Superethanol E85 on our 480?

[Baxter]

Have you tried ethanol e85 on any 480?

To say it is very popular in France is too much but it is not impossible to find petrol stations with e85 or web pages that sells kits for e85 or customers explaining their experience.
I found a customer using 15% of e85 on a 480 without problems.

It seems that volvos from '95 are ready for the use of superethanol without any problems but to take full advantage is necessary to install a kit that reads the ammount of ethanol and corrects the ignition time and ammount of fuel delivered by the injectors.
Not to install the kit produces bad idle and bad start at cold. But this happens using only e85. It is possible to reduce the percentage of e85 mixing with 95 or 98 and then it is possible to run even without the kit.
Many of them uses e85 on their volvos with 2,4 engine.
One of the kit I've seen works connecting the box to the sevice plug.

I started adding 15liters of e85 and filling up the tank with 95 and I don't notice any change neither idle nor running. It's a '95 turbo.
Warm temperatures probably help.
I'll continue increasing the percentage of e85.

[Robou]

For a good understanding: You are talking about E85, which means 85% of the fuel is ethanol, this mixture producing 25% less energy than standard fuel alone. It may be considered an alternative fuel, not a mixture.
Only cars of which the manufacturer has approved it's use may not be damaged. May, because the hygroscopic (water absorbing) effect of ethanol can eventually damage these engines as well. The fuel has a short shelf life, after phase separation happens and the engine may take in more water from the tank than fuel.

Ethanol is a solvent and it can dissolve many engine parts, from rubber to aluminium. It is clear that manufacturers who approve of it's use have taken precautions. But we are talking 480 here, and I strongly advise against using E85 fuel without knowing exactly what materials are used in our fuel system. We have a knock sensor so the ignition, to a point, will cope with the lower octane, but still.

Driving through France from time to time I had to fill her up with E10 because it was the only available fuel at the station, I was happy with a refill in due time. But I should say, the engine behaved as usual.

[brinkie]

Driving through France from time to time I had to fill her up with E10 because it was the only available fuel at the station, I was happy with a refill in due time. But I should say, the engine behaved as usual.

The only Volvo from the past 40 years that cannot run on E10 is the S40/V40 with 1.8 litre Mitsubishi GDI engine, the ethanol addition will damage the fuel pump. The rest runs fine on E10.

[Baxter]

Yes, it could harm the engine or other parts of the 480 using a high percentage but it seems that cars from 1995 can cope with 10/15% witouth problems.
Our 480 maybe is a bit old for theses stories.

There is a lot of reading on internet explaining advantages and disadvantages.

Don't take it:
http://www.fuel-testers.com/ethanol_pro ... amage.html


Take it:

http://www.fillyourtankwithfreedom.com/ ... gines.html

More info about kits and ethanol:
http://fuelflexfrance.fr

But there's no problem with octane as ethanol has got around 105.

The fact is that the kit sold on interent to convert easily non bifuel cars is a bit simple and only takes the signal from the lambda and increases the time of inyection. This is because the ethanol is less powerful than the 95 petrol.
But It doesnt' change the point of ignition.
Another method to put more fuel inside the engine is increasing the pressure of inyection changing the pressure valve, from 2,5 to 3,5 but the fuel pump must cope with this pressure.

The full flexible cars have a sensor that measures the exact ammount of ethanol to adjust correctly the inyection and the point of ignition.

In France it's true that sometimes is impossible to find 95 petrol, that it has been substituted with e10.

The liter of e10 is a bit cheaper than 95.
E85 can be found at 0,70 euros /0,55 GBP
95 is at 1,30 euro/ 1 GBP
98 is around 1,35 euro.
On highway add an 20%

[Van]

The one time I added some E10 to the E95 in my 480 immediately I had engine problems.

In Germany the bastards raised the tax on E95 to force the introduction of E10 but the majority of Germans refuse to take it.

I am not using it in my current car as well. If god wanted cars to run on sugar, he had put sugar in the oil fields.

[Robou]

Indeed the octane number of ethanol is high, over 110, so one might expect the addition of ethanol to standard oil-originated fuel giving the mixture a higher octane. But this assumption is only valid as long as the mixture is homogeneous and after phase separation occurs it is not. By that time you do not know what actually is pumped into the motor, and if a low octane basic fuel is used at moments the octane of this may be well below 95. But I may be splitting hairs...

[Baxter]

The Swedish Volvo and SAAB tried E85 with several models. It is very popular there.
SAAB also offered a car that managed E100. Full ethanol without petrol. Ethanol is much cheaper than petrol in Sweden but they don't arrive to the level of France with half price.
The point is that the advantage of high octane is reduced because is less powerful and for this needs more quantity inyected and therefore more consumption.

To obtain ethanol companies have started to cut forrest, huge extensions, I don't see the ecological point on this.
More ecological are the electric cars when the electricity comes from clean sources.

I don't want to damage my 480, I like it too much buy maybe an small percentage of ethanol doesn't make any disadvantage.