ewalds

Hi guys and girls!

Just wondering ig anyone has experimented about running glowengines with ethanol, (carfuel), intead of taditional methanol??? (I hope you know what i mean)?
Have read some about it and it seems to go just fine...
Just wanted to listen if you had any excperiances of this?

/Mikael

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

In the USA, in most of the country, ethanol is available at the automotive fuel service stations as E85 which is 85% ethanol and the rest gasoline.

Castor oil tends to settle out over time

Ethanol does not promote the catalytic reaction with the platinum on the glow plug coil as well as methanol

It helps to run a hot plug.

Some people leave the heat on the plug

Ethanol doesn't make as much power as methanol

Bobhend

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks, you answered a lot of questions I've always had. Here in upstate NY E85 is supposedly sold somewhere in town. Our gasoline is supposed to have 10% max ethanol [except if it's E85] but some people suspect that this is exceeded at times and is never checked. We are fairly sure our Kwik Fill gasoline has no alcohol in it. This does not mean all Kwik Fill gas, just here. My two vans run better when I use it but I don't live close to one and it is not that much improvement for me.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

For people in the USA looking for E85 stations look here . . . .

http://e85vehicles.com/e85-stations.html

ewalds

W8ye: We got it in sweden to as E85 and the test i read, (different engines both 2 and 4-stroke), it was the same ammount of consumtion and the testman find the engines easyer to start with E85.. 12% synthetic oil and no nitro.. He thought that the 15% of gasoline in the E85 did make up for the powerloss in E85.. After 5 litres he dissambe a engine and no harm at all...
Could be worth trying, don´t you think??

/Mikael

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

What I would like to see is a web site where you could find stations that sold straight gasoline without the 10% ethanol. I personally do not have any use for ethanol in my car or model engines.

E85 is a Joke around here. It cost 10% less than gasoline but to run it in your E85 car, you get 20% less mileage

There is only one station in the county of over 100,000 pop that sells E85 here.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Some E85 automobiles ihave two gas tanks. There is a small gasoline tank in the engine compartment used for starting the engine then it switches over to the main tank to run the E85.

Some people in the USA run spark ignition on their E85 powered model engines.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

No vehicles that I'm aware need 2 tanks. Here's some "clear" gas stations, not many. http://pure-gas.org/

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Link doesn't come up?

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

<hr /><address>Apache/2.2.15 (Fedora) Server at pure-gas.org Port 80</address>

guver

My Feedback: (325)

I got the site to come up, but it must be having trouble (it was very very slow)

Although I can't verify any of the info I have been to the site many times. Come to think this site and many others have been slow for me today.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

It comes up now.

There are only nine stations listed in the state of Ohio and none in my county with the closest station being 22 mi away

guver

My Feedback: (325)

There were none listed in my county either. A couple of years ago the whole state of Ohio (even southern and s.eastern) mandated ethanol. Previous to that it was just around some major cities (many NE Ohio and columbus, ect)

It also used to depend on brand and location, but I think that it makes no difference any more. The website sure isn't an exhaustive list by any means.

balsaeater

I ran my Susiki Swift 1998 version 1000cc three cyclinder car on E85 pure and mixxes of it with ratios from 10% to 100% mixxed with e5 fuels (normal gasolines ) for 20,000 miles
I did no modifications to the engine
It would run but a bit soggy if with 100% E85 or near 100% such as 90% E85 and 10% E5 mixxes

on 50/50 mixxes there was much more power than standard gasoline which has 5% gasoline but milage could drop ~5%

on 70% E85 there was the most power but milage could drop ~10%

As this car wasnt made as a flex fuel car it was tuned to run best on standard gasoline . To run correctlyon E85 would require advancing the ignition ,increasing the fuel flow by ~30% at the jets in the carb and using a hotter spark plug .However once the engine is set to run on E85 the engine could be at severe risk to run on Gasoline as the advanced ignition could cause ping (predetionation ) and melt the pistons
Using E85 in the car meant to run on gasoline usualy means the fuel isnt used so well so drop in MPG will often result and the engine may not run on 100% E85 as the engine is fuel staved or be prone to quiting on idle

