Not all is lost! Many E10 fuels are not actually 10% Ethanol. You can test petrol easily to discover what the actual amount is. All you need is a measuring cylinder with at least 100ml of petrol (taken from a can). Add 10ml water and agitate the cylinder for a few minutes then leave for 15 minutes. To see how much water has been absorbed look at the bottom and you’ll see a discoloured band under the fuel. This is the water including any ethanol now dissolved in the water added. Take the reading up to the separation line and deduct 10 ml which is the water added. What you are left with is the percentage Ethanol. So if you have 7ml in 100ml petrol that represents 7%. The E10 rating actually represents “up to 10%” and may not actually be 10%. I run a modern classic bike being a 21 yr old Aprilia with a plastic(nylon) tank. I put Texaco Premium petrol in that because their E5 contains NO Ethanol. Other companies typically contain 2.5% Ethanol including Shell. Texaco’s E10 is less than 10% ethanol (source: several online tests by others). If in doubt just take a sample of petrol and test it. There are no winners where E10 is concerned and calling it “greener” is another damned lie since it is made from high intensity farmed crops, processed using fossil fuels and gets less fuel economy than regular full fat petrol. It isn’t saving the planet and since the UK traffic figures for pollution from CO2 amount to less than 1% of our total emissions annually this E10 nonsense only adds to our problems indirectly. This is what we get by pandering to minority views which seem to drive legislation😢

Happily I can fill up my MGB with E0. I live in Estonia, most of the petrol stations offer E0 at no premium.

Got a Morris minor 1968. They are always messing with fuel , it’s a bloody nuisance.

It’s actually quite funny to come back to this and see that as predicted it was all a fuss about nothing. I’ve been running my Stag on E10 since the switch, no problems at all, even after leaving it standing for several months each winter and never getting around to putting any stabiliser in. It started straight up in spring and drives fine, checked the carb out of interest and clean as a whistle. Been running my MGB GT on it too since I finished the rebuild 6 months ago and it’s fine. Bottom line, regular maintenance, change those 20 year old rubber hoses that should have been changed years ago anyway, and it will be fine.

I've been lucky so far with using E5 in my 1940 motorbike and 1942 Jeep, but I guess it's time to start paying for the super plus brands, especially to leave them layed up over winter. Although I do start and run them for a few minutes every so often.

E10 arrived in Finland almost 10 years ago, only 98E5 and similar premium fuels have been available for classic cars since then, except Alkylate gasoline which has no ethanol, but is more expensive than premium fuel.

I have a VW Westfalia Camper - 1984 Fuel Injected 1.9 L Petrol Engine (Californian Import from USA). I guess I will have to run it on E5 Super Unleaded.

Brilliant, thank you

I use the Castrol Vintage additive on my RR Shadow II.

Fibre glass motorcycles are liable to go soggy as the ethanol directly softens the polyester resins and then bubbles the gel coat. Disaster.

Great video this!

Great info lads 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Great content. Is there an additive I can use with the e10 to make it safe

I wrote to my tory MP over this green agenda of johnson and the effect of E10 on my 1989 Mercedes SL, plus electric cars heat pumps and hydrogen boilers , he actually wrote back telling me in no uncertain terms he fully supports the governments plans ,there was no room for maneuver on this he will not be getting my vote

Suggestion what about adding redex to help corrosive problem this is what I’m adding to my 99 boxster will see how it works

If I remember right National Benzines 5 star used to be 104 RON. Old triumph vitesse used to get it, not sure if it actualy went better but we used to tell ourselves it did.

Not driven my classic since 2015 and not going to in the near future it would seem! Can I run my car on Aldi/Lidl whiskey?

I have an mg and had to put E10 in it with the fuel shortages, it don't seem to have as much power as the e5 fuel but that might be me

E5 is max 5% ethanol. Some high octane grades are ethanol free despite the E5 sticker.

This is like when leaded fuel changed to unleaded. Soon it will be the norm and classic cars will get sorted to work on it.

