Fuel Check

Joined: 17 Dec 2002 Location: Buxton Qld

Last night I read of a brilliantly simple test that can be used to
check for the amount of Ethanol in petrol. Try it at your own risk
however - I take no responsibility for all you peoples trying this at
home tonight!

Get a graduated container that has a tight fitting lid (for example a
babies milk bottle). Put it on a level surface outside (and away from
any source of ignition including cigarettes!), and pour water in up
to a convenient mark (say 200 ml). Then 3/4 fill up the bottle with
the suspect fuel. Put on the lid and then shake, shake, shake. Leave
for 10 minutes to settle.

If there is no ethanol in the fuel, then the separation line will be
exactly where it was before - 200ml. If there is Ethanol it will have
dissolved in the water and the separation line will be higher. If you
measured the volume of fuel added you can roughly calculate the % of
Ethanol.

Apparently some fuels have modifiers in them that will stop this test
working. If you suspect this then try the test with coolant instead
of water. Coolant negates the effect of the additives!

Finally, and this is obvious but - when you have finished with it
THROW THE CONTAINER AWAY - don't put it back in the kitchen cupboard -
it will always have petrol / alcohol in it no matter how much you
wash it, and milk laced with petrol is not good for young children.

You can actually buy little test-tube kits from garages overseas to
do this test - why the heck can't you get these kits here in our Big
Free Country? Interesting ain't it!
Very Happy

Joined: 22 Oct 2002

Very interesting and completely true! Ethanol is miscible in water (think methylated spirits)

You wouldn't need a baby bottle though. Any watertight container would do e.g. a jam jar etc. You can mark graduations easily enough. It doesn't have to be in mL, you could just use % instead so the exact quantities are arbitrary.

Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: Back of Greenbank, QLD

hmm...flaming baby bottles...I like it!! Very Happy

Good info tho mate!

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:09 pm

read this post and just picked up a jerrycan of "fresh" fuel this morning...so why not give it a go I thought, after all the local servo has a BIG sign that says "NO ETHONOL"......according to my test... they FAILED!!!
So I printed out the info from the original post and faxed it down to em with a "please explain" note attached......... am waiting for a reply ... should be interesting hey ! Very Happy

p/s.... I did the test 3 times and the outcome was exactly the same each time, about 3mm difference in a 2lit milk bottle.

Joined: 27 Nov 2002 Location: Lost in Melbourne.

V8Patrol wrote:

read this post and just picked up a jerrycan of "fresh" fuel this morning...so why not give it a go I thought, after all the local servo has a BIG sign that says "NO ETHONOL"......according to my test... they FAILED!!!
So I printed out the info from the original post and faxed it down to em with a "please explain" note attached......... am waiting for a reply ... should be interesting hey ! Very Happy

p/s.... I did the test 3 times and the outcome was exactly the same each time, about 3mm difference in a 2lit milk bottle.

Name the servo and place!!!! armsup

Why not take it further, send the test thing to the, Head Office of the fuel brand, then to the Today show, the one on 7 in the mornings, so everyone in aussie knows it, they all do it, and servos will SHIT and have real fuel!

Joined: 22 Oct 2002

Get a little more high tech and work it out accurately. See if you can find someone savvy in the ways of chemistry and they will be able to test it more accurately.

That 3mm difference in a 2L bottle may not be due to ethanol alone. Could be other additives. How long did you let the fuel settle after mixing it?