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Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz
I recall back in the day watching a documentary on ethanol cars, and they had a very small petrol tank (under the bonnet in that model) that was used for starting, so yes.
Apparently Alcohol has a very low "Cetane Rating" which is used to reflect how easy a fuel is to ignite.
But I would think that with modern high-compression engines, and electronically variable everything, there would be a way to overcome that problem?
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Nope, in freezing cold conditions during US northern winters, E85 needs more gasoline added to enable engines to start reliably. Apparently high Ethanol fuels are a real cow to start in low/freezing temperatures.
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True, but surely they could achieve that result with a small addition of salts or oils?
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Probably because Holden pushed for it as the US based specification and that's what oil companies went with. We could probably use E100 in Australia but deferred to E85 as part of Holden's flex fuel vehicle strategy.