So the differance between E5 and E10 is 5% more ethanol. Is this really going to destroy car engines and systems? How much real research has gone into composing a reliable study? Are we all panicking as we did over the introduction of unleaded petrol, and the Millenium? I It seems there are lots of opinions out there, none of which are really consistent. Your expert says, and he may well be right, cars after 2001 up to 2005 are more likely to be affected. We have other experts who say, vehicles after 2011 are suitable for E10 use, then its said that anything carburetted is a no no and that anything injected is ok. Seems to me like the whole industry is guessing, nobody really knows the true outcome. I think if they did, the government website that lists the vehicles that are suitable for E10 use, would be more comprehensive. If your model is not listed then comes the ole cop out ' refer to manufacturer' I too, have a Triumph Stag and Daimler V8. I have on occasion, asked the question months prior to all this, to well known suppliers of parts as to what preparations (if any) are being made with regards to the manufacture of parts suitable for E10. Never really got any definitive answers, which makes me wonder if the classic industry was taking the E10 thing seriously. Perhaps you may know otherwise. I do occasionally get the weeklies which report the warnings but not all the solutions. Does this mean the end of the classic car scene as we know it? What about E10 stabilisers. They must contribute positively towards the degradation process. I understand that fuel and oils that are hydroscopic can and will have a detrimental affect on certain componants, but the way we all seem to be thinking is that failures are imminent, going to take place in the next few weeks. Ok if we fill up with 1 tank of E10 but opinions suggest no more, or dilute with E5 where poss. The immediate problem I can see with using E10 is with the fuel mixture setting being too lean which would become noticeable more or less immediately. I wonder if adjusting the carbs to a richer setting would improve this, combined with fitting E10 compatible fuel lines and using an additive would make the cars usable! I know the Stag has plastic floats fitted in the carbs as standard which eliminates the failure of floats made where the use of solder is used (not sure the same applies to Daimler). ' O' rings i guess are the next thing to fail, the E10 hydroscopic process i guess, but wouldnt the stabiliser prevent this? Bit of a minefield this subject, so many questions to be asked and answered. Will the MOT exemption for classic cars be scrapped now? Cheers

Have a look at the new car fuel cap area... E25

My 1975 Mini seemed alright on the E10. I was only using it when I was going through a lot of fuel and people were panic buying and it was all I could get. The fuel lines seem to have been changed and the tank is pretty solid. I had it out to change a rubber cone not so long ago. I've had the carb on the kitchen table and cleaned it up after i had been using E10 and it seemed absolutely fine. Little bit of trash in the float bowl but nothing silly. I think all I would worry about is the fuel pump on the engine if it should perish the rubber in that. But I do put some premium fuel in when I can get it. I'll just keep an eye on things and be sensible. If the car was going to be parked up i'd probably drain the system anyway. :) I don't think it's the end of the world. Just if you're not very savvy with replacing the odd pipe or cleaning the carb you're not really deserving of a classic i don't think!

I recently seen a video where water was added to the fuel, shaken up, left overnight to separate, and the nearly pure fuel was decanted off, alcohol is soluble in water. I can see it being a pain if you are doing this for a full tank, maybe someone can invent a machine to do this with volume in mind, and do it cheaply.

I have done a video on how to remove the 10% of ethanol it's easy to do if you can be bothered to do the process

I tried E10 Absolute garbage , made my car slower and run rough , so I always use super unleaded now but it costs £1.60 per litre now 😭

You can add the additives to neutralise the ethanol like castrol valve plus

I haven't tried E10 yet and it worries me a little, Not sure how my Mk3 Cortina will like it. I have already upgraded the fuel lines as a precaution just in case I use the wrong pump.

How long would E10 last in winter storage. All my bikes post 2015 but I don't use them for four months of the year ?

I love my classic's too much to stick E10 petrol in the tank. I would be interested to know how much premium E5 the petrol retailers are selling now compared to before the introduction of E10.

I live in Australia and we had e10 for about 15 years but we have unleaded 91 95 and 98 the e10 is the chepest 91 and 95 and 98 are a little dearer my wife had a 2004 ford Fiesta and we ran it on e10 once and it was a new car wrecked the fuel pump but then we chaged to 95 or 98 unleaded petrol no problems we never changed the fuel pump in it

I can tell you that my 86 Honda shadow was wrecked by e10, as soon as it switched over it ran low power and over heating issues. In Ireland we only have e10 in the pumps , no other choices . Do any agricultural petrols work like Aspen 4?

Interesting watching your video. I have a Rover P4 and as I was concerned about the effects of ethanol I contacted BP, Esso and Shell to ask whether their E5 fuel actually contained ethanol as I understand that 5% is actually a maximum. Only Esso stated that their E5 premium petrol did not contain any ethanol, of the other two (I can't remember which way round) one said it did and the other wouldn't say so I now always use Esso super E5 grade in my Rover. I also did a test in my everyday Suzuki trying each grade of fuel, 0, 5 and 10% ethanol. Although not by any means a scientific testI found that for every 5% increase in the amount of ethanol in the fuel my petrol consumption increased by approximately 5mpg which served to offset the increase in the cost of the fuel. This was only on local roads not dual carriageway/motorways. Consequently I wonder whether there is actually any reduction in pollution by adding ethanol as higher fuel consumption means more exhaust emissions from petrol. What are other's experiences?

Best advice is to run all classics on super/ premiun unleaded. I run 2 1950s yanks on it & they run good. I wont touch E10.