The Ethanol fuel has some 30% oxegen in the fuel molicule which is a more simple carbon ring molicule compared to gasolines .
This extra oxegen can give ~30% more power but oiften requires ~30% more fuel (nothing for nothing )
Low compression gasoline engines with compression rations ~8:1 cant harness the extra power Ethanol fuels give as Ethanol requires compression ratios more like ~11:1 and higher to get the power from that fuel
Flex fuel car will alway be made to run low compression to run best on gasoline but will run on E85 or mixxes there of buy using computers to sort the engine out .The computer will open the injectors for 30~ longer if the fuel is E85 and advance the ignition to suit the fuel mix .That is done using the oxegen sensor . Too much oxegen detected in exhast fumes says to computer the fuel is high oxegen type Ethanol adjust until there is very low oxegen detected

hope that help

balsaeater

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Your findings are nearly identical to mine. I ran from 98% to 10% , but not nearly as many miles as you. five stars for your post.

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

Try your marinas, airports, and race gas suppliers. I thought virtually all states are required to sell E10 gasoline as of this year, but I've not looked up the law.

I liked E85 in my FS-52 on spark, but I think it needs more than the 8% oil I was using. The engine was trashed in the crash. I'm going to run an FSa-81 with spark as soon as I can get a new ignition. My main concern with E85 is corrosion. When I was running Castor in E85 I had no problems with it settling out. I have a partial jug from two years ago. It could settle if there was water absorbed into the fuel.

E85 was about 500 RPM down from methanol, which was probably 4-500 RPM less than 15% nitromethane on glow. I never did try increasing compression ratio for more power. I had more than enough power as it was for an Avistar 40. I've also been playing with gasoline in the small four strokes on the bench. it's rather nice but the needles get touchy and it stinks. Maybe I'm just used to kerosene from model diesels, but gasoline smells awful.

Greg

ewalds

It seems like you got some touble get E85 "over there"?? No problem here, though..
Almost all stations supply E85 so i´m gonna try a mix next week for some flying with a Saito 56..

Greg: Corrosion seems to be a common problem even with methanol but i think it has to do, as you say, with the oil and ammount of nitro??
I have no scientific evidence for this, just my own personal appointment.I have several engines, about 10 years old and there are no sign of corrosion in any of them.. I run 15% aerosynth and 5% nitro.

Seemsto besome interest of this so i´ll be back with the result after the test. So E85 and 15% aerosynth, no nitro i will try..

/Mikael

cajun1

In areas where there are no speed shops or other obvious places to purchase Methanol, where are the likely places to purchase it and/or is it packaged and labeled for other uses other than Heet.

Am I correct is assuming that denatured alcohol is ethanol.

Sport_Pilot

That site is full of errors. The only one near me is a fuel distributer not a fuel station. Sure they may have pure gas not yet mixed with ethanol, but will they sell it? Another one is just flat out wrong, the pump clearly says it has up to 10% ethanol.

TimBle

Denatured alcohol is any alcohol that has been intentionally contaminated with a Denaturant such as petrol/gasoline in order to ensure it is not fit for use as drinking alcohol and attract the taxes associated with that. Denatured alcohols tned to end up in the gasoline (E10) or as solventss, degreasersand similar products.

Sport_Pilot

If you look at the MSDS sheets the compositions vary widely.  Many are mostly ethanol with about 4% methanal and maybe acetone, MEK, kerosene.  Some may be mostly methanol and some ethanol.  I suspect those that have unusual proportions may be intended to be used with the companies other products and intended to be used as thinners, reducers, or clean up for their products.

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/E2012.htm

http://www.bing.com/search?q=MSDS+de...c=IE-SearchBox

balsaeater

Its pretty difficult to ever get hold of 100% ethanol. Its property to soak up water makes it to tricky to sell as a fuel as once it goes into a fuel tank there exists issues from water vapour contacting the fuel. Therefore even in Brazil a country where they run cars on E100 its really 99% ethanol and 1% toulene.Toulene is similar to paint stripper and make the Ethanol poison to drink .The toulene forms a scum on the surface of the Ethanol which reduces the abilty of the Ethanol to soak up waterfrom the humid air .

Its hoot to listen to the ethanol stories on the net one where a ethanol run truck short on fuel to get home. He stops to ask a guy with a water hose and puts water into the tank.He the drives off and gets home stretching the fuel further than normal.Once the engine is hot and rnning the engine can run with water in the fuel but it probaly wont start once the engine gets cold from the water in the fuel

Balsaeater