e10 ethernol blends in old e30 323i

[Madhatter]

Fuel has no lead in it anymore, so im not sure where he thinks you'll get lead from. It's probably been driving around on unleaded all these years so the damage will have been done.

Cars designed in the mid 80's had hardened valve seats and would run on unleaded fuels without wear. It was really the cars before that which suffered, mainly on the valve seats. If you want to buy some valvesaver type liquid, just run it every 4 or so tank fulls, keep a little bottle in the car.

You need to be running premium not E10. E10 blended stuff is only a min of 93 octane, the original leaded fuel was around 96. So you need to run a minimum 95/96 octane fuel (all the premium fuels in aus will be this at a minimum).

Nothing really to tune it to suit the lesser fuels, even if you alter the ignition timing I don't think you'll be able to pull enough timing out of it to stop it pinging without the engine feeling flat and lifeless.

Small blends are ok, it's things like Premium 100 and E85 you really need to be wary of running in an old car. They have much higher amounts of ethanol in them.

[efficient]

who knows. but you should try it out

[lentildude]

I get mixed views when I ask if its ok to use 10% ethenol blends in my old e30. My general garage mechanic said no problem at all and even not to bother adding a lead substitute additive into each fill of gas (to compensate for lead lubricant in old lead fuels). He said there would still be plenty of lead lubricating valves adding newer (phosphorus?) lubricant additive is optional but not necessary in these old cars that have started their lives running lead fuel.

The e10 biofuel mix in Australia is meant to bring octane up to 91.
Isnt the stock tuning/timing in the ECU chip set to 87? Is it worth bothering upgrading the ROM tune to octane 91?

Do you need to add a lead replacement additive each fill?

Should I use e10 blend fuels or will that damage the seals/rubber tubing in the fuel injection etc??


Noone seems to give me a concise answer so thought would ask here.



PS:

fuel companies homepage says not recommended on old cars contrary to what mechanic told me - covering their arses perhaps?

" the use of ethanol blended petrol in fuel injection systems will result in early deterioration of components such as injector seals, delivery pipes, and fuel pump and regulator.Mechanical fuel injection systems and earlier electronic systems may not be able to fully compensate for the lean-out effect of ethanol blended petrol, resulting in hesitation or flat-spots during acceleration.
Difficulty in starting and engine hesitation after cold start can also result."