FK2 E10 Fuel launch in September

[Vitka]

I joined this thread exactly, because we've had E10 for almost 2 years now. So i do have quite a bit of first hand experience, and I hope it can be helpful. I have no idea why any website or media source would scare people, by saying, that ethanol is bad for performance cars, while in reality, it's the opposite. I'm sure none of them used E10 before, but I've been using it for quite a while, in multiple cars, NA and turbo, no problem anywhere. I'll give you an example: many high performance drag cars in the US are made and tuned to use E85. Why? Because ethanol has a higher octane number, which is great for boosted engines, and it also burns cooler, than petrol. Yes, you need to use a bit more, because of lower caloric values, but who the hell cares on a drag strip, or racetrack, and on the other hand, by blending in 5-10% its not even noticeable. All in all, ethanol is not worse for performance engines, it's actually better.

Furthermore, I am in Europe too, only quite a bit to the south-east, but we have pretty much the same car market, the only difference may be, that Vauxhall is called Opel here. Same mix of cars means same type of fuel, as for the entirety of Europe. Why would the UK government give you something worse, that cannot be used by the people? It doesn't make any sense. Of course, the US and Australia are quite different in this regard. (I can't imagine filling my car up with 88RON)

Finally, regulations are set in stone. If something is called 95RON, it is 95RON period, no matter the contents. I can only repeat myself, many FK2s and FK8s here have been running E10 95RON for 2 years now, with no problem what so ever. They were made to run on 95RON. It's strange from Honda to say, that anything below 95 will be destructive to the engine. Yes, I'm sure the regular 88RON in the US would be destructive, but 94? Don't think so. I think the ECU would just add a bit of delay on the ignition timing, and maybe reduce boost a bit, to avoid knocking, and lose a tiny bit of power. Yet again, I'm so sure, that the UK will have E10 95RON, that I would bet my car to be taken around the Nürburgring by someone

 

[fk2fred]

Hi I've, spoken to Honda GB today with regard to the new E10 fuel due to be introduced from the 1st of September this year. I've had verbal and email confirmation that the 2015 Honda civic Type R fk2 is compatible with the fuel. In addition to this I also spoke to the Petrol retailers association who confirmed that the new E10 is 95 Ron . Some members will run their fk2's on 95 and some at a higher octane rating,the main thing is that 95 Ron is the minimum Ron the FK2 will run on.
I hope this takes away any anxiety and doubts about the new E10 fuel. One final thing is that ethanol contains less energy than petrol resulting in lower fuel economy, The Shift from e5 to E10 may increase the overall fuelling costs for petrol cars by 1.6% I read. This is not exact so will vary. We'll have to see what the price difference between the new E10 and the still for sale e5 which will be an octane rating of 97 Ron then weigh up the loss of power from the E10 Vs the gain using e5.
Happy motoring Regards Fred.

 

[fk2fred]

Hi All Type R Owners. I have just read the following information online @ goodwood.com. Regarding the E5 replacement fuel ,E10 that the government are rolling out in September 2021.
Many carburetted cars,or those that previously ran on unleaded fuel,we included in this warning. While some turbocharged or performance vehicles require a minimum octane rating of 95 or 98 and so should not be refuelled with E10.
While the department of transport has now confirmed that E5 fuels will remain available .It is as yet unknown whether they will command a premium. End of what I've read. I suppose as usual where there's money to be made E5 will command a premium price. Hopefully I will be wrong. So E10 is 91 Ron and no good for the Fk2 and fk8. Also all previous type R's as said above if they require a min octane rating of 95 or 98 also should not be refuelled with E10.
Regards Fred.

Further to the above, I emailed Goodwood.com asking them where they got their information from after I spoke to Honda UK and did they know something I didn't. They never had the courtesy to reply.

 

[fk2fred]

I joined this thread exactly, because we've had E10 for almost 2 years now. So i do have quite a bit of first hand experience, and I hope it can be helpful. I have no idea why any website or media source would scare people, by saying, that ethanol is bad for performance cars, while in reality, it's the opposite. I'm sure none of them used E10 before, but I've been using it for quite a while, in multiple cars, NA and turbo, no problem anywhere. I'll give you an example: many high performance drag cars in the US are made and tuned to use E85. Why? Because ethanol has a higher octane number, which is great for boosted engines, and it also burns cooler, than petrol. Yes, you need to use a bit more, because of lower caloric values, but who the hell cares on a drag strip, or racetrack, and on the other hand, by blending in 5-10% its not even noticeable. All in all, ethanol is not worse for performance engines, it's actually better.

