E10 fuel coming in possible damage to our cars

[Jeff Turbo]

Should we be worried about E10 fuel being introduced later this year to replace E5? The new E10 petrol will have far more bioethanol than the existing E5. My 1965 Zodiac already is starting to have problems with more modern fuel in that it caused the plastic float to expand when warm and that stopped the flow so the car wouldn't run. After milling out the float chamber all is now ok but a lot of Maestros and Montegos are carb based so this could affect them in later life. There is a possibility that this is also the problem on my sons MG Montego Turbo as the fuel is getting into the carb but no further. All 1.3/1.6/2.0 non injection and petrol turbo Maestro/Montego cars run via a carb and after reading various reports about the 'new' E10 coming in there is a worry about the fuel systems. Blocked filters, damaged fuel lines, fuel pumps and damaged carbs could become the norm soon very quickly, that's in addition to a car not being converted to run on unleaded yet.
So what do you think ?

[Andy]

I don’t know much about this but have heard about it. Does this change effect all ron on fuels or just the basic lower ron fuel? I use V Power on all three of my cars and every car I have had for a good 12 years or so. Its excellent fuel. The BMW and especially the Subaru are heavily modified performance wise and when going for an engine map on any cars I have had the mappers the first question is always are you using V Power? Fuel choice makes a massive difference to how a car will run, especial a highly strung one. My concern here is not only for the MG but will I have to get my other cars remapped again probably reducing the power.

[Jeff Turbo]

I don’t know much about this but have heard about it. Does this change effect all ron on fuels or just the basic lower ron fuel? I use V Power on all three of my cars and every car I have had for a good 12 years or so. Its excellent fuel. The BMW and especially the Subaru are heavily modified performance wise and when going for an engine map on any cars I have had the mappers the first question is always are you using V Power? Fuel choice makes a massive difference to how a car will run, especial a highly strung one. My concern here is not only for the MG but will I have to get my other cars remapped again probably reducing the power.

Its the E5 which is the lower grade unleaded so no idea if V power is going to be affected on it's it's distribution or usage atm, as its a higher octane I don't know if thats going to be phased out

[zephyr]

From what i read in the classic press "up to" E5 petrol will remain available but in the higher grade at the larger forecourts. In other words E10 will replace the current E5 which will move to a higher octane. Not good news if you read the Esso link (below) as a lot of Esso's higher grade petrol doesn't have ethanol in it at the moment! Doesn't apply to (Devon, Cornwall, Teeside, Scotland and NW England) though.
For my Montegos, both the EFI and carb variety, i've tried to stick to Esso Synergy Supreme 97 and/or 99 as it doesn't contain ethanol; as mentioned above there are geographic restrictions on the availability; see this https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels-faqs. Scroll down to "What is the ethanol content of your fuels". I know; its an information minefield..... make of it what you will and double check your own cars requirements. This is a good article, as far as it goes, sumarising the current situation. https://fbhvc.co.uk/fuels Enjoy.

[Jeff Turbo]

From what i read in the classic press "up to" E5 petrol will remain available but in the higher grade at the larger forecourts. In other words E10 will replace the current E5 which will move to a higher octane. Not good news if you read the Esso link (below) as a lot of Esso's higher grade petrol doesn't have ethanol in it at the moment! Doesn't apply to (Devon, Cornwall, Teeside, Scotland and NW England) though.
For my Montegos, both the EFI and carb variety, i've tried to stick to Esso Synergy Supreme 97 and/or 99 as it doesn't contain ethanol; as mentioned above there are geographic restrictions on the availability; see this https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels-faqs. Scroll down to "What is the ethanol content of your fuels". I know; its an information minefield..... make of it what you will and double check your own cars requirements. This is a good article, as far as it goes, sumarising the current situation. https://fbhvc.co.uk/fuels Enjoy.

Interesting read that Arthur

[Andy]

From what i read in the classic press "up to" E5 petrol will remain available but in the higher grade at the larger forecourts. In other words E10 will replace the current E5 which will move to a higher octane. Not good news if you read the Esso link (below) as a lot of Esso's higher grade petrol doesn't have ethanol in it at the moment! Doesn't apply to (Devon, Cornwall, Teeside, Scotland and NW England) though.
For my Montegos, both the EFI and carb variety, i've tried to stick to Esso Synergy Supreme 97 and/or 99 as it doesn't contain ethanol; as mentioned above there are geographic restrictions on the availability; see this https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels-faqs. Scroll down to "What is the ethanol content of your fuels". I know; its an information minefield..... make of it what you will and double check your own cars requirements. This is a good article, as far as it goes, sumarising the current situation. https://fbhvc.co.uk/fuels Enjoy.

Thanks for clearing that up. After a quick google https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/1...ches-september It does seem 99 ron is excluded from this change which is great as it will make no difference to me. Hopefully this will be forever and not to be messed with a few years down the line. I have been running my maestro turbo on V Power since I got it in August 2012 with no problems so if you have any worriers when the supermarket crap changes just use V Power. You might even noticed a bit better performance

[zephyr]

Ethanol became an issue some time ago with the zephyrs/zodiacs, many suffering vapourisation in the engine bay fuel lines and associated fittings e.g carbs. I found using the higher grade Esso virtually removed this issue. I did go through a phase of using "Tetraboost E-Guard" in the Z's which both increased the octane of the petrol, replaced the lead (as in leaded petrol) and protected against the effects of Ethanol but as the opportunity presented itself the exhaust valves were converted to unleaded. I've also had the 1987 1.6 carb Montego "done" for unleaded so all 4 are now ok with unleaded. Remains to be seen how Esso proceed with the high octane E5. Reading between the lines E5 can be anything between 0% and 5% ethanol?

[Jeff Turbo]

Ethanol became an issue some time ago with the zephyrs/zodiacs, many suffering vapourisation in the engine bay fuel lines and associated fittings e.g carbs. I found using the higher grade Esso virtually removed this issue. I did go through a phase of using "Tetraboost E-Guard" in the Z's which both increased the octane of the petrol, replaced the lead (as in leaded petrol) and protected against the effects of Ethanol but as the opportunity presented itself the exhaust valves were converted to unleaded. I've also had the 1987 1.6 carb Montego "done" for unleaded so all 4 are now ok with unleaded. Remains to be seen how Esso proceed with the high octane E5. Reading between the lines E5 can be anything between 0% and 5% ethanol?

Will have to start using the higher grade of petrol in my Consul and zodiac from now as don't want this problem to re-appear.

[zephyr]

Thanks for your comments Andy and Jeff. Another foible of E10 legislation; it seems the Scottish Highlands and Islands will keep E5 as the default supply of petrol.

[Chris EFi]

I’ve been using vpower in my ZS for a few years now. It costs a little more per tank but seems to last a little longer. I use Costco’s cheapest in my MG3 as more expensive fuel didn’t seem to make any difference. If I can find some E5 petrol stations in Sheffield I’ll use them for the turbo.

[Jeff Turbo]

I’ve been using vpower in my ZS for a few years now. It costs a little more per tank but seems to last a little longer. I use Costco’s cheapest in my MG3 as more expensive fuel didn’t seem to make any difference. If I can find some E5 petrol stations in Sheffield I’ll use them for the turbo.

You should ideally put v power in the Turbo Chris

[Chris EFi]

You should ideally put v power in the Turbo Chris

Ahh no worry’s then as there’s a shell garage not too far from mine that I use for the v6