Ethanol, Do you Avoid Using Gas Containing Ethanol?

[sedanman]

RXCRIDER . Yes it was one of those. My 2 cycle power equipment was having FITS with the ethanol and this was the lesser of 2 evils. The octane issue is debateable in my opinion because of the btu content of the ethanol. My street strip car is eqipped with after market EFI and is easily tuneable to run on gasoline or alcohol and any blend of the two I care to run. Ethanol requires almost twice as much fuel to make the same powrer. For the 2 cycle stuff I never had any engine problems that I would blame on low octane. I had pleny of carb and fuel problems I could blame on ethanol.

 

[sedanman]

To clarify. The 2 cycle stuff of late has fixed jet non adjustable carburetors and adding ethanol seriously upsets the air fuel ratio. It would need fatter jetting to compensate for the lesser heat content of the ethanol.

 

[rxcrider]

Absolutely right. So as long as the compression ratio / porting and ignition timing don't conspire with the reduced octane rating to result in pinging / knocking and the resultant damage... If you know enough to tune your car to run straight ethanol, I'll trust that you know when your saw is knocking. That leaves my current concern about being able to pass ethanol / water mix through the funnel.

 

[glenb]

Perhaps this is a sign of the times and shows if you want to avoid ethanol, it will likely be an uphill battle.

I stopped in at the local Petrocan station tonight to top up the SUV.

There were no signs or sticker on the pumps indicating ethanol content.

I asked them inside if they knew if all grades had ethanol, the answer was "yes", up to 10% for ALL grades.

Based on this, it sounds like you cannot be sure what you are getting but chances are, you are getting ethanol.

 

[dieselyoda]

To catergorize, your comments apply in Canada only.

Perhaps this is a sign of the times and shows if you want to avoid ethanol, it will likely be an uphill battle.

I stopped in at the local Petrocan station tonight to top up the SUV.

There were no signs or sticker on the pumps indicating ethanol content.

I asked them inside if they knew if all grades had ethanol, the answer was "yes", up to 10% for ALL grades.

Based on this, it sounds like you cannot be sure what you are getting but chances are, you are getting ethanol.

I would be a bit upset if I didn't know I was putting up to 10% Ethanol in my tank when the law explicitly states volumes above 5% must be reported. Based on where you live, beautiful place in my opinion, you have a plethora of New Canadians and at times, they tend to look at our laws and compare to where they come from and strike a middle ground.

My airheads couldn't tolerate a drop of Ethanol and currently, my little KZ440 LTD had to have all the fuel system switched to E-% compatible. I go through carb soft parts like corn through a Canada Goose.

To get back on track about gas containers.......................

 

[Omega Man]

I don't think there are any, they're all designed to spill gas everywhere, be hard to operate and expensive- for the unnecessary trouble it seems you are buying.

FTFY Tom.
Gary

 

[47512]

In California it's hard to avoid. In my old bikes I run Airplane gas or race gas.

 

[179411]

I haven't seen a non-lawyered plastic gas container for retail sale here in Kanada for years now.

At least in BC, Chevron 94 and Shell 91 is reputed to be alcohol-free. I have seen stickers to that effect at one of the stations I frequent. I am not a shell fan, so all - and I mean all - of my non-automotive small engines have Chevron 94 in them... except for my 100LL guzzling transportation appliance.

My carburetted bikes hibernate with 94 in them and start immediately in the spring. I'm not above cutting the 94 with some 100LL either; after all, they were designed for leaded fuel.

I ran anything and everything for gasoline going to the rally in Salem last year; it didn't seem to make a difference to the RT, but when I got home the first stop was at the Chevron station.

 

[jforgo]

Not possible to avoid the ethanol around here. I see you can get ethanol-free in a corn state like Iowa, where big agribiz and their minions would likely push for the ethanol subsidies which drives all this - seems ironic.

 

[Zygmund]

I get the biggest kick out of the blatant one-upsmanship on here........Now it's gas can "mine is better than yours".......For me, I could care less...........I do hate the what I call "Ob.m." cans, actually spouts. The spouts are now a three handed affair and forget about turning a ten year old loose with lawn mower chores.......
Anyway, a couple of years ago I found these and use them on a constant basis. Figure perhaps 20 gallons of diesel, 10 to 15 gallons of gas and a gallon or so of 2 cycle per month:

http://ezpourspout.com/wp/

Again, been using them a couple of years now and they stand up to even my hired hand......

All gas that comes on this place is immediately treated with Lucas gas treatment, stabil...the ethanol kind, and or the new stuff called "startron" which they say is even better than stabil..........Since I began doing this, treat in the can as soon as I unload from the transport vehicle