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[Healeys] Ethanol

Subject: [Healeys] Ethanol
From: bspidell at comcast.net (Bob Spidell)
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 15:36:53 +0000 (UTC)
References: <000301d277f6$20e6c320$62b44960$@homecall.co.uk> <CABXhz88HE5buG6Jjb4QjeZSaz5fKYPzAS3kUDgTrOrDc4DmeAg@mail.gmail.com> <bb419a1a-99f6-a7c8-56ed-e969dc6b153e@chello.nl> <1485497222007.6248468.9f7d93919ffb3ba7849f922f045ff06a5fb1a9ee@spica.telekom.de> <000501d2786a$4174dd10$c45e9730$@sbcglobal.net>
I believe the European octane ratings are Research Method only, which reads 3-5 
points higher than US (R+M)/2. So, European 98 octane would be equivalent to US 
93 octane (rare, but available in some areas in the States; 100-octane is 
available for boat engines around Havasu). 

Contrary to popular belief, ethanol can actually raise octane. There's a gas 
station in Los Altos that used to sell 95-octane, which was E10 IIRC. It's very 
difficult to raise the octane rating of pure gas--it requires special 
refining--that's why TEL was added starting around WWII for high-compression 
fighter engines (it was 'discovered' at the Sloan-Kettering institute, who 
tested several thousand compounds before settling on TEL). Adding ethanol to 
gasoline means the gas part doesn't have to be as carefully refined (hence 
'cheaper'). There is an exhaustive research program being undertaken in order 
to develop an aviation fuel to replace 100LL--100-octane, 'low-lead,' which I 
believe is 'only' 2 grams/gallon of elemental lead vs. 3 grams/gallon of 
previous formulations--and it is proceeding very slowly due to its complexity. 

I've run tanks of E10 and tanks of pure gas, and didn't notice any significant 
variance in mileage, but it's usually an 'oranges-to-apples' comparison since 
most runs involve a mix of highway/freeway and grades, stop-and-go, etc. 



----- Original Message -----

From: "John Spaur" <jmsdarch at sbcglobal.net> 
To: josef-eckert at t-online.de, "Oudesluys" <coudesluijs at chello.nl>, 
"Forum' 'Healeys" <Healeys at autox.team.net> 
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 10:54:48 PM 
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Ethanol 



Wish I could get 93 octane let alone 95 or 98! 



John 

San Jose, CA 



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