Just posted this in another thread. Observations on fuel, additives etc
Back in 2000 I bought a focus turbo diesel. My commute was 60 miles each way, mainly M4 in West Wales, Llanelli to Cardiff. A no-brainer at that mileage. I experimented with Miller diesel octane boost. From memory. £12 a bottle for multi dosing. Car ran fine, no noticable power increase ( I couldn’t feel on3).. When on bottle 2 I started mpg checks as bottle 1 primed the system. My mpg increased. I converted it to money value. Bottle cost £12, fuel saved over the period of bottle use £36. Net saving £24. The time per bottle was 2-3 months ( can’t remember which. A decent saving. A mate tried it in his car but no difference found. It was a Golf diesel so, in hindsight perhaps not a good comparison!
Plus 8 observations next. I had occasional MIL light come on. Fault was “ random intermittent misfire”. Car was running well with no discernible misfire. GEMS system and it does a stats check and requires a triggering for a fault at a predetermined detection level. I checked everything plygs, leads, connections, new filter ) but it still occasinally popped up. Fuel was not getting stale due to regular use. I tried V-Piwer. Bingo! No fault codes. I reverted to 95 octane and they restarted. So 97 it is as much as possible with 95 as a back up.
MOT history for the Plus8 showed lambda results just coming in ok towards top limit from previous owner historic files. Never had a fail since I owned the car. Last Nov MOT with V-Power with 5% ethanol gave the lowest lambda reading I have noted. Ethanol effect?
My next obs will be with Esso zero ethanol if I can get it easily. V-Power pre MOT though, you never know!
I have looked for data about ethanol effect on lambda in emissions tests but not found a good reliable source yet.
My car is ok engine wise for E10 according to the info given. However, the non engine parts MAY not be. Fuel lines, pump seals etc.
When I had my 1993 4/4 I replaced a failed fuel pump so changed flexi fuel lines at the same time due to their age but looking ok so just precautionary, and added a filter to protect the new pump. I can’t remember the actual spec of the rubber pipes though as it was back in 2014.
Last edited by sospan; 05/03/22 11:26 AM.
