Hello all.
I have a 94 XJS 4L.
I recently moved to Florida from Minnesota. It was easy to find non oxygenated fuel in MN but not so easy here in Florida. Should I be concerned?
Thanks
Mike

 

Would you mind explaining what non-oxygenated fuel is?
I've never heard of it.

 

Hello Steve.... no ethanol added

 

Ah, ok, ethanol.
From what I can remember (and I am pretty sure that I will be corrected quite quickly) it is ok up to about 5% ethanol.
Once you get up to the 10% level then, if you have an older car (not sure how older) the ethanol will start to rot all the seals in your fuel system.
The easiest fix for that is to throw the engine away and connect the pedals directly to the rear wheels whilst singing 'Row, row, row your boat....'.

 

Florida has 10%. I fill up with boat fuel, dearer but no ethanol..

 

Malc4d is correct... it's 10% ethanol here...sux. Interesting that you buy boat fuel. Tell me more. Is it ethanol free...or just less ethanol?

 

DUH... i see you said no ethanol...i guess the trick is finding easy access to boat fuel

 

Ok, now I am really confused; my boat runs on diesel.
Do you have special petrol for boats like we have 'pink' diesel for boats (heating systems only, not engines) and farm machinery?

 

We've had E10 fuel here for at least 20 years and Pacific Northwest has had it for about 30. Aside from a few vehicles that were built with non-compatible seals (extremely rare cases) ethanol has not been an issue. Anything built after 1990ish is fine.

The sky is not falling and beware internet myths.

 

Good to see another Mikey.
Thanks for your input.

 

The FHBVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) has a section on ethanol.
I tried to copy and paste it but it just came out as long, meaningless list so you'll have to scroll down to the Ethanol section.
Nice to know that you can't replace paper and leather with cork.
I mean, why would you?
Fuel Information

 

As far as I know you all run lower octane ratings than we do over here; would that have any effect regarding the percentage of ethanol in the fuel?
I'm a petrol head, not a petrol brain

 

Our (Canada/US) octane levels are identical, we simply use different measuring scales, for some long lost and obscure reason.

Your scale is RON (research octane number) our scale is AKI (anti-knock index). Roughly speaking there is a four point spread between RON and AKI.

Our 91 is your 95
Our 93 is your 97
Our 94 is your 98

etc.

I don't know any Jag that requires more than 95RON/91AKI.

The octane level of a fuel is completely unrelated to ethanol content.

 

I refer the council to my previous statement that I am a petrol head not a petrol brain!
Maybe it is falling sky and internet cobblers but I've read enough over here to see that it can be a real problem.
We had the same stress, strain and worry when they took the lead out of the petrol; nobody knew WTF was going on because there was no information given out (no networking in those days) so if your valves met your piston crown then tough titty.
If ethanol is good why don't they just runs cars on it?

 

All of my cars, 1970s thru 2005 vintage, including my various Jags, have had a steady diet of E10 for 22 years.

I've been waiting, waiting, and waiting for all the horrible things to happen. It has become rather boring

Cheers
DD

 

Yeah, you just wait until they let you drive more than 55 miles per hour.

 

They do.

E85 is 85% ethanol. The 15% gas/petrol is essentially there to help with cold weather start and warm up.

E100 (100% ethanol) has been a very popular fuel in Brazil since the '70s where it now powers 33% of vehicles on the road. Ask anybody there about the 'evils' of this fuel and how it 'destroys vehicle's (as per internet myth) and you'll get a blank stare.

 

Ah, I see.
100% ethanol, 6.2 million people living in favelas.
So green.
This is from an Australian website;
You have to burn 1.4 litres of ethanol to match 1 litre of petrol.
https://www.allianz.com.au/car-insur...sus-petrol-faq

 

I believe that for cars that sit around like a lot of our cars, do a non-ethanol fuel like marine gas/petrol is better as it stays fresh longer. I read that the ethanol evaporates and leaves a horrid gunk behind. It did in my generator carb. anyway.
That's why it's recommended for boats, lawn mowers and generators etc.. I will keep my tin foil hat on for a bit longer and keep filling up with marine gas/petrol. Here in Florida, as we have a large amount of lakes, marinas and some gas stations sell it. Here its Wawa.

 

Once more (with feeling) here's a pic looking down the filler neck of my old Corvette showing 2 year old E10 in the gas tank. This car (like Doug's) has seen nothing but E10 for decades. Anybody see gunk or corrosion?

Gas drying up and gumming carbs predates E10. It's precisely why Seafoam was invented just after WWII. No ethanol back then.