The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Gerbil

What a surprise.....

More than one major transportation-based industry in America besides Detroit is on the ropes. For the fourth time in our history the ethanol industry has come undone and is quickly failing nationally. Of course it's one thing when Detroit collapsed with the economy; after all, that is a truly free-market enterprise and the economy hasn't been good. But the fact that the ethanol industry is going bankrupt, when the only reason we use this additive is a massive government mandate, is outrageous at best.

Then again, the ethanol lobby and refiners have a solution to ethanol's failure in America: Hire retired General Wesley Clark as your point man and lobby the government to increase the amount of ethanol in our fuel to 15%. The problems with that proposition are real—unlike ethanol's benefits.



The Great Ethanol Scam - BusinessWeek

__________________
Oh bollocks. Fcuked me signature up.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Something profound coming soon.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

lom

Yes but apparently only in USA for some strange reason.
Seems to work very well in Europe where E85 is gaining more and more market share.

Mr R Sole

I've been running Gasohol in my bike's for yrs and yrs...never had any problems..
Maybe cars have more of a problem I don't know.

One guy in Lamai had a Mercedes Benz and blamed PTT for his car breaking down and sued them for it! He won of course...but then in Thailand if you have a Merc' then you always win...even when you run down innocent people waiting for a bus!!! nothing happens to you cause you've got a Merc'

soon to replace 's in thailand...the other favourite way to kill people here!!! other than this guy...

EmperorTud

I still fill up with 'benzine' 91.

The Thais are well aware of the damage gasohol can do to even prepared engines and I have been recommended to continue to use benzine 91.

They are phasing non-gasohol fuel out altogether though, big trouble for those with older vehicles I should think.

__________________
Mortals you defy the Gods, I sentence you to travel among unknown stars, until you find the Kingdom of Hades, your bodies will stay as lifeless as stone.

blackgang

Thats all bullshit, I ran Methanol in race cars and bikes for years, since about 1952 and have never had any problems, even ran it in M2 Chrysler 440s in heavy pickups and motorhome engines.
When they first brought it on the market in Oregon I was just back from a job in Saudi and so I ran all the gasohol I could buy, thats 10% the stinking Arabs were not getting and I still feel the same.
The only thing it will do to an engine is produce a tad less horsepower as it burns cooler and produces less energy, so with less heat it also produces less wear, and the only negative is they maybe do not add as much additive for lubrication, as 91 is a lead additive so is much worse for the atmosphere with lead poisoning in every breath and in what you drink and eat.

Bangyai

The attraction of using gasohol is that it is supposed to save you money. However, I did some digging on the net and the concensus of opinion is that the gasohol as sold in Thailand produces less horsepower than the equivelent Bensin 91 which translates to less mpg thus forefitting any small financial saving you may have hoped to make.
As Emperor Tud points out, newer cars that are built to run on gasohol are probably o.k. with it but it is not suitable for older cars and will increase engine wear....albeit slowly. As my car is 17 years old, Nissan advised me to use bensin 91.

Jesus Jones

My GF has gas in her CR-V. She does save quite a bit but does switch to 91 occasionally.

Thetyim

I'm a mpg nutter.
I have found that I get consistantly better mileage with BangChak than PTT gasohol.
Anyone else noticed a difference ?

Butterfly

^ I did a few checks, and I didn't notice a major difference between Unleaded 91 and Gasohol 91

Less than 10%, which is less than 40km difference per week for me

the price diff is more than 10% though

Butterfly

I will definitely try that one. For now, I use PETRONAS, but I did notice better mileage with PTT.

blackgang

If you can get Marvel Mystery Oil here you might try an oz in a tankful and it will cut back on wear as it is a good top oil and has been around since before my time, We always used it in Pan Heads and Shovel heads to make Valves work freely, especially in hot summer weather when they were bound to seize if you couldn't get a good grade of Ethyl gasoline with heavy lead additives.

BobR

I've used gasohol and regular 91 in my Yaris and CBR150. In both vehicles, the fuel economy is less with the gasohol, and the Honda does not idle well with it, but it is cheaper. You really do get what you pay for. Drove through Illinois and Indiana in the US last year, never saw so much corn in all my life. Apparently all was destined to be fuel not food.

mikehunt

BG, Methanol is not the same as Ethanol. They are 2 very different things.

I used to race motocross & I used to use "Shell A" as an additive to my 4 stroke bike. "Shell M" was used for 2 stroke bikes.

Ethanol, in concentrations greater than about 10% in a 4 stroke carburated engine, can cause 'gum' build ups, which will clog the fuel system. Other than this, it may cause valve seat damage.

__________________
Oh for fucks sake! Get a life & stop trying to fuck mine up!

blackgang

I have used it many years ago as motorcycle fuel racing TT and hill climbs, as well as in drag racing when we could get by with it.
I know there is some difference in it .

Ethanol vs. Methanol - Domestic Fuel

Thetyim

Well methanol has the same problem
I used to run race cars run on methanol and the carbs had to be stripped and left soaking in solvent after every race and not reassembled until the day before the next race.

barryofthailand

I have a 2009 Toyota Vios, fully loaded, and use E20 Gasohol, and get 41 miles per gallon on the highway, and about 30 in town. The new Toyota engines are built to run on all types of fuel sold in Thailand except diesel of course.
Barry

harrymand

Yezz it do! Get my 3.0L Frontier to backfire and running the wrong way and would'nt stop! The cop next door want to shoot it, but it give up by it self!

Mickymoo

I've got a really uninteresting Honda Dream 125. Is it ok to run these exhilerating, charismatic beasts on any of the alcohol/gasohol/whatever fuels or should I stick to benzine(91)?

blackgang

91 is preferred, but it will run on anything.