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Hello!
As a new 912UL owner I am wondering whether to use 95E10 with 10% ethanol or 98E5 with 5 % ethanol now in autumn when condension water may occur in tanks. I assume that the possible condension water is dissolved in the ethanol. However, as I have found in literature, the diluted ethanol may not be dissolved in the gasoline and two different solutions, gasoline and diluted ethanol may be separated and cause problems. So I conclude that the higher ethanol % in 95E10 dissolves more water than 98E5 and the risk for separation is smaller? Agree?
  • Re: Ethanol in gasoline

    by » 7 years ago


    You are correct!
    E-10 fuel will absorb twice the amount of water that E-5 will.
    If you have water in your tank, it most likely entered the tank as liquid water and not as water vapor that later condensed.
    The conditions to cause any water to condense internally in a fuel tank are very difficult to create in real life.

    E10 fuel will absorb up to ~0.5% its volume of water.
    That means that 20 gallons of fuel will absorb >12 ounces of water.
    That is a cup and a half!

    If you consider that 50:1 2 cycle fuel contains 2% of a non-burnable Oil...
    <0.5% (200:1) of non-burnable water in the fuel will have less than 1/4 the effect that the oil does on performance.

    If you ever were to get fuel so bad that it phase separated,
    diluting the bad fuel with fresh fuel will reverse the separation and re-absorb the water.

    If you use E-0 fuel, remember that it will not absorb any water.
    The small amount of water found in tank sumps become a thing of the past when E-10 fuel is used.

    Bill Hertzel
    Rotax 912is
    North Ridgeville, OH, USA
    Clicking the "Thank You" is Always Appreciated by Everyone.


    Thank you said by: Tapio Pirilä, Ken Ryan

  • Re: Ethanol in gasoline

    by » 7 years ago


    Hi Bill,

    FINALLY a voice of reason. :) My background is Hazardous Materials on the fire dept. (retired)
    I try to explain about ethanol myths, but sometimes it just falls on deaf ears.

    Roger Lee
    LSRM-A & Rotax Instructor & Rotax IRC
    Tucson, AZ Ryan Airfield (KRYN)
    520-349-7056 Cell


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