Hi,

I live in France and, as everywhere, fuel prices are forever increasing. However a lot of fuel stations are selling E85 Superethynol fuel and it is significantly cheaper than E10 Unleaded.

Would it be safe to use this in my CBR600 F4.

Thanks

 

I would say that theoretically you probably could but you wouldn't like the outcome. From what little I know about e85, it takes more of it to produce the same combutive properties. So you would have to rejet or you'd have a bike that was super sluggish. Also e85 is more corrosive so I don't know how the existing engine components would fare.

 

I think I will try about half a tank full and see how I get on. If I do it from empty and don't like it I can fill the rest of the tank as normal and dilute it out.
I will report back when I have done it.

 

No your bike can run't on it for a lot of reasons. Mostly because your bike wasn't designed to run on it.
Even if you rebuild your engine and carbs to run on E85, you won't save money because you'll be burning 35% more fuel to run correctly.
That's why E85 is cheaper. I'm betting it's 35% cheaper. That's not a coincidence.

Can you just fill up at an E85 pump?

Unless you have a Flex Fuel capable vehicle, the answer is no. Normal gasoline has a stoichiometric air fuel ratio of 14.7:1, while E85 is 9.8:1. ‘Stoichiometric’ is a chemical term that refers to the required ratio of fuel and air for complete combustion. Again, if you failed chemistry this means that on pump gas we need 14.7 parts air to mix with one part fuel. On E85 however, we now mix one part fuel to 9.8 parts air. So on E85 the air/fuel ratio needs to be significantly richer, which means it contains a larger volume of fuel. To achieve this we need to inject around 35 per cent more fuel to mix with the same volume of air when we switch from gasoline to E85. In short, your car needs to be tuned to run correctly on E85.

 

OK that has cleared that up then. It was a nice thought that I could save a bit of cash but if it uses 35% more then the economy has gone.

I will stick with E10