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MG Midget and Sprite General - Tesco Momentum 99 Fuel

This has just become available up here in the sticks and I've just put about 15 litres into the midget, as it was comparatively cheap. I've now done a bit of digging online and realise that's its got 5% bioethanol in it. TAANSTAFL... should have been more cautious...

Is it going to trash my engine - i.e. should I syphon it out and use it in one of our modern cars, or is it going to be okay to just use up this tankful, diluting it with "proper" fuel along the way?
Mothy

The pump doesn't have to show any ethanol content by law unless it is more than 5%, so ordinary fuel COULD have 5% ethanol in it. Going on that basis I would suspect that the 5% you have used will do no harm. You can read more here http://fbhvc.co.uk/bio-fuels/
Mike Howlett

I think if you do as you suggest and keep diluting it, you should be OK with just one tankfull.

Bernie.
b higginson

I don't know if it's changed recently but I used it for 3 years no problems and the car seemed to like it

still use it now and again but run on 95 now as that's all I can get when we go away spridget mountain climbing

for the techies info here - http://www.tesco.com/Momentum99/productBenefits-specs.asp
N Atkins

I use it in various racecars - Midget, ZS180 and Porsche 924 - no problems yet!
David Smith

I have used it in the Midget Racer since its debut in 2007. I have also used it in my MGTF since 2006 when running on nitrous.

5% Bioethanol fuels are perfectly fine, it's when it gets up to 10% that problems start to arise in older vehicles.
Deborah Evans

>>I've now done a bit of digging online and realise that's its got 5% bioethanol in it<<

well at the risk of splitting hairs and you may well be 100% accurate – not a lot of digging around online is required, the link I put takes you to their spec sheet which was very easy and fast to find online

splitting hairs bit now – their spec sheet states Ethanol including bioethanol 5% maximum which may or may not be 100% in accordance with what you’ve put and are worried about plus the 5% is possibly an average so who know their could be a higher percentage of bioethanol in your 15 litres !!

or on average a lot less, if they do use average figures

seriously, don't worry too much about it for the moment, put 27 litres in and go for a long blast
N Atkins

Nigel as I'm sure you are aware 5% average is not the same as 5% maximum, the latter being what you quote from their spec sheet. So in any size sample of fuel it will be not more than 5%.
David Smith

I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere that all the suppliers are supposed to have included additives to combat the effects of ethanol at 5% and the government is now admitting that if it rises to 10% even "modern" cars over 10 years old will not like it.

Trev
T Mason

It was an impulse buy Nigel, I saw it at the pump for the first time yesterday, and to be fair I couldn't exactly whip out my i-phone in the middle of a busy petrol station to check its full spec before fueling, might have annoyed a few people in a long queue - nice adaptation of T-Rex on that other thread, BTW ;o)

thanks folks for your input, I shalln't worry about it anymore, and indeed will enjoy saving 10p a litre on the cost of Optimax and Ingenium which are the other premium unleadeds available around here :o)
Mothy

Tim, as mentioned above 5% is ok (ish) but 10% is a BIG no no....

E10 Bioethanol is NOT suitable in anything pre 1986. It destroys Alluminium that our carburettors are made of, it eats the rubber in the fuel lines, it has a shelf life of only 2 weeks. Try to avoid using it at all costs....!

Be warned...!!!!!

Mark.
M T Boldry

Hi David, yes I'm 100% aware of maximum and average the comment was tongue in cheek

however

as the spec sheet gives no measuring perameters or sample(s) sizes it would be possibly for the maximum to be an average maximum of samples of various quanities

or more likely if there was a variance it would be very small and at a maximum in any sample of 4.9999999%

if a few of our country's newspapers got hold of it then I'd guess their figures would show 10% or 15%

hey, damn figures/stats

the point of my post was don't worry about 5%

N Atkins

sorry forgot the T. Rex bit -

thanks for your thanks Mothy

I was hoping to be questioned about it by Seth as it had a serious point too - it only took me a few minutes to copy, paste and alter the lyrics but the original writer/artist, band, recorders, marketing ect. done all the hard work I just spent a few minutes on it and you recognised it not because of my work but because of their work

but I expect Seth would have said that's what Gary did anyway and missed my point
N Atkins

Ten percent ethanol is pretty common in the States, and I never had any trouble with burning it. The problem I have had is letting a car sit with it.

I used to run an old Saab 99 (the one with the Triumph TR7 engine) and I added ethanol to it to boost the octane and increase the fuel mileage. I added enough to make it up to 25% ethanol, and had no problems. However, I only did this for about 2 years, so I don't know what the long term effect might have been.

Charley
C R Huff

This thread was discussed between 03/06/2011 and 05/06/2011

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