E85 my Corsarina (x)C now?

Hey

I'm a big greenie who also happens to enjoy cars. "Petrolhead" has been a term that always makes me cringe when I show any interest in cars.

I know there's a lot of (legacy?) (dis?)information about ethanol out there but the content of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWcgiCm4NY

seems to make a lot of sense and I've read small chunks of info elsewhere.

Whether you're a greenie or you just want the performance boost, or like me ... both, having watched the above video, what are you thoughts on running a Corsarina (x)C on a blend of 50% E85 and 50% E10 or regular unleaded?

I'm particularly curious based on the following points:

1. Cars as far back as Model T Ford were designed to use petrol OR ethanol.
2. US cars have had to be E85 capable since 1992 and Opel is a GM (US) influenced manufacturer (isn't it?)
3. I have at least one United E85 station not super far away :)

I wonder if I could try the above blend (50/50 E85/E10) now without any modifications to my car? Before you potentially suggest that's mad, know that I've read of people doing just that without major issues. Admittedly those people are arguably more economy/green conscious than car conscious ... though I doubt any of them are happy to 'blow up' their daily runners and have to buy a new one/source a whole new engine and so forth.

Interested in all thoughts. Apologies if this topic has been already discussed here. Feel free to point me to that thread and/or delete this post if it has.

It's not the worst thing to think that it may be possible. And relatively easy to use.

First things you would need to check tho are your ECU to make sure it's ethanol compatible as cars are generally tuned to certain blend be it regular unleaded or 98. If not you would need to look at and ECU set up that will option it.

The other thing you would need to have a look at is all of the fuel delivery and return lines. Plastic or rubber lines will get eaten through by the ethanol as will any regular rubber seals so they will also need to be changed if need be to be compatible.

Otherwise, ethanol blends are a much safer fuel for the economy in terms of oolution and similarly priced compared to 98Ron and They have better running temps so it's safer for higher power outputs as well.

I guess to start with 1 tank of a blend shouldn't do the car too much damage. I know a guy who blends a 90:10 98/E85 for track days on standard corsa B ECU without issues. But may see issues with a full ethanol blend in which case you'd just need to go and drain the tank.

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Thanks Feneca! Very considered, well thought out reply. I think I'll give it a chunk more thought and possibly pop some small amount of E85 in at some stage soon. I tend to run my tank 'lean' if that's the right term. No sense carrying the weight IMHO!

Here's the interesting bit. If you have a 90/10 98RON/E85 mix, you're still running only approx 8.5% ethanol. Only difference between that and E10 would be the fact you're mixing off an 98RON base, versus the 91RON base of E10. Still, that gives you approx a 100-101RON mix at most. May as well just run the 100RON stuff that I know some United stations here used to sell, I think it's pretty much the same stuff anyway.

I can't see it improving performance all that much on either the Z14XE/Z14XEP engines without some form of tuning, as they're only tuned to run 91RON, so even plain 95 or 98 doesn't gain that much in these engines. Economy, well ethanol burns faster, so that 8-10% ethanol will disappear a lot quicker. Emissions wise, yes ethanol is cleaner without a doubt, but the thing I'd be concerned about, is the catalytic converter in cars not designed to run ethanol fuels, as you may block it up quicker than with regular petrol.

On the Corsa B with the Z18XE and Corsa GSi C16XE ECU that @faneca mentioned, they were tuned to run a minimum of 95RON from factory. The old C16XE with its reasonably high compression wasn't keen on anything less than 95. Z18 is just slightly lower in terms of CR, but not by a great deal.

Interesting input chris_r, thanks. One small correction that surprises most people: United E10 is actually 95 RON. United is usually cheaper than most, and the E10 cheaper than other petrols, and then it's actually 95RON! I've run it for quite a while and I'm happy enough with it.

Re the cats, if ethanol burns cleaner, what reason is there to think the cats might block up quicker? Fair enough the cars might not be engineered with E85-friendly cats, but would a cleaner burn be less likely or more likely to wear the cat? I reckon that's a really interesting question. Have we got any chemists who use this forum? :)

Not sure if this is directly relevant anywhere but when I still had my car's handbook (damn it's annoying that is lost somewhere) I vaguely recall it said up to E15 was fine, so beyond E10.

Some of the Mitsu/Proton guys have gone to E10/E85. You're looking at potentially replacing the fuel pump, fuel lines, FPR, and ECU (or piggyback) + tuning.

Not sure why the vid is titled "Race Fuel of the Furture?", ethanol has been used in funny cars, champ/indy cars, and many others for years!