AirSpeed VW Community Forums
General Forums => Air Speed Lounge => Topic started by: bwaz on October 22, 2014, 08:11:40 AM
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This guy recommends an additive called Star Tron to help with the ethanol used in most lower grades of gas. I see it on the Canadian Tire website for $14.99
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pweDTqhH2t8#t=10
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Thanks Brian!
Makes me wonder why we even have ethanol in our fuel.
Ethanol is made with food grains, so we are putting something we could have eaten into our fuel tanks, and driving up the cost of food.
Ethanol and gasoline blends have less energy density, so you have to burn more of it to get the same amount of power.
But ethanol in our gasoline is the law in BC.
Another stupid law?
Renewable & Low Carbon Fuel Requirements Regulation
http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/RET/RLCFRR/FAQ/Pages/default.aspx
B.C.'s ethanol standards for gasoline a mistake: scientists (From Sep 2008)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-s-ethanol-standards-for-gasoline-a-mistake-scientists-1.755502
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Brian, while that stuff can help with fuel separation and all those other good things that happen with ethanol, the biggest issue IMO with carbureted engines (air cooled cars and bikes in particular) is that Alcohol (both methyl and ethyl) has a much lower energy density than gasoline. So not only do you get inferior power/economy but your properly jetted engine (on gasoline) runs lean on ethanol. Even worse when it separates and the low grade (low octane) base fuel allows detonation.
When I restored my RD400 Daytona Special, a couple guys had blown theirs up on blended E10 fuel.... granted they were carbureted, air cooled *and* two strokes, but still..... I was glad for the warning.
In BC, Chevron 94, Shell V-Power 91 and (surprisingly) Costco premium fuel are all ethanol free. I stick to those ones for the VW.
Steve
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an RD400 Special very cool..I have a RD350LC sorry for the thread jack
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In BC, Chevron 94, Shell V-Power 91 and (surprisingly) Costco premium fuel are all ethanol free. I stick to those ones for the VW.
That's the wrong octane for your screaming 40hp.
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Geez, I wondered why it took 52 degrees of advance BTDC to run right...... but it doesn't detonate :)
Given that it's moderately lean with the current jetting, I'll stick to that for now. Once I get it fattened up a step or two then we can talk about getting it to run well on 87. Or I could just raise the compression, maybe the next engine....
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I hope this helps, but I don't know how accurate it is.
A list of ethanol-free gas stations in BC.
http://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=BC