10% Ethanol

There are only a couple stations in driving distance from my house that sell E85 (flex fuel - 85% ethanol) and they charge more for it ($2.30 per gal.) than the cost of regular (10% ethanol) gasoline ($1.94 per gal.). What a joke! My truck can use E85, but I've never tried it. Considering that it costs more than regular gas but provides poorer fuel economy I never will try it. Ed

I guess they're pushing it here.
Steve

650ed wrote: There are only a couple stations in driving distance from my house that sell E85 (flex fuel - 85% ethanol) and they charge more for it ($2.30 per gal.) than the cost of regular (10% ethanol) gasoline ($1.94 per gal.). What a joke! My truck can use E85, but I've never tried it. Considering that it costs more than regular gas but provides poorer fuel economy I never will try it. Ed

I had to blend E-85 into my regular E-10 to make about E-30 so my 1992 Saturn could pass HC emissions. The arbitrarily lowered the HC limits to about 1/3 what they were when it was built to force all the old cars off the road.

I would run the gas tank down til it was less than 1/8 full then add one gallon of E-85. Then get it smog tested and run straight to the gas station and fill it with regular to dilute the E in the gas.

bl_francis wrote: The whole thing is weird to me. The government subsidizes farming a lot.

Ethanol gas is like a change machine where you put in a dollar and get 60 cents in change.

650ed wrote: There are only a couple stations in driving distance from my house that sell E85 (flex fuel - 85% ethanol) and they charge more for it ($2.30 per gal.) than the cost of regular (10% ethanol) gasoline ($1.94 per gal.). What a joke! My truck can use E85, but I've never tried it. Considering that it costs more than regular gas but provides poorer fuel economy I never will try it. Ed

I'm not too terribly far from you (Richmond) and I'm in the same boat. However, I struggle to find anywhere around here that sells straight gas. The closest place is in Dinwiddie or Powhatan and both are solid half hour drives. If I drive up your way, there seem to be more places in northern VA or DC that actually have good gas. The E85 is available in DC everywhere. Why can't I get the good stuff?

My engine likes 87 octane 10% ethanol fuel, for some reason. I've tried Non-E (premium only), but the spark plugs foul.
Why is Non-E 87 not available as an option to premium? :S

Ask the ones lining their pockets.
Steve

I filled up yesterday. Funny, there was a faded banner that said they had e-free gas. I never really noticed it, I only go by there on rare occasions.

It's rated at 88 octane and is 30-40¢ more than regular 85 octane. Premium is 90 Oct around here and about the same price. I'm only getting 4 gal or so a fill up so that's ok. Total was just over $11 since I was already on reserve.

I'm curious to see what difference it makes

Ethanol is the worst thing to happen to gas. :evil:
In the last 2 years I have Cleaned/rebuilt 6 sets of carburetors due to soft parts being dissolved'
It also leaves flakes of dried film if you leave it just a week or so...
No pure gas near here, so you become a carb specialist :ohmy:

I have an 82 KZ750N1 Spectre and I have been running 87 octane since it was new. No problems, but then as a rule I clean the carbs every spring, and rebuild every two to three. Drain the tank and carbs over winter and coat the tank inside with oil. Rebuilt the auto petcock maybe three times.

I've certainly seen a lot gummed up fuel systems. I teach Auto Tech, and we can have cars that can go for years on a full tank of gas. Pulling in and out of the building doesn't use much gas. Ive seen misfires caused by plugged injectors, and I've seen a Hemi Dodge Magnum bend the push rods because the valves gummed up and would not move. But no one ever had a good explanation as to how ethanol causes it. A 20 year old bottle of scotch doesn't seem to be affected after opening, and it's 40% ethanol.

I was at an automotive instructors trade show last month, and there was a booth from another college who had done a study on ethanol in fuel. They ran three generators for hundreds of hours. One one ethanol free, on on e10, and one on e85. Guess which was the cleanest? The e85 engine had almost no carbon.

We got into a discussion on ethanol in fuel causing gumming. They mentioned that they had the gasoline analyzed. It turns out the regular grade e10 was swill! But it wasn't the ethanol that was the problem.

While renewable fuels are a worthy goal, that is not the only reason ethanol is used. It oxygenates the fuel and boosts octane. It replaces things like MTBE. The fact that it raises octane means that the gas companies can use lesser base fuels and not worry about it knocking. They found premium fuel with 10% ethanol to be much better.

I'm not claiming that ethanol doesn't cause any issues, but it's an interesting conversation. I would be curious how much less problems would be caused if we ran "top tier" fuel though our delicate carburetor passages...

Top Tier

There is no question that the 10% ethanol stuff coagulates faster in storage compared to pure gasoline fuel. This means that your vehicles that don't get used regularly will have plugged up carbs faster because of it. I'm not sure what the exact chemical reaction taking place that causes it to happen but I suspect it relates to the ethanol absorbing moisture out of the air. A shot of Marine Staybil in the tank will help the situation immensely. It's just a pain in the butt to remember.