An experimental study on wear, deposits, performance, and emissions of bio-fueled motorcycle engines

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study investigated the impact of gasoline and ethanol-gasoline blend E5 on motorcycle engine wear, deposits, performance, and emissions following an endurance run test. The dimensions, appearance of the major components, and engine performance and emission have been measured to compare. Compared to the E0 case, the ring grooves and piston’s skirt in the case of E5 fueling were relatively cleaner. The piston skirt wear was 0.06 mm for E0 and 0.04 mm for the E5 case. After the endurance run test, the mass of deposits on the intake valves and valve seats was 247.3 mg for the E0 and 323.8 mg for the E5 case. In addition, the electrode gap of the spark increased gradually up to 50% after 200 h of running for E0, but the gap was only 31.5% raised for E5. A slight increase of 1.63% and 1.51% on average brake power was observed for E0 and E5 cases after 100 h of operation. However, the observed power drop of 2.55% for E0 and 1.86% for E5 as the test engines reached 200 h of operation. The CO emission was reduced by 1.73% to 4.81% for E0-engine and 0.58% to 2.35% for E5-engine after 100 h. But, after 200 h, CO increased 1.12% to 8.07% for E0 and 0.24% to 0.38% for the E5-engine within speeds 4000 rpm to 7000 rpm. HC increased by 4.69% to 14.14% for the E0-engine and 1.55% to 6.98% for the E5-engine after the endurance run test. There was an unpredictable tendency of NOx emission after 100 h and 200 h of operation for both test engines.