Effanol? Be aware.

Interestingly there has just been a service bulletin marked 'For Asia Importer Markets' put up on the Service Motoguzzi site applying to all Piaggio brands stating that under no circumstances should petrol with a higher ethanol content than 10% be used in any vehicle as it can cause "Serious Damage" which cannot be linked to a product defect. Basically what they are doing is giving themselves a 'Get out of gaol free' card for E10+ fuel.

Be warned.

Pete

Are they going to stop selling bikes in any area with a higher than 10% content? It almost sounds like they should have used a little lawyer-speak on this one. Tell us what we can do, not what we can't do.

It's one of the top issues I'm looking at in the upcoming presidential election. Without turning this too political, you need to read where the candidates stand on this. It's quite a good barometer actually. Anyone supporting an increase in the ethanol content of our fuel is either on the take, or has their head lodged firmly in their rectum (or both!)

Amen!

I see this becoming a bigger issue over time here in USA as the ethanol lobby pushes for more sales of E15 and E85. I only fill up with E10 when straight gasoline isn't available when I'm traveling. When close to home, I keep 100% premium gasoline at my business and refuel my MG's with it...my business supplier for diesel fuel makes it available when I fill my diesel storage tank. The other problem I see coming is lower octane premium gasoline. My supplier recently informed me that 93 octane is no longer available from any bulk suppliers in Tennessee. It's being replaced with 91 octane as the top grade. So, he now has it delivered from a supplier in Alabama. He's not sure how long that will be available, but things are getting "interesting" with respect fuels here.

I think the expression is "right royally rogered" when it comes to effanol. Here in NSW, the gubberment mandated that effanol could only be added to fuel if, and only if, the effanol is produced in this state.

Well, guess what? The effanol producer is importing cheap effanol from other countries, because it can't produce enough locally. And the gubberment has stepped right in and said:










NOTHING - Surprise!

Avgas ?

Ron, are you recommending we run avgas in our MGs? is effanol innit?

I've done some research to verify this but can't - how is ethanol added to gasoline?  A very honest friend of mine claims it is added at the gas/petrol station (or whatever the rest of you guys call the place where the pumps are in your part of the world.  Although I suppose some of you buy it in plastic jugs from small children on the side of the road).  The tanker truck dumps straight ethanol (probably E85) into the gasoline underground storage tank (UST).  He claims to have talked to the driver about how accurate the resulting mixture is - supposedly 10%.  Well, it's not very accurate since the driver just does some estimating after sticking in his measuring stick, adds how much ethanol he thinks is correct, and drives away.

It also takes some time for the alcohol to fully mix in the UST so if you fill up straight away, you could get much more than 10% ethanol.  As we all probably know, sediment is stirred up in whenever fuel is added to the UST, so it's a bad idea to get petrol when the truck is filling up the UST.  The bad part about ethanol is, according to the US Dept of Energy handbook for Handling, Storing, and Dispensing E85, it "acts like a cleaning agent and will initially mobilize sludge in storage tanks".  

I will definitely talk to the tanker drive the next time I see one.

This is an interesting article:  http://www.equipmentworld.com/e-10-alive-the-corrosive-damage-ethanol-gasoline-does-to-your-fuel-pump/

Here's a link that lists which US congressmen are on the CORRECT side of the ethanol problem. The rest are fucking with your GRiSO. Vote accordingly!

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DC950, according to California's Consumer Energy Center website:

How is ethanol fuel transported, stored and distributed?
Most of California's current ethanol fuel supply is delivered from the producing states via standard rail tank cars, with some import shipments via marine vessels. It is then stored at fuel terminals and added to gasoline when tank trucks are filled for delivery to fueling stations, where it is stored and dispensed the same as non-ethanol gasoline.

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Oz1200Guzzi wrote:

Ron, are you recommending we run avgas in our MGs? is effanol innit?

No Ethanol, but it does still have a small amount of Lead. About $2.17 a litre here......... I'm out.
It's actually illegal to use avgas for road use as the " Gubberment " hasn't slugged it with any road taxes, but I still get the occasional off-roader or MX rider asking for it.   Correct me here , but I think to get any advantage from the higher octane level would require remapping from scratch, and the gains if any would be minimal.
That money should be reserved for Quality Liquor

I have absolutely no problem with using ethanol as a fuel.

What I have a huge problem with is using subsidies to turn for resources into poor fuel incredibly inefficiently.

If the ethanol going in to petrol was a byproduct of a useful industrial sequence and was actually beneficial in terms of energy consumption and the environment I'd be all over it like a rash!

The problem is it is none of these things, it's an excuse for ignorant hippies to feel good about themselves and agribusiness and the energy industry to go laughing all the way to the bank with OUR money. Never mind the geopolitical implications.

Pete