E10 Fuel

Those of us old enough to remember the phasing out of leaded petrol in the late 1990's will recall all sorts of doom stories about engines grenading because the modern stuff would wreck the valve seats etc.

At the time there was a company called Bayford who were one of the very few who continued to supply leaded petrol, and I used to carry a list of sites with me when I was out and about on the Ironhead, using them as much as I could. When I moved down here in 2003, I decided to have Matt's Engineering do a top end overhaul because I was concerned about premature valve seat erosion. Matt assured me that it wasn't necessary, as unleaded tech in the USA was way ahead of ours. He was right; I did have him do the top end as much for cosmetic reasons as anything, but the valves and seats were fine and just needed lapping back in again.

I think the E10 thing will turn out similar; once we've been using it for a while, and provided as Fuz says we take sensible precautions when we lay vehicles up for a while, we'll wonder what all the fuss was about. After all in many countries they drive about quite happily using much higher percentages of ethanol in their fuel.
 
Millers Oils VSPe Power Plus (500ml) is an ‘all in one’, multi-shot, petrol fuel treatment providing ethanol protection, lead replacement and an octane improver. a bottle will treat 500ltrs at around £26 ,
 
As fuel gets back on the forecourts, I have found another E5 supplier.

Ramper Service Station (Spar) 610 Newark Road , Lincoln , Lincolnshire , LN6 9NP
 
Even higher ethanol content is used in some countries. E85 is available in Australia. Apparently equivalent to 105 RON, so it's popular for modified turbo engines.

To deal with the limited availability of E85, a "flex fuel sensor" (I believe some production cars have these) is used that can be interrogated by the aftermarket ECU. If the ethanol content is lower, the ECU can then adjust the boost and ignition timing (switch to a different map) to avoid engine damage.
 
I took a run last week round by Cockbridge Tomintoul area which have some steep hills to climb. I felt the engine was running hotter but I had no way of measuring the temperature. I was using E10 but have done this run many times before. I have a TC88 but with different exhaust cam normally is not as hot.
Do you think this is possible?
 
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