Triumphrat

Ski_rat · 07-29-2007

this is something I was meaning to post about as soon as I returned from my cross country trip, has anyone tried ethanol in there bike, I used E 10 "10% ethanol 90% gasoline" I experienced no negative results what so ever, the only problem I can think of if running a higher consentration of ethanol, would be the drying of the rubber componets. Any other input?

cafe_duck · 07-29-2007

10% ethanol isnt bad for your bike.

germany saw an increase in the price of beer however due to the fact that people were growing grains for ethanol rather than hopps, so in my books, ethanol is evil, lol.

all joke aside. runnign alcohol in your engine is indeed bad fr the rubber parts in your carbs. 10% won't matter however.

i've converted carbs and gastanks to run on 100% methanol, the modification was like 2.50$. no big deal really. running pure alcohol has other issues onyour engien however and you'd better be ready for it (meaning, deal with 2-300hp and rebuild it every 5 seconds)...

personally, i stay away from the stuff... but no, it won't hurt. the raised octane level will give you a bit less power,but nothign you'd really notice.

Ski_rat · 07-29-2007

our ethanol is made from corn not grains.

SHRuuM · 07-29-2007

The biggest draw back to ethanol, that no one brings up, is it attraction to water. Storage in underground tanks is a sittin' duck for water absorbtion. And last but not least, I lost between 2.5 to 3 miles per gallon in both trucks and 2mi/gal on my Thrux......but what are we gonna do? Its EVERYWHERE!

Mecchanica · 07-29-2007

Methanol is a whole different duck from ethanol. Methanol is very corrosive to aluminum and some zinc alloys and attacks some synthetic rubbers. Ethanol doesn't. Ethanol is a better fuel than methanol as it has a higher specific energy than methanol, it approaches gasoline in energy content.
Corn IS a grain. But corn isn't a good source of ethanol, better to make it from the cornstalks and cobs....cellulosic sources which are usually waste. There are currently two ways to break cellulose down into fermentable sugars, chemical and enzymatic, and when the biological approach is perfected (duplicating what termites do), then we can turn anything with cellulose into ethanol. We need to get the gasoline out of our ethanol.
We have been running E10 here for a year. The additive package has done a good job of reducing water absorption....and gasoline is also hygroscopic. I'm greatly looking forward to E100. It has an octane rating of about 116, allowing much higher compression ratios and more efficient engines with attendant improved mileage.

Ski_rat · 07-29-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecchanica

Methanol is a whole different duck from ethanol. Methanol is very corrosive to aluminum and some zinc alloys and attacks some synthetic rubbers. Ethanol doesn't. Ethanol is a better fuel than methanol as it has a higher specific energy than methanol, it approaches gasoline in energy content.
Corn IS a grain. But corn isn't a good source of ethanol, better to make it from the cornstalks and cobs....cellulosic sources which are usually waste. There are currently two ways to break cellulose down into fermentable sugars, chemical and enzymatic, and when the biological approach is perfected (duplicating what termites do), then we can turn anything with cellulose into ethanol. We need to get the gasoline out of our ethanol.
We have been running E10 here for a year. The additive package has done a good job of reducing water absorption....and gasoline is also hygroscopic. I'm greatly looking forward to E100. It has an octane rating of about 116, allowing much higher compression ratios and more efficient engines with attendant improved mileage.

Thanks that was very imformative, but what does this mean for our TriumpHs ? will we need to replace our fuel lines and our intake manifolds?

ruscook · 07-29-2007

Later Triumphs (I've owned an 05 Sprint and 07 Speed Triple) both state in their manuals that 10% ethanol is fine.

I use it and tend to do no more than 1 in 2 and usually 1 in 4 fill ups with E10 with no ill results in 32000km on the Sprint and 17000 so far on Keeley (my S3).

Russ

Mecchanica · 08-01-2007

I haven't had to change anything, other than my petcock, which was rough operating....and ooooooogly. The Pingel is definitely worth the money.
So, I would say you shouldn't have to change anything.

mikeinva · 08-05-2007

How well will Ethanol get along with motor oil? I know that Methanol will wash regular motor oil off of eng . parts you have to use a castor based oil with 100% Methanol and change it alot ( like after every race).10% would be easyer on the oil .Methanol is like a water magnet but wont hurt fuel system on a race eng. much if you run it on gas after the race.