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Date:         Mon, 7 Nov 94 18:26:33 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dcarment@ccs.carleton.ca (David Carment)
Subject:      Re: Ethanol

Dave Kautz writes: > > > David Carment writes: > > > A Gas company up here in Ottawa has Ethanol blend at the same price as > > regular. I asked him if it was good for air cooled engines and his answer > > was it has 15% higher octane, runs cleaner and cooler. Any opinions, > > advice, experience with using ethonal blend for air-cooled Vanagon engines? > > > > BTW its 55 cents CDN per litre up here.....DC > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > There was an interesting article in _Porsche Panorama_ about oxygenated fuels > about a year ago. On vehicles with oxygen sensors, very little changes > except fuel mileage which drops (there's less heat available in Ethanol). On > vehicles without O2 Sensors, exhaust emissions were shown to drop along with > driveability and fuel economy. The air to fuel ratio for ethanol is different > than that for gasoline (numerically lower) so unless one can richen up their > mixture the engine effectively runs lean. > > There was also considerable discussion of the corrosive nature of the > oxygenators. Although not as bad as methanol, Ethanol is more corrosive > than gasoline. The article suggested using gasoline containing MTBE (Methyl > Tertiary Butyl Ether???) because it is less corrosive but I have not been > able to find a gas station employee yet who could tell me what their > company was using as an oxygenator. The article said that ethanol smells > sweet and MTBE smells like formaldehyde. I think all gasoline smells like > sh*t, so I haven't followed this up. > > > Dave Kautz > '74 Westfalia > sh*t. >

This is interesting and paradoxical, since we normally associate a leaner running engine with higher fuel economy. But if I understand you correctly, the engine will run leaner with Ethanol AND fuel consumption will also increase. Is this correct? This plus the potential corrosion could spell trouble, yes? DC --

---------------------------------------------------------------------- David Carment School of International Affairs Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6 voice - (613) 788-2600-6662 fax - (613) 788-2889 Email address: dcarment@ccs.carleton.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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