I had water contamination in my Renault 18 1.4 TL. The water was enough to block the main jet. I fitted a transparent in line fuel filter and dosed the petrol with methylated spirits to mix with the water and to colour any water. I'd to regularly empty the water which settled out in the filter. Hosing down my Yamaha XT 350 often resulted in a blockage. Fortunately there was a brass screw which easily allowed the jet to clear with minimum loss of fuel.

I conclude that the surface tension of water makes it cling to the jet.

I understand that because ethanol is a plant based product, it will contain a small amount of water. I've seen evidence of water in the float chamber of old cars with carburetors. Ethanol also reacts with the older products in old fuel systems, allegedly, damaging the lining on petrol tanks and decaying rubber.

A recent thread claimed Shell V power contains no ethanol.

Aviation fuel contains no ethanol - I wonder why?

It's complicated but briefly-

Fuels mixed with ethanol have a larger enthalpy of evaporation, which produces larger temperature drop of the ingested air in the carburetor. This leads to faster ice deposits, and requires a stronger pre-heating of air.(which will reduce engine power) For aircrafts that are prone to carburetor icing, using ethanol admixed fuel increases the threat of carburettor icing.

Ethanol in aircraft fuel also increases the danger of vapour lock in the fuel system, which does not readily occur in vehicle engines but can occur in aircraft engine fuel systems at altitude due to the lower atmospheric pressure.

It's never been approved for aircraft use except for microlights which can use ordinary pump road fuel, depending on the make of engine - lower altitude etc

In the UK you have only about 5% ethanol inclusion in UL95 road fuel.

Over here in France we have to put up with 10% in SP 95 and it creates problems in engine's fuel tanks that do not get used regularly - cars - your lawn mower - chainsaws outboard motors, marine petrol engines and the like. It needs a fuel stabiliser adding for more than a couple of month's storage.

Video here on how to check for ethanol and it's effects - quick and dirty stuff anyone can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEf9Fdvx_Sc

Edited by focussed on 15/10/2019 at 19:57

With the new labelling rules, Shell VPower is clearly labelled at the pump as 'E5', i.e. 5% ethanol.

which is a failure of current education policies and the priority given to many 'politically correct' subjects instead of practically useful ones.

Which PC subjects are these? Schools concentrate on maths/English/science...never heard them called PC before and they seem pretty useful to me.

The hydrogen needed to move a fuel cell vehicle a kilometer costs approximately 8 times as much as the electricity needed to move a battery electric vehicle the same distance.

Hydrogen at the moment and for the foreseeable future is a niche fuel.

"John Cadogan has an excellent You Tube article explaining (based on genuine scientific facts) 10 reasons why Hydrogen gas is not a feasible fuel for I C engines."

Once I remembered who this was, I confidently expected to dislike it a lot, but in fact it was quite interesting.

However, its isn't about IC engines per se, though that's the way its billed. It is in fact exclusively about reciprocating IC engines.

IIRC Skunkworks evaluated a hydrogen fuelled replacement for the U2 (looked very like the Blackbird) and concluded that, while it had real performance advantages for jet turbine engines, these didn't justify the logistic complexity involved in the USAF setting up a global hydrogen refuelling infrastucture.

Aircraft are perhaps a more likely use of hydrogen IC. There are of course a lot of electric drones about, and I suppose if you built a fuel-celled airliner you might end up with something like a rather quiet Super Constellation, but there might be range and payload reasons why no one has done it yet..

However, IC hydrogen appears to have almost nothing to do with the topic (contaminated fuel),

AFAICT the comments on politicians, and (allegedly) politicised education have absolutely nothing to do with the topic (contaminated fuel)

Edited by edlithgow on 17/10/2019 at 11:21