From another
forum.
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!