Going over to ethanol gas

[roosterk0031]

The ones in the states I've read about all add a 2nd injector pulse at 20-30% of the primary signal. Some have a dial you can tweak your settings that would change that % but don't think it makes any real difference, when in closed loop the O2 sensors going to do it's thing, the car just doesn't know about the 2nd pulse. $300 for 4 cylinder models.

Ebay has them under $40 from china and some more expensive ones made in Europe.

You can get the same thing done with 20% larger injectors.

[Fingie]

The thing here im looking for is the emission-compliability. At least I try to.

I just like going the official route.

[serialk11r]

E85 (or blending) is very much worth it if your car drinks premium, because the ethanol is very knock resistant. Even if the ethanol costs pretty close to what gasoline costs, you can blend it to ~20-30% ethanol for the octane boost and efficiency boost, for less money than paying for premium.

[seifrob]

I would go for ethanol. I even considered purchase of petrol variant of my car so I can convert it later. You should be fine with it. Besides, afaik, Russian made engines arent very picky about fuel quality so its good chance you can drive with petrol ethanol blend straight away.

Edit: What they recommend here is to check all hoses, o- rings and other rubber components in fuel system, as old-fashioned rubber is not ethanol resistant. But newer cars are hopefully fine.

[Fingie]

i'd think eu regulations would put requirements on used components.

The majority of the fuel line is metal.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

As long as the metal components of the fuel system are tollerant to ethanol (usually either chromed or nickeled to overcome the higher corrosibility of ethanol), go for it.

Originally Posted by Ecky

Funny, this question makes me think we might need to use "MPGe" for ethanol too. 30 miles on a gallon of ethanol would be 45MPGe due to its energy content, nevermind price.

Not sure if such thing as "MPGe" would be so accurate. Must also consider all the energy consumption throughout the feedstock production and the ethanol brewing to get the correct energy balance. Trust me, I'm used to ethanol as an automobile fuel since my childhood.

[Ecky]

Would it be reasonable then to say that a 100MPGe car running on coal-generated electricity from a plant that's 40% thermally efficient would actually be 40MPGe, in a sense? Or, less really because it takes energy to get that coal out of the ground, transported, and prepped for burning, plus whether systems are necessary to clean up emissions?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Would it be reasonable then to say that a 100MPGe car running on coal-generated electricity from a plant that's 40% thermally efficient would actually be 40MPGe, in a sense? Or, less really because it takes energy to get that coal out of the ground, transported, and prepped for burning, plus whether systems are necessary to clean up emissions?

Not so sure about coal, since gas is also quite energy-intensive from the oil well to the pump, going through the refining. But in regard to ethanol, that is also subject to different brewing processes according to the feedstock (here in Brazil it relies mostly on sugarcane, even though corn is also used in Mato Grosso state when it's not sugargane season), and the energy balance that is also tied to the feedstocks. Anyway, since both gas and ethanol are sold by gallons, why bothering about a gallon-equivalent for ethanol? OTOH since electric power can't be measured by volume (not getting into an argument about the energy density of the battery packs, that's another field), it makes more sense to talk about MPGe.