My 2015 Toyota has got a steel tank so what about that

Why doesn't the 5% ethanol that is already in fuel attract any water and cause similar, but slower, corrosion to the 10% ethanol? Why doesn't the 5% ethanol attack rubber in a similar fashion to the 10% ethanol?

I ran e10 and caused me a lot of problems I've changed everything fuel related and still got problems... =( end of carbed engine now.

I ran an ethanol mix in my South African MGB for many years. From what I recall, when it was first introduced, some cars needed some chemical treatment - dipping of carburettors etc - to avoid problems. But it certainly wasn't the end of the world. I've driven a thousand miles from Johannesburg to Cape Town and back on the stuff! Epoxy-lining the tank was a 'no brainer' anyway, to avoid it rusting out! BTW Keeping the tank fairly full is a good way to avoid condensation within the tank - but that has always been a good idea with a raw steel tank!

Used E10 since I first started driving back in 1988. Now I use up to E30....

first looking at still pic saw a christmas tree 🎄 im thinking why put gas⛽ in a christmas tree?

Most E10s are currently E5 and most E5s are ethanol free. I'm testing several brands and will continue to do so for piece of mind for classic car drivers. The price difference will be negated by the lower mpg of ethanol. The mandate effectively made the super unleaded better value for money. I was disappointed to hear you mention EVing classics though.. you may as well just wreck your engines with whatever crap you want to run it on if you think battery power is a good idea!

In the answer to the question as what do I need to do to run E10. For a start who runs there classics or modified cars on low octane fuel. The answer given well guite a lot really fuel lines and some carburettor components. Really is that it. Don't really sound like a lot to me. Fuel tanks, steel tanks not a problem, plastic tanks not a problem. Fibreglass really is that a joke. Is there such a thing?

Listen carefully, E10 has a maximum ethanol content of 10%, most filling stations are still around 5%. If you are buying super unleaded because of the E content then you are wasting your money. Go and watch Auto Shenanigans video where he samples and measures the top five fuel suppliers.

Add a load of Redex to the tank and it will negate the E10 effects

The government have not shown any care here and their actions are unacceptable. The first time we find out about any damage being done is when the car breaks down.

Ive driven a 1986 corolla for 50000 km on E10 and absolutely nothing happened.

Ethanol is 30% less energy dense than petrol, therefore vehicles will use more petrol generating more pollution not less; another covert operation brought to us by the usual suspects.

Check "The fuel reviewer" on KZfaq, few of the fuels contain even 5% ethanol.

I've watched endless vids on E10 but is it just me that's concerned what happens after 5 years when E5 super unleaded is fazed out? This could have a huge impact on our classic cars. I've already noticed E5 becoming more expensive week after week in the UK 🇬🇧.

There’s been a bigger problems in Australia with all the boats 🚤 as they have fibreglass fuel tanks it’s been eating away at all this has been a real nightmare. Also remember even another bigger problem and that’s with you lawnmowers chainsaws and other garden implements that has an engines very concerning basically E 10 and even E5 just a higher % of ethanol the problem is it will eat away at many of the engine components. On KZfaq there’s a demonstration and what it will do to aluminium plastics rubber components and many more on KZfaq as well there’s some guys showing how to remove ethanol it’s basically fiddly but achievable one question if you remove enough ethanol and mix it with 5% this should die loot it and make it less of a problem what’s your views. As far as I can understand this ethanol is lethal stuff. Ow yes one thing is all cars using E10 will find that you will need more as you do not get the miles per gallon so it’s worth sticking with E5 even if it’s more expensive but you will get the extra miles per gallons out of it happy motoring.

rover 100 metro se run on it its a 1996

I remove the ehonol from the petrol ok it costs me but better than nothing

Why have people just whinged and accept the introduction of the fuel? I've a 1998 Rover which won't accept this junk and there isn't a station that sells super unleaded within 30 miles. I can't sell it and I can't use it, I don't want a 'modern' car as they are dull and uninteresting to me. Sod the government, I'll get a diesel when I've scraped the money together 👿👿👿

Why are folk smug about running "the good petrol"....I have put it in everything for years, even my old Vitara DD. "I run it on super unleaded"......its not an elite club.

So thanks to the government in the not too distant future they've ended classic car use!

This sucks

I've been in touch with W123 World in Swansea about using E10 in an old Mercedes and they say that E10 has been in use in the U.S since 1990 and they know of no problems being caused in any vehicle modern or classic! The plot thickens.

Not another cunning plan to get rid of petrol cars Electric car enyone 🤦‍♂️

Honda civic ep3 Type R 03, I only use E5 was using Tesco momentum not bad, but now use Esso E5 Car runs Really well and Little bit extra mpg.

I smell petrol from my car. Seals ruined? We'll see.

Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Now they want to slow down all the gas station fuel pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called "Abgasbespaßung". :-(