Thread: NSW & Vic Petrol

Just to clear up a few points as I Understand them.
Regarding NSW laws.
The legislation calls for an overall percentage of ethanol in fuel from a distributor. Shell seems to have complied with this law by not offering Unleaded 91 widely in the Sydney metro area.

At the central Coast where I live, Shell has just recently ADDED Unleaded 91 bowsers at Erina and Terrigal in addition to existing E10 pumps. In addition 91 has always been available at Kincumber.

AFAIK Unleaded 91 has no methanol, and this is born out by the superior fuel economy I get when using it.

You can get unleaded 91 at the BP at Pennant Hills near Bunnings also, or the 7/11 on Pennant Hills Road near the turnoff to Casle Hill Rd.

So different distributors satisfy the law in different ways.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by numpty

And as such I will continue to NOT use Ethanol blended fuels in my older engines.

This includes my 2003 Mazda 323 as it is not recommended.
..........

.

I have no argument with your decision, but I find it astonishing that in 2003, a company like Mazda was producing an engine that was not (or might not) have been suitable for E10.

Perhaps someone who believes that a single tank of E10 has the potential to do all sorts of nasty things to your vehicle can explain how for decades people got away with adding a bottle of metho to the fuel tank.

It used to be quite a common practice to pour a bottle of metho into a petrol tank if there seemed to be a problem with water in the fuel.

A lot of people did it, yet I never heard any stories of fuel systems giving up the ghost as a result of that practice.

My understanding is that metho is 95% ethyl alcohol and 5% methyl alcohol and that the methyl alcohol is there to give the metho a bitter taste to stop people drinking it.

A lot of people over fifty years ago used to add what was essentially ethanol to vehicles a lot older than Series Land Rovers. Why did it not cause problems?

Originally Posted by vnx205

......
My understanding is that metho is 95% ethyl alcohol and 5% methyl alcohol and that the methyl alcohol is there to give the metho a bitter taste to stop people drinking it.
......

Actually, my understanding is that these days methanol is not added to "methylated spirits", because it is very poisonous, and people do drink it in spite of the taste. Instead, today it has a 'denaturing agent', usually pyridine, I believe in this country.

John

Originally Posted by Cannon

So which fuel do you use?

The servos I usually use have both E10 unleaded 91 and unleaded 91, which I presume by it's designation has no ethanol. I use this in the S1.

Mazda do not recommend E10 unleaded in my particular model, according to the list of vehicles considered incompatible, so I use 91 in that also and return close to 7 litres per hundred k's with it.

Mazda could be erring on the side of caution as e10 or ethanol blends can and do have a detrimental effect on rubber components in the feul system unless designed for it. In addition the feul tanks need tobe able tohandle it as ethanol causes rusting in metal tanks. I know, I had to replace a few tanks on my honda pumping engines! :/

Originally Posted by schuy1

Mazda could be erring on the side of caution as e10 or ethanol blends can and do have a detrimental effect on rubber components in the feul system unless designed for it. In addition the feul tanks need tobe able tohandle it as ethanol causes rusting in metal tanks. I know, I had to replace a few tanks on my honda pumping engines! :/

Exactly. And that is why I err on the side of caution too, until such time as there is no choice.

Originally Posted by vnx205

Perhaps someone who believes that a single tank of E10 has the potential to do all sorts of nasty things to your vehicle can explain how for decades people got away with adding a bottle of metho to the fuel tank.

I think the problem is when the 'single tank of E10' is part used and left for months till the next time the vehicle is used.
When people were putting metho in tanks the vehicle was probably used regularly so the ethanol (metho) was soon gone.

Most of the problems are not from regular use but storage of ethanol blends for long periods. Hence ethanol blends are not recommended for fire fighting equipment and anything used infrequently.

Colin