Maxol E5

[Dave]

Ok folks, I haven't really being paying much attention to this as it hasn't been available down my neck of the woods but it has now become available!

Couple of questions, what's the octane, any difference in fuel economy, oh and I assume it'd be safe to use in my Zed!!

It's noticeably cheaper too, it's only 96c in my local maxol!! in comparison to 117 of the normal unleaded stuff!!

[Muad_dib77]

Been using this with no problems at all in the fto..

just be careful you don't fill her with e85 instead mate.

[Dave]

I presume the e85 is the doosel version?

[Myfeckin FTO]

Sounds like you are confusing E85 with E5 - Dave.

E85 is ethanol - E5 has something like a 10% mix and is 99.2RON.

I use it all the time in the Zed and while I don't notice much of a performance increase I do notice from the trip computer that my economy has gone from an average of 7.8km per litre to 9km per litre which was a far better gain than when I added Silkolene Pro Boost to a tank. I reckon the Zed likes E5 - I know the ECU will adjust to the 95 RON by retarding the timing etc but I'd prefer if it didn't need to.

[Dave]

what's the price of the e5 stuff? or is it only the e85 that's cheaper?

[d_dan]

im starting to think my cars been maped to 95 as its harder on the E5

[Myfeckin FTO]

what's the price of the e5 stuff? or is it only the e85 that's cheaper?

E5 is just standard Maxol fuel - its marked as E5 on the pumps.
E85 is cheaper but not suitable for an unleaded only car.
Though you could throw a few litres of the E85 in there mixed with your regular fuel to bring the RON up a bit. Wouldn't mind a little experiment to add 5 litres of E85 to a tank of E5 to bring RON to somewhere around 102 RON. I imagine the calorific value of the fuel would change somewhat but that the benefits would outweight the negatives.

The only reason that there is no super unleaded in this country is that the government raised the VAT on superunleaded to unviable levels. E5 is a superunleaded fuel masked as a green regular unleaded fuel. They were smart enough not to market this as a super unleaded fuel because of the higher tax bands it would attract.

[Dave]

Yeah just did a bit of research on this, I must have seen the E85 bill board or something... I might throw a few tanks in and see how full consumption goes!
As for mixing, I suppose it wouldn't do much harm, it'd probably only bring the mix up to 10% ethanol which should do any damage to pipes/hoses etc, they're considering bringing it to E10 anyhow!

What is the Zed's normal octane rating? is it 95?

[mcgon1979]

Im not near any Maxol stations at all, but apprently its an EU legislation that says all garages must sell an ethanol mixed fuel by 2010 for environmental reasons so hopefully they will all be using it soon.

[Myfeckin FTO]

.........What is the Zed's normal octane rating? is it 95?

The Jap spec Zed (i.e. mine) is designed to run on 102RON.
The UK spec Zed (yours) has a different ECU but is designed to run on superunleaded - 98/99 RON

Either way whatever fuel you use the Zeds ECU will adapt accordingly which would indicate better performance and economy if using higher RON fuel.

[CJ]

I have to go out of my way to get E5, its a pain but I would much rather run the Galant on something remotely near 100RON as per manufacturer requirements.

Before the FTO passed on to Adrian, I filled up on E5 for the last 2 fills. I felt the engine had more urgency but more importantly, I noticed a 15% jump in fuel economy (Lower octane fuel = knock = ECU retarding timing and injecting more fuel into the cylinders to conpensate = lower power).

E5 makes sense guys, go get it!

CJ

[Dave]

Ah right I see now.... sure if it's the same price and I get better fuel consumption/performance I don't see why not!

[mcgon1979]

Lads, I need to research this some more, but I am told that Statoil already use a 5% ethanol mix in all the unleaded petrol they sell. It has just not been marketed yet like the Maxol stuff is. On their website they say the sell IS EN 228 specification petrol. this is from an EU fuel site..

"Current European specification petrol (EN228) can contain up to 5% ethanol without any need to declare it. Motor manufacturers warrant their vehicles to run on EN228."

The law wil lchangein 2010 so that they MUST contain 5% ethanol and in the future this will be changed to 10%. Trying to find out some more info on it though.

[mcgon1979]

This is from The Post.ie FYI: Topaz Energy own Statoil Ireland.

Biofuels is in its infancy in Ireland, but the government’s White Paper on energy has set a 10 per cent minimum use for biofuel by 2020.

The government is aiming for a national biofuels obligation on fuel suppliers of 5.75 per cent by 2009, which has provided greater market certainty and encouraged further investment.

Already, heavyweights such as National Toll Roads, Larry Goodman’s Irish Food Processors and Philip Lynch’s have entered the biofuels business.

Biofuels emerged as a politically attractive option for Western politicians amid rising petrol prices, an over-reliance on Middle Eastern oil and mounting concerns about global warming.

Irish Food Processors, Green Biofuels Ireland, Conoco Phillips, Biodiesel Production Ireland, Maxol, Topaz Energy Ltd, NTR’s Bioverda, Greyhound Recycling and Recovery, Eco Fuels, Eco Ola, Bord na Mona, Emo Oil, Eilish Oils/Glanbia, and Goldstar Oils also secured excise relief.

The package, developed by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, will exempt biofuel companies that manufacture, import or consume biofuels, from exchequer duties and excise taxes.

[mcgon1979]

Minister Dempsey announced that 4 bioethanol projects were to be
granted excise relief under the Scheme. The successful projects are as
follows:-

Category Company Volume awarded for 2006 - 2010

Bioethanol Cooley-Clearpower, 54.38m litres
Bioethanol Maxol Ltd, 42.15m litres
Bioethanol One Fifty One Ltd 176.07m litres
Bioethanol Topaz Energy Ltd 33.4m litres

You can see that aswell as Maxol, Topaz have got similar volumes approved for excise relief. Would be good if I can get word that they are using 5% mix aswell as there are alot more statoil/topaz/shell garages than maxol.

[stevec]

Topaz have some specs on their petrol here.

http://www.topazenergy.ie/products_services.asp?id=28

I downloaded the petrol .pdf, a bit confustering but cant see any mention of ethanol.

It seems to be for shell V-Power, Statoil could be different.

[sinlessgunner]

So basically this stuff is almost 20c cheaper per litre than the normal unleaded in Texaco or Shell or whatever, increases your MPG and makes the car perform better?

Or am I way way off the mark here??

[stevec]

So basically this stuff is almost 20c cheaper per litre than the normal unleaded in Texaco or Shell or whatever, increases your MPG and makes the car perform better?

Or am I way way off the mark here??

No, it's the same price and so far sold by Maxol.

You're thinking of E85, cheaper but different stuff alltogether.

[Dave]

No it's the same price, it's the E85 that's cheaper, that's got a 15% ethanol mix, but you couldn't run this for too long as the ethanol would eat away at hoses, pipes and so on and so forth...

It's basically the same price, but is a rated higher and gives better fuel economy, helps performance and should make your engine run that little bit smoother, so if you can get it do so!!

[sinlessgunner]

Is it widely available? Theres a maxol garage down the road from where I live but I never seen anything on the billboard except unleaded or is it just marketed as unleaded?

[stevec]

There's a list of stations here that sell it

http://www.maxol.ie/general-content/e5-stations.html

[sinlessgunner]

Great link Stevec, the one beside me in Dublin has it and theres one beside me in Longford too

Happy Days!

[CJ]

Guys, this has been discussed at some lenght in a previous post:

http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/phpBB2 ... php?t=5637

CJ