BIO ethanol???

[toomanytoys]

ANyone got some links to bio ethanol? Top gear got me thinking... my carb engined bus' would be well suited to running on it.. and I am sure I could rent a god bit of land for the crop... would save me a lot of hassle with the LPG situation.. (you dont know how easy you have it in the UK!! )

[T'Onion]

ok Si wot up with the lpg in france ?

[toomanytoys]

Not as cheap as UK....
and to get it converted cost a lot more and I cant do it..
They were on about harmonising the french system so that a conversion in any other country that meet "XYZ" would be accepted in France, but at the mo it hasnt happened... The 1 year old LPG kit that was fiitted to my Syncro wasnt allowed so had to be removed.. and the system I did on my velle wont either... even though it is installed bette tthan most conversions I have seen and meets the spec...

French red tape.... its great

[trundletruc]

I too would like to know how to tune an engine to run on bioethelene. I spent quite a time looking on the net but found nothing. Perhaps a direct approach to Saab or Ford might help as they seem to be the only manufacturers taking this line of development.

I would imagine that because the octane rating is higher than normal petrol there would be no need to retard the DJ engines. According to some of the information bioethelene is already added to petrol in the South East. Could it be that because our engines are fairly basic there will not be any Lamda sensors etc. to get confused?

Anybody got any ideas?

Trundletruc.

[Other-Power]

Hey,

I have been reading up into this for some course work at collage. but im sure most of the supermarket fuel has a little bio ethanol in it as, they get the fuel cheap cause its older and so has had time to degrade a little, so they add bio ethanol to up the octane rating i have heard 5-6%. I dont know about anybody else, but my beetle 1600twin port ran luvly on cheap Tesco fuel but ran crap on shell standard. So yes the flat 4's with lower compression would be able to run it, and in theroy any engine with an anti knock sensor??

my thoughts any way

[trundletruc]

Thanks "Other Fuel" for replying I'm sure Tesco put bioethelene into their petrol and I don't think it was the reason for their problems last month!

What we need is someone who is an engine development engineer at Ford or Saab. Then they could tell us what needs to be done mechanically and electrically to allow us to use the fuel in other boxer engines. Also what the problems are - overheating? burning out valves?
When I get a bit of time I'll do some searching.

Have any of the practical motoring magazines covered it?

Trundletruc.

[toomanytoys]

Just my thoughts too really, + with me living in a rural area I should be able to either buy the required "fuel" to refine, or even grow it myself...

So I am looking into a still!!! for road use only of course

I may see if I can grow sugar cane, anyone know where I can get seeds from?

Tesco fuel does indeed contain ethanol, but only in the 10-15% range.. the 99 octane stuff really makes my old AUdi fly.. so its CIS injection must really cope with that also..

Like your thoughts, we have "basic" engines and simple carbs/Fi, so there shouldnt be too much to adjust.. prob as simple as bigger jets (carbs) and higher fuel pressure (Fi) to get the extra volumes in..
They have been running on bioethanol in Brazil for years...

[amulet]

I'm pretty sure that Morrisons are the only commercial outlet supplying Bio-Ethanol at the moment - could be wrong but I believe they are piloting the scheme in Norwich amognst other locations in the east...

check out http://www.saabbiopower.co.uk/

andrew

[toomanytoys]

Tesco's 99 unleaded has 15% ethanol in it too.. but the E85 is a different kettle of fish.. our oldr vehicles should be able to run it with quite simple mods...