Anyone using Ethanol mix fuel

Grumpy · Postby **Grumpy** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:35 pm

I filled up the NA6 prior to a sprint at Phillip Island recently, by accident, and was a bit worried it may not work to well. Managed to get down by 2.5 seconds from my previous best on the day. Maybe it helped ???

Boags · Postby **Boags** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:23 am

If you weren't using ethanol blend you may have got down by 3 seconds... :mrgreen:

COW.

16bit · Postby **16bit** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:39 am

i have on good authority that e85 is going to be available in about 1 month in brisbane! i am getting things in place to have my xede ready with second map and switch.

Matty · Postby **Matty** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:30 pm

Grumpy wrote:I filled up the NA6 prior to a sprint at Phillip Island recently, by accident, and was a bit worried it may not work to well. Managed to get down by 2.5 seconds from my previous best on the day. Maybe it helped ???

If you can't tell whether it was the car or you that accounts for 2.5 seconds, it was you.

Grumpy · Postby **Grumpy** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:57 pm

Thanks for the vote of confidence Matty.
I must admit that the brother and the nephew were also quicker on the day. Upon investigation it seems there was a race meeting the previous weekend and the track must have still had lots of rubber on it.
Best we managed for the day was 2.04.5 in an almost standard NA6 (1600), so we are pretty pleased with that.

adherent · Postby **adherent** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:58 pm

So .. is there any problem with using the ethanol mix in a 90 NA6 daily driver?

Grumpy · Postby **Grumpy** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:04 am

According to the list of vehicles I saw, MX5's from 2005 onwards are fine. I used 3/4 of the tank on the track and don't use the car as a daily anymore so can't comment further.

Alf · Postby **Alf** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:48 pm

Grumpy wrote:According to the list of vehicles I saw, MX5's from 2005 onwards are fine.

Unfortunately that leaves out NAs and NBs. I did read advice on the Mazda Australia site at one stage not to use ethanol blends greater than 5% in NB8As due to a perishing effect on some of the rubber or plastic parts. Can't comment on a '90 NA6 though.

Cheers,
Alf

Grumpy · Postby **Grumpy** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:25 am

It was an accident Alf, won't do it again just in case.

SuperMazdaKart · Postby **SuperMazdaKart** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:55 am

the ethanol can also loosen up the dirt on the bottom of the fuel tank & then clog up the fuel filter. useful bit of info if your thinking about changing the fuel filter.

Damo · Postby **Damo** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:53 am

Grumpy wrote:According to the list of vehicles I saw, MX5's from 2005 onwards are fine. I used 3/4 of the tank on the track and don't use the car as a daily anymore so can't comment further.

I would imagine that that is not because it is definitely not Ok but rather because they never tested it at the time and aren't going to spend money testing an old car now. Having said that I would rather not use it for my car to be safe and because I don't like peoples food supply going to my fuel tank.

Blue94t · Postby **Blue94t** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 9:13 am

I ran my NA8 turbo on Shell V power racing 100 almost exclusively.
It is a 5% ethanol mix fuel and when the car was unregistered it would sit around between race meetings with fuel in the tank.
I never had any issues with it at all and the piece of mind that I had 100 octane was well worth it.