Not sure how many other people saw 'The best of Topgear' today... infact as i write this its still on and raised a question.

Does Biofuel offer more tuning poteintial than standard Petrol?

Reason i ask is because in the clip with the new Koeningzeig (or however its spelt) Jeremy Clarkson mentions if ran on US spec fuel it would produce 800BHP, if it ran on Euro spec fuel it would produce 850BHP but if you ran it on Biofuel he mentioned a figure the bright side of 900BHP.

How? Why? How would this effect my 06 STi? and with a remap on this stuff would i see more power?

 

Bio-ethanol has a much higher RON rating than petrol, so if your car is capable of being mapped to make use of this, then you can get more power (although worse MPG, bioethanol contains about 30% less energy per gallon than petrol). Many modern fuels use a 10 or 15% bio-ethanol mix (ie Tesco 99), which you can use without making adjustments to your car. You can run on much higher percentages, but your engine would require serious reworking - I doubt it would be practical to do it.

 

On the BTCC programme today the RAC team running the MG's is running bio fuel and is performing well.

 

They are using E85 (85% bioethanol) - the engines in the cars will have been significantly modified.

 

So would i need my engine heavily modified to run this? or a just a re-map?

Why also is this stuff still soo expensive if its a 'green' fuel? and why arent more cars coming out to run it if you can get more power out of it?

 

Governments don't you love 'em?

You can run the normal E10 / E15 (10% / 15% bioethanol (Tesco 99)) with no problem and no remapping. You could not run E85 in a standard petrol engine (of any car, not just a Scoob).

You would have thought that if this was so 'green' that they would lower the cost, but it is not that simple. Bioethanol is carbon neutral, but it does produce more emissions from the exhaust - which might make the MOT emissions test interesting!

Also you have the ethical question of: With a third of the world's population starving, is it right to pay farmers to plant perfectly edible crops and then turn them into fuel rather than food?

 

I am not sure you should put much relevance on anything Clarkson says.
As already stated, bio fuels have less energy so you could expect to burn more of it for the same result.
As your Subaru engine has been developed on petrol that would be your choice for reliable, optimum performance.

Whatever you do, if you are remapping the car, choose the fuel you want, map for that and stick to it.

 

https://www.scoobynet.com/shell-v-po....html?t=539867


Chris, In Australia they have Shell Optimax Extreme which is an E5 or E10 fuel but is not to be used on STI's from 01 -06.( See link above).

 

Another link regarding Subaru and Ethanol Fuels

http://www.subaru.com.au/news/?newsid=12342

 

Interesting point RE problems running Ethanol blends on MY99/00 STi's!

Might make me glad I have always stuck to Optimax (now v-power) for my STi V

 

That's interesting on the Subaru Australia front - not heard of that before - from any manufacturer.

Also have a look at the Lotus Exige 265E

 

I'm sure I read something in the Subaru manual about Bio fuels. I think it said no more than 10% was allowed. Tesco 99 has 5% I believe.

Anders

 

Somebody successfully running their Scoob on E85:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=803341

 

Resurrecting this thread....

I have been keeping tabs on this link: E85 fuel FAQ - Engine Management & Tuning - NASIOC .... its a whopper if you havent been reading it as its developed but essentially it would appear a New fuel pump, bigger injectors and a remap and a standard STi should be able to perform as well as it does on Petrol on E85 Bio fuel (whilst remaining carbon neutral).

I would love to hear the thoughts of one of the reputable mappers on here.