E10 Biofuel content in petrol

[Geoff Ashcroft]

Anyone know if TVR engines will cope with the increased level of biofuel content that's coming to petrol in the next few years? There's a news story on PH front page and a list of cars that are affected, but obviously, there's no info for Tivs. Perhaps Dom or someone with suitable knowledge of components can clarify what it means?

[350Matt]

those long rubber fuel pipes on wedges and the litel short bits on later cars and the plastic components of the injectors will be attacked by the ethanol content

in essence you may need to replace fuel injectors and flexible rubber hoses with E10 compatible stuff

[jcpgasoline]

Geoff Ashcroft said:

Anyone know if TVR engines will cope with the increased level of biofuel content that's coming to petrol in the next few years? There's a news story on PH front page and a list of cars that are affected, but obviously, there's no info for Tivs. Perhaps Dom or someone with suitable knowledge of components can clarify what it means?

Well, if you're buying the higher octane (99RON) fuels supplied by Tesco & Shell you are probably already running around 5.0-6.5% Alcohol (<5% Ethanol & <1.5% Methanol).

This should not pose a problem for vehicles with lambda sensors and ECUs because the fuel/air mixture can be made richer to compensate for the oxygen contained in the alcohols.

Older vehicles without lambdas and ecu's will probably run lean if they're not tuned for fuels with higher alcohol contents.

I think the other issue to consider for older vehicles in particular is that Ethanol is a good solvent which could cause problems with parts that are sensitive to ethanol, in particular those parts exposed to the Ethanol that are made of some types of rubbers, plastics and resins.

[NTEL]

I used to use 100+ octane Sunoco race fuel (with a high oxygen content) in my old race Tasmin. Was very surprised to find how quickly the fuel lines perished and started to leak. Probably within 6 months. Had to change them all with posh stuff but didn't have another problem after that.

[RedSpike66]

Dave
What's this posh stuff you're referring to as regards hoses etc. ???

[jcpgasoline]

NTEL said:

I used to use 100+ octane Sunoco race fuel (with a high oxygen content) in my old race Tasmin. Was very surprised to find how quickly the fuel lines perished and started to leak. Probably within 6 months. Had to change them all with posh stuff but didn't have another problem after that.

Silicon hoses?

[NTEL]

RedSpike66 said:

Dave
What's this posh stuff you're referring to as regards hoses etc. ???

Not 100% sure of the construction Mike. Ian at TvR sorted them out for me. I think they were PTFE lined but don't quote me on that.

[bsdnazz]

The list of compatible engines in the article say that LandRover engines in model year 1996 and later are compatible.

To me this suggests the V8 engines are OK but as others mention the fuel lines might have issues.

[jimed]

Interesting re the LR engines after 1996 but did that also apply to TVR engines and did it incl the injectors on them? Maybe Dom can shed some light on this?
Jim