New petrol

[vitesse]

I ran a SD1 Vitesse on E85 (ethanol with 15% petrol) when ethanol was first introduced - it was much cheaper than petrol. My first attempt wasn’t successful as while the Rover V8 had hardened valve seats the rubber hoses were not compatible and swelled like elongated balloons. Some experiments with pieces of rubber hose immersed in petrol led to the discovery that Eberspächer hoses (fbh) worked. Changed all the hoses, added an adjustable fuel regulator and as there was some talk of “dry” fuel pumps added a small quantity of 2 stroke oil to each tank. One small return hose was overlooked and swelled and dumped most of a tankful of fuel - replaced and the Vitesse ran well until the government decided to raise the price of ethanol, went back to normal petrol then.

My only concerns regarding ethanol and Rover 75 would be the hoses and fuel pump but if Dorchester2 has had no issues with the much higher concentration E85, then our cars shouldn’t notice E5 or E10.

Our National Road Agency has published a list of vehicles which can use E10, Rover isn’t listed but it says all Land Rover from 1996, which must include the Freelander V6.

Regards

[dave1850]

Sorry, just catching up on this thread. A couple of points made earlier - re the availability of E5 fuel, yes it will be the Super and thus usually more expensive grade that will continue to be made available with E5 post Sept. It will be legislated that garages that have a throughput of 1 million litres or more per year will have to stock E5 fuel alongside the new E10. That sort of throughput is around the volumes your typical supermarket site gets through so there should be at least one readily available in most parts of England. I have heard that there is some kind of exemption for the Highlands of Scotland where regular E5 will continue for the time being.

Perhaps all this is good news for those that are worried - also note that under this proposed legislation, E5 fuel must continue to be sold for at least 5 years after Sept.

Dave