Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Ethanol in petrol

As I posted in the earlier E10 thread, I found that Texaco Super Unleaded in Devon has for the time being, no ethanol: at least at the Bovey Tracy filling station. Looks like all owners of early cars will/might have problems with various seals and all owners will have to consider winter layup procedures: chain saws, lawnmowers also run foul of the water content issue when ethanol lies in the fuel. It'd easy to test your local filling stations with a spare can you fill up when you are there: instructions abound on uTube.
Ethanol is here to stay so.. we just have to deal with it: I suspect it will be back to normal 15 years from now when the EU politicians wake up to the fact that land should be used to grow food, not fuel.
Oliver S.

Interestingly the plastic fuel tank on my rotary mower failed over winter & the seal on fule tap also perished.

At the time I thought bad luck but now I am not so sure.

I did find this on the web. Not sure if it works though
http://www.frost.co.uk/ethomix-additive.html

The FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) have tested it and think so, see here.

Great resource as ever Martym - thanks.

For motorcycles ever since unleaded fuel came in it has been necessary to change the older fuel tubes, seals, and taps for items resistant to the additives used in unleaded fuel. I hope the same items are also restent to ethanol. We had to change a lot of fuel caps too because the plastic used in them expanded and made them difficult to remove from the tank. There are now better clear plastic tubes too. Some of the older tubes get brittle and cracked easily.

Some external oil lines were not resistant to modern oils and have had to be changed too.

I would think it would be a good idea to ask MMC where their vehicles stand on this problem. It would certainly help owners of all years to understand the problem and what action they have to take to avoid unnecessary and expensive changes to their vehicles. I suspect the main motor manufactures already know and have taken technical decisions for complying with E10 and possibly E15.

Perhaps I am a cynic but I am not so sure about MMC.

Neil

Unfortunately the more I read about Ethanol in petrol (especially from USA who got it way before us) the more bewildering it becomes. It is a can of worms, at the moment I have decided that the only course of action I can take is to change the chip in Rosie to increase the fuel mixture so it is no longer lean as is the tendency with the standard chip in mine, as Ethanol will lean the mix even further and cause excessive burn temperatures that the ECU is unable to detect. In Devon the only Petrol suppliers that have no Ethanol in are Texaco and Total for their Super Unleaded so when possible I will fill up with that , but I think this will be short lived as 1st Jan 2014 E5 is supposed to become the norm, so the other remedial action will be to add an Ethanol Stabiliser additive to the Petrol at fill up to try and stop the water absorption and ethanol from petrol separation that results and if this occurs then the real internal damage can occur to components. I still am undecided as to how to deal with 3-4 month lay up or more over the winter, as shelf life of Petrol with Ethanol in sealed tank is 90 days, in vented tank 30 days, the additive should help extend this but to what extent I am unsure. A Shell reply to a Classic car owner in USA suggested he considered keeping the car full and turning over the fuel in the tank every 2-3 months, this implies doing 100 mile a month through the winter so to allow re-filling with fresh fuel. Finally what ever you decide to do purchasing anything less that Super Unleaded (97) Octane which is E5 is not an option in older cars, without further expense. What is worse is that a report I read intimated that the objective was to reach an Ethanol/Petrol mix 40/60 by 2028 which would be disastrous for engines designed to run on petrol originally. Ignoring the issues of engine impact, the car would have to have anything that comes into contact with fuel refitted with aircraft standard tanks, lines and seals and so on. I dread to think what the implications will be to the engine in relation to the increase burn temperatures.

In the short term I shall use Ethomix Additive and wait to see what happens in the next few months. The MX5 is most at risk but hopefully the Roadster is a little better protected. Fortunately, I don't do a great mileage in a year and therefore using the additive should not add too much to the overall cost.

Just got the answer for the long term. I'll find a small block chevy engine built to run on Methanol in a funny santa pod car and squeeze it into the Morgan and run it on Ethanol, the engine should last forever then, and it will mate to the gearbox with the conversion plate.