrol has 5% ethanol in it.. (except maybe the leaded stuff which isnt widely available any more) and the move is towards 10%..

Its been in there for several years now..

Tesco's 99 "momentum" I am led to believe has more ethanol in it (10% I was told).. My old Audi 100 2.2 loved that stuff...

Ethanol has a slightly lower calorific value so doesnt productthe same power on an engine made for "normal" petrol, but it has a higher resistance to knock (pinking) so on turbo's and high compression engines, it works very well.. thats why the Saab biofule cars make more power on e85 (85% ethanol) than on petrol...

Ethanol absorbs water too, so that doesnt help with vehicles stood a lot as condensation will biuld up.. the ethanol likes to "leach" the elastomers etc from older type rubbers, but if your fuel hoses are 10 years + old, then its prob a good idea to replace them with some nice new quality stuff... It also will clean off any deposits that have biult up in the tank and fule lines.. (just the same as Bio diesel does also)

Surprised its shown up on yours now though Ash..

[Eta-Beta]

yes its really weird,,,,, a couple of things maybe its from my old tank,,,which i was changed in 2006 for a new one,and was just hanging around inside,, or another thing it maybe but not sure, is that the 2.1 engine you had off me,, when i reasembled it, i used blue hylomar everywhere, on the throttle body, on the manifolds,, also used the gasket stuff that was supplied with the decoke kit,, if thISE stuff as oozed out somewhere on reasembly of parts could this have worked its way around the sytem?? also reasembled certain parts of scoobie with it too, like manifold to block. could it be this that ive found?

[langb20]

Petrol has to meet standards

Supermarket fuel is the same as the main brands, where do you think they get there fuel from?

of course there are standards to be met on fuels - density, sulphur (<10ppm), smoke point, cetane, octane ~95, RVP, - and refiners do meet those as a minimum - which is what supermarkets buy, basic run-of-the-mill meets the miniumum requirements fuels, it's just the cheaper fuels from supermarkets don't add things like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techron which are engineered to improve the running of your engine - BP call theirs ultimate, shell v-power etc. they are all extra bits of polyetheramines that add those extra few pence to a litre probably not from a cost of production point of view but more a patent ownership since research costs a lot.

as fuels technology has developed, so too have the rubber/plastic hoses I can only imagine, best to replace where possible

[eatcustard]

And the RAC (I think) showed it made no difference to an engine, be fuel economy, performance or engine longevity.

[toomanytoys]

yes its really weird,,,,, a couple of things maybe its from my old tank,,,which i was changed in 2006 for a new one,and was just hanging around inside,, or another thing it maybe but not sure, is that the 2.1 engine you had off me,, when i reasembled it, i used blue hylomar everywhere, on the throttle body, on the manifolds,, also used the gasket stuff that was supplied with the decoke kit,, if thISE stuff as oozed out somewhere on reasembly of parts could this have worked its way around the sytem?? also reasembled certain parts of scoobie with it too, like manifold to block. could it be this that ive found?

Quite possibly, blue hoylomar isnt very petrol resistant from my experiance and usually isnt needed on anything with nice flat face and gasket... there is such a thing as going over the top....

By the way still havent been able to free up the pulley off that engine for Neil.. going to have to make a tool to hold the pulley as I am in fear of either twisting the crank (yeah, sounds mad doesnt it) or realisticaly breaking the flywheel end of the case with the flywheel locking tool.... what on earth did you put on the pulley bolt??? they never come undone at the correct torque without stud lock.....

Oh and the red stuff was everywhere in the head....

Less is more when it comes to gasket goo...

[Eta-Beta]

you will struggle with that pulley,, used lots of loctite and a home made tool my friend had made, didnt want it working loose now. have fun. there a lot of money those 3 ring pulleys,leave it on. The head was slightly pitted, so i gave it a good coating , and a bit xtra for good luck ,

[toomanytoys]

Oh bugger... it might have to stay on then.. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find the one I thought I had and give to Neil..

red stuff was in the top of cyls though... really need to get it together asap.. bloomin time is the limiting factor....