Here's an experiment I tried a few years ago Decant about 1/2 ltr of e10 from your fuel tank into a glass jar Add a little water and observe. Ethanol is hygroscopic (sucks in water through your breathers)
Don’t! Seems to be the current thinking. It’s getting expensive. E5 plush two stroke plus conditioner. Must be getting on for 2 quid a litre if you did the maths!
Some of that murky white soup is bacteria, that live on the water in the fuel and the fuel. They are also able to live in the bottom of diesel tanks, or non ethanol mixed petrol tanks if there is some free water, and if we had left the Deepwater Horizon spill alone, the related bacteria in the sea would have completed a lot of the cleanup by themselves by now.
The test would be fairer if you fitted narrow breather tubes to the glass jar rather than effectively left the top off the fuel tank and let it rain in, in that particular experiment. That way you also lose the volatiles that help the engine start. Its a slower process in a big fuel tank than in a glass jar. It happens but slower. And one way to avoid condensation is leaving the fuel tank as full as possible.
As far as I am concerned, if it eats my carburettor before it wears out (unlikely), for about the price of decent dual carbs, theres always the Holley Sniper throttle body injection EFI for those of us who have centre mount carbs with all the heat. https://www.holley.com/blog/post/adapting_a_sniper_efi_system_to_a_vintage_volkswagen/
As long as you use it regularly, you should not have problems. But it is a wise practice to drain your carb and run it on E5 when you know you will not use your van/car/machine for an extended period of time. I discovered what can happen when I tried to start my generator during the July's flooding here in Belgium. Engine was stuck, I removed the head to discover rust and a blend of gas and water in the cylinder. I didn't shut the gas tank valve off, gas leaked past the carb to the cylinder and engine case. Get it unstuck, honed the cylinder as I could to remove rust and have it runing, when electricity came back... Morality, I know I could finish my bay window in a matters of days, if a disaster strike...
I noticed the van running hotter on long motorway stretches with slightly poorer fuel economy and slight feeling of not quite making the same power but there could be many reasons for it
I'm bobbing around the Southern riviera (Costa Geriatica) on E10 at the moment... Temps seem the same but it's lost a little 'edge' when you floor it up gradient , like when you're approaching a rise in top and you know it'll hold top all the way up but it just can't quite make it now ... Only thing different is the fuel . Bugger .... Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Driving to techenders I filled up on the A34 (Tothill Services near Newbury), and as all the V~Power Shell pumps were covered up, it was E10 or nothing. Up to Victoria Farm, a little engine revving to set the timing over the weekend (so I guess that used a small bit) and then back to fill up at Sutton Scotney on the A34 (Winchester) 197 miles later. V-Power was available so I filled up with that, brimmed the tank both times, and mpg on the E10 worked out at 24.8. Certainly don’t think I have got much more than that using conventional E5 previously. The engine was quite hot on the way up, but it was a hot day…. and it was hitting 120 after a bit of a 60mph burn before I filled with the E10 anyway. I can’t say I noticed any less power, but that probably says more about my driving than it does about the fuel!
I've been pondering... always a bad idea at the best of times, about should I leave my tank full or empty overwinter? Now for the science question:- where does the water come from? a) E10 absorbs it from the air b) water already in E10 c) crap filling station fuel that is full of water. c) Starting at the bottom, I'm planning to make sure my last fill is from a busy station to minimise this risk. b) According to Wiki, ethanol contains about 5% water, so the less fuel left in the tank equals less water...simples 55ltr full fuel tank has 5ltrs ethanol = 270ml of water 5ltr empty fuel tank has 0.5 ltrs ethanol = 25ml of water https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol a) Ethanol is hydroscopic, but assuming the tank is a relatively sealed enviroment, the amount of water in an empty tank (full of air) is about 1ml compared to a full tank, (less air) is about 0.1ml - so not a lot! http://www.drucklufttechnik.de/www/...C444AB9F1E50EB09C1256625007A3185?OpenDocument So, to my mind, leaving the tank mostly empty and sealed ends up with less water to cause damage to the tank. Discuss....,
Leave it totally full so less chance of air mixing. It cant absorb water as fast if the surface area in contact with slowly circulating air is smaller. Use the bus more. Use it on dry days over winter.
But what about the much greater volume of water inherently in the Ethanol that may settle out (Phase Separation)? I doubt (happy to be proven wrong) that there is much circulation of air in a parked up van in a garage, so I'm leaning towards mostly empty. I want to use it over winter, but I'm starting jobs next week that means it probably won't get used until the spring.
I use the Sta-bil additives 360 yellow for general use and the red Storage one in winter when I only drive the van on dry days.
I think there are snake oil sales based on good ol Fear Uncertainty and Doubt going on here - ethanol as an additive is sold commercially as a way of keeping any stray water in the fuel rather than as a separate layer... Just like the de-coking petrol treatments that are basically diesel. If the fuel starts dry, leaving a large surface on a near empty tank is definitely going to encourage more moisture -water absorbing into the larger surface area, and condensation in the tank running into the fuel, compared with a brimmed tank where the only air contact is in the filler pipe. Also this way you will lose less of the volatiles that encourage starting that make petrol go "stale". On boats, advice is to leave the tank totally full to avoid condensation. As for @monkeyvanwestybike , the heat from the cooling lava, and the fact the island is off the coast of Africa and warmer anyway will keep the condensation down in any case. Buy expensive bottles of juice and pour them in the tank if you feel any better about it, the people you buy it from will do better from your money.
Good point Mike. I was also wondering how long fuel takes to go off in the tank? This could be a consideration.
Its difficult to tell - one of the pieces of research I found was regarding storage of fuel in plastic containers at 25c where the Americans found it did go off after a few months. Its losing the more volatile components that make petrol harder to use to start the engine. Our winters are a fair bit colder, my sealed plastic cans of 2 stroke for an outboard last at least 6 months. I get more problems from ending up with plugs covered in oil and water from what gets into the cylinder when the cooling water gets back up the exhaust..