Furthermore, I am in Europe too, only quite a bit to the south-east, but we have pretty much the same car market, the only difference may be, that Vauxhall is called Opel here. Same mix of cars means same type of fuel, as for the entirety of Europe. Why would the UK government give you something worse, that cannot be used by the people? It doesn't make any sense. Of course, the US and Australia are quite different in this regard. (I can't imagine filling my car up with 88RON)

Finally, regulations are set in stone. If something is called 95RON, it is 95RON period, no matter the contents. I can only repeat myself, many FK2s and FK8s here have been running E10 95RON for 2 years now, with no problem what so ever. They were made to run on 95RON. It's strange from Honda to say, that anything below 95 will be destructive to the engine. Yes, I'm sure the regular 88RON in the US would be destructive, but 94? Don't think so. I think the ECU would just add a bit of delay on the ignition timing, and maybe reduce boost a bit, to avoid knocking, and lose a tiny bit of power. Yet again, I'm so sure, that the UK will have E10 95RON, that I would bet my car to be taken around the Nürburgring by someone

Yes you're absolutely right, I've very recently spoken to a technical guy, high up in the UK Petrol retailers association who informed me that the UK e10 fuel due to be rolled out in September is blended to specifically be 95 Ron. So thats it from the horse's mouth so to speak.

 

[fk2fred]

Well after all has been said. I decided to fill up last Tuesday and went to my local Esso station and went with the idea of putting e5 97 Ron in, however when I got there what was available was E10 at 95ron or e5 supreme unleaded 99 Ron priced at 10p/ltr more than E10 which I didn't think was too bad seen as it was 99 Ron . I'd read and seen tests on YouTube to show that 97 /99 Ron does make a difference to the to the bhp only up to Honda's quoted 306bhp, as with e5 or E10 we probably weren't getting the full bhp.but I'm not sure what fuel was used when Honda was working out engine bhp and torque figures.
so my tank was half full so I filled up the other half with e5 99 Ron.
I know it's ok to mix the two and I'll get a mean figure of both. Anyway after filling up I went for a run and I don't know if it was a placebo effect or not , but I'm sure the car was running smoother and seemed to pick up better, time will tell as I before this I hadn't ran it for two weeks. When I got home I checked the mpg and I had actually got more mpg than I usually do. Has any other member had similar experiences?
Regards Fred.

 

[daz type-r]

The car in the UK is spec’d at 316 BHP because we have access to 98 + Ron, the USA is only 306 BHP as 98+ RON is more difficult to come by (happy to be corrected if that’s utter tosh). Only had the car 6 days, and it came with half a tank (I’m guessing 95 RON as the previous owner didn’t know what he bought, but can’t be 100% sure of that), so prior to driving it home brimmed it with Shell V Power (99 RON). That’s the only fuel I will be using but to answer your question, on previous hot hatches I have noticed a difference between 95 and 99 once the car “learned” the new fuel.

 

[Alex-B]

When I got home I checked the mpg and I had actually got more mpg than I usually do. Has any other member had similar experiences?
Regards Fred.

Yes, post#6 in this thread back in March I said I got better mileage from premium fuel (vpower in my case)

 

[Alex-B]

The car in the UK is spec’d at 316 BHP because we have access to 98 + Ron, the USA is only 306 BHP as 98+ RON is more difficult to come by (happy to be corrected if that’s utter tosh). Only had the car 6 days, and it came with half a tank (I’m guessing 95 RON as the previous owner didn’t know what he bought, but can’t be 100% sure of that), so prior to driving it home brimmed it with Shell V Power (99 RON). That’s the only fuel I will be using but to answer your question, on previous hot hatches I have noticed a difference between 95 and 99 once the car “learned” the new fuel.

That is utter tosh to use your words, because the US never got the FK2 and it was 306bhp.

 

[fk2fred]

I thought we were talking about the fk8 even though I run an fk2 doesn't mean we can't talk about an fk8 and have knowledge of the k20c1 engine which are the same in both the fk2 and fk8 with the exception that the fk8 develops more hp due to the retuned exhaust, the torque remains the same. And we were discussing the fact that the UK fk8 develops more hp than its counterpart in the u.s.a. and that it is due to the octane rated fuel in the states . I hope this clears up any misunderstanding and commonly we all are drivers of really outstanding Honda Civic Type R's.
Regards Fred.

 

[daz type-r]

That is utter tosh to use your words, because the US never got the FK2 and it was 306bhp.

My bad, I thought we were talking about the FK8.