The Biofuels Act of 2006 mandates that by February 2011, all gasoline products in the Philippine market should have at least 10% ethanol blend. Because of this, BiofuelsHub.Com has been receiving a lot of inquiries on how people can “convert” their cars to make them compatible to ethanol-blended gasoline.

With the current blend of 10% ethanol, people do not have to worry since this can be used on most of the car models available in the market. As for those car owners whose older car models are totally not compatible with ethanol-blended gasoline, one way to make your car compatible to ethanol-blended gasoline is to use an ethanol converter kit.

The ethanol converter kit is a device installed in the car engine to make it compatible to other types of fuel apart from regular gasoline. It basically converts an ordinary car to a flex-fuel car. Numerous Filipinos, foremost of which is Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, already have ethanol converter kits installed in their cars to make these compatible to E85 (85% ethanol and 15% regular gasoline) fuel.

To get to know the ethanol converter kit better, we got in touch with Mr. Ray Jimenez, Brand Group Manager of Seaoil Philippines. Seaoil is currently sourcing out ethanol converter kits, the Flex 500, for distribution in the Philippine market.

The company has appointed two motor shops as authorized distributor for the Flex 500: J Brothers, located at Henry Javier Street in Pasig, and Velocity Motors and Collision Specialists, Inc., located at Shaw Boulevard corner Nueve de Pebrero in Mandaluyong. The E85 converter kits are readily-available. Installation is also very easy. Interested buyers will only have to visit the said shops. However, vehicles have to be checked first by a mechanic in the shop prior to installation to determine the configurations to be used for the software program of the converter and also to see if some components of the fuel system have to be replaced or altered.

Prices of the Flex 500 depend on the type of car engine. They are already inclusive of the checking and installation fees.

If you are worried that your car might not have enough space for the converter kit, the Flex 500 is actually small in size. In fact, Mr. Jimenez told us that an installed converter is hardly noticeable in the car engine compartment.

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