Ireland petrol stretching scam

[keith1948]

Just been reading in our local paper about a petrol stretching scam that has destroyed the engines of at least 600 cars in Ireland. Petrol has been doctored with about 20% Kerosene and 5% Methanol and sold in many garages in border areas, midlands and parts of the west including Co Mayo. The kerosine gums up the engines of modern cars and in some cases the pistons have melted. This has been going on for some months with thousands of litres of petrol doctored by gangs who have bought up several independent garages in Ireland as outlets for this 'fuel' which they have been delivering by the tanker load apparently.

I have read that older cars may not be affected in the same way as modern highly tuned engined cars.

 

Has anyone any knowledge or experience of effects of this fuel in TR's. One of our group managed to accidentally fill his modern petrol car up with diesel twice but successfully drained the system before it could do any damage and used the mix to run his TR on. There was a bit of smoke but otherwise no ill effects so far on the TR engine. He was awarded a sods law trophy by our group but in retrospect maybe it should have been enterprise of the year award!

 

Any comments?

Keith

[Peter Cobbold]

A TR will knock like mad, because of the terrible octane from 20% kerosene. 95RON would drop to around 83RON at a guess based on fig2 here:

http://pelagiaresearchlibrary.com/advances-in-applied-science/vol4-iss4/AASR-2013-4-4-129-134.pdf

There will be severe 'pinking' under load. You'll hear it.

 

The 5% methanol will partly correct the 83 RON (guessing, very roughly 88RON ) but will dissolve the oxide of any aluminum in the fuel system, accelerating its corrosion.

 

 

A modern engine will detect the knock and automatically retard the spark so the knock goes away. But that severely retarded engine makes less power and the excess heat goes out the exhaust, and maybe melting pistons ( from preigntion) and burning ex valves.

 

 

 

Peter

 

 

beats me how the scallies managed to sell the cr*p for so long - the cars must have felt really gutless.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Peter Cobbold

[stuart]

4 pot TR should run OK on it provided the head hadnt been shaved too much but it would definitely pink a lot. Not sure what it would do to a PI though.

Stuart.

[keith1948]

Thanks Peter for link to very good technical article. Stuart's thoughts are similar to mine. The 4 pot TR's are quite agricultural in their background so might be ok for a few miles on this stuff until you can fill up with something better. I fitted a shut off valve just in front of the fuel pump last year so I can drain the tank if I need to quite easily using a tube attached to the exit pipe to the valve in the engine bay.

Any experience from our Irish members??

Keith

[kob666e]

Go by the old saying 'if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is'.

 

Don't use much petrol at this time of year and don't think there has been any fuel stretching happening this far south. Everything else I have runs on daysul and I just keep away from places that's selling cheap fuel with signs everywhere saying 'cash only, no deit or credit cards and no receipt'! Or I can drive into the oil distributor's yard and fill up directly.

 

I'd have no loyalty, just in case somewhere is selling 'washed' fuel.

[TR NIALL]

All good in Dublin the only problem is it's to F&@king Expensive.

[marki]

Hope it's sorted by June as Somerset Triumphs are going over for nine days of touring...........

And I'm the only one in a six..

Mark

[Peter Cobbold]

Its not easy to dispose of 10 gallons of contaminated fuel, so drive to use it. A tankful of that rubbish wont necessarily damage an engine or need draining - Providing the engine is not run in the detonation zone, which means not more than, say, two thirds max thottle. The octane is only needed at full compression, and part-throttle drops the effective compression well away from the risk of knock.

 

As Stuart says the effect on the Lucas PI is unknown - the seals might not like the paraffin, dont know. With luck the corrosion inhibitors in petrol might offset the methanol's corrosion. But best not to leave the fake fuel in the system for long, use it up.

 

Peter

[Paul Down]

This Scam surprises me as both Paraffin and Methonol are more expensive than unleaded petrol in my area.

 

Paraffin used to be very inexpensive but now few garages sell it and require an explanation of its intended use before sale.

[kob666e]

Kerosene/home heating oil is currently about 63c/litre, whereas petrol is €1.25/litre.

 

Kero is widely available here because of the lack of infastructure outside urban centres for natural gas, and there is also a large rural population that rely on it for heating.

 

There's big money to be made there somewhere, attention is shifting to petrol because of the pressure customs and excise are putting on the fuel laundering business.

[Dick]

Some vintage car owners dilute with 10% paraffin to drop the octain level to suit lower compression ratios....5 / 6:1.

Petrol parafin tractors are around 6:1and run ok but the handbook suggests more frequent oil changes as not all of the parafin is burnt and some finds its way past the pistons and into the sump.....it is said.

[Richardtr3a]

I has some contaminated fuel from my MOT station in Gloucestershire. It was a small garage so I helped them out by buying a nearly full tank. As I drove away there was a terrible knock which I thought was a little end gone. I tried some fuel additive with no luck. Southern Carburetors could not tune the carbs and the plugs sooted up frequently.. In the end Darryl advised me to close up the jets to almost full height. They are now one turn from full height.

 

In the end after 700 miles it began to run better and now goes really well. I never got back to my old mpg and never returned to the garage near Stroud.