E10 or E5

[Darren marsh]

 E10 or E5 ??
My DL650 is on a 2010 and I do 300 miles a week
about a month ago the regular petrol were I fill up changed to E10 I checked all websites and it states my bike will run on E10
So away we go E10
I have not noticed any difference all month all sames to be OK
Has any one had any thing happen that shouldn't and what are we likely to find happening using E10
Start off this week the petrol station I use had shut all E10 pumps strange so I filled up with the premium which is still E5
It may be just me but my bike feels more responsive and filtering around town  was smoother
Now am wondering E10 or E5 ???

[Joe Rocket]

If E10 is cheaper and available then use it. Don't waste money...... 

[Brockett]

I believe Ethanol provides less power than petrol. It therefore follows that E10 is 10% less fuel efficient than neat petrol. So it should make a difference.   But I've been wrong more often than I've been right. However, when I put super unleaded 99 octane in my VX800 it didn't run as well. This is unfortunate as I am concerned the ethanol in E10 will rot the membrane in the VX's vacuum driven fuel pump.

 

[Joe Rocket]

"I believe" is not proof Brockett. (Nothing follows unless you have proof of the difference and "should" is irrelevant.)

It's your opinion that your bike didn't run as well....so quantify or qualify the point please. 

You have the same doubts for your VX800 as my GPX with rubber vacuum diaphragms. However I have no doubt, it is E5 rarely but SP98 generally.

BTW Brand name petrol stations are provided with the same source fuel as supermarkets. The only difference is quantity and buying power. Premium grades are not the same.

[dav]

The copied and pasted below from M.A.G, Motorcycle action group, might interest
you, I will not have E10 anywhere near my new 650 and yes it is compatible.
 
Fuel filter blockage and increased wear of fuel system components: Ethanol acts as a solvent loosening abrasive deposits
Galvanic corrosion: Ethanol is more highly conductive compared to hydrocarbons leading to corrosion if electrically dissimilar metals are present in the fuel system
Air/Fuel mixture problems: Ethanol contains about 35 % oxygen, so the air/fuel mixture has to be adjusted otherwise the vehicle will run lean which could cause drive-ability problems and overheating
Deposit formation: Inlet system and combustion chamber deposits have been reported with the use of E10 blends.
Drive-ability: E10 blends can be more volatile, causing hot problems (poor hot starting, hesitation etc) and cold weather problems (vaporisation problems)
Material compatibility: Some materials used in fuel system components are less compatible with ethanol in fuel resulting in loss of structural integrity, swelling and softening of materials (some older glass-fibre petrol tanks and tank sealants will melt).
Ethanol holds more dissolved water and associated impurities leading to corrosion of metallic components.

[kwackboy]

Think your being a bit over cautious.

I've three vehicles that run fine on E10, one of them being an old 2001 CB500.

The only noticeable difference is a minor drop in power but the MPG, for me has increased.

After doing some research, if you have an older type vehicle and leave it standing for months at a time, it's then the problems start however, if it's in daily use , your fine.

[dav]

I am not being over cautious at all, sensible I would say, back in the late 80's
and 90's Shell brought out a so called super fuel, their first V power type of fuel
which, was marketed strongly and it made people think it was the best thing since
sliced bread, so the public bought it, but down the line it  started damaging
engines, did people get compensated, No, but [Enough complained],
neither will the Government compensate you down the line, if this E10 starts
doing damage, the fuel's effects are Not immediate but long term, the fuel goes
off very quickly, "in any vehicle" in a few weeks in fact, not months and it is also hygroscopic
I will stick with super Thanks

[Rixington43]

Nowt wrong with being cautious and people will make their own call on the risk vs the cost, that being said E10 is not really new, rather just new to the UK forecourt.
For my part I have used E10 in my 21 year old car on the continent for many years now with no detrimental effects as yet. I tend to go with the policy of using E10 on long trips where I know the whole tank will be used within days/weeks. If I know the car or bike won't be used for a while then I run that tank to fumes and put super in for the storage period.
The only difference I have noticed is marginally less popping and banging off throttle with E10 vs 99RON. Fuel economy is rock steady and performance seems identical.

[Mr Nick]

Joe - the International Energy Agency's Advanced Motor Fuels collaboration project says:

'The energy content of ethanol is lower than that of gasoline. The heating value of ethanol is around 27 MJ/kg, in volumetric terms around 21 MJ/l, which is only 65% of the volumetric energy content of gasoline. This leads to higher volumetric fuel consumption with ethanol compared to gasoline. Theoretically, increase in volumetric fuel consumption is about 3.5% when a 10% ethanol blend is compared with non-oxygenated gasoline. If the advantage of alcohols’ high octane numbers is exploited by increasing the compression ratio of the engine, energy efficiency as kilometers per energy unit of fuel (km/MJ) can be higher for alcohols than for gasoline.

Density of ethanol is 0.79 kg/l, which is slightly higher than that of gasoline. Higher density improves volumetric fuel economy to some extent.'

[Youngman]

This bloke is pretty good. He did his own exhaustive technical tests on E10. Worth watching if only to see how to extract the alcohol from petrol (spoiler - it doesn't taste good  )
He estimates, along with many others, your fuel efficiency is down about 4% E10 vs E0.

[Mr Nick]

Todd is really good at setting up as objective a set of real world tests as can be reasonably expected: well worth spending time watching his tests, even on stuff that we don't get over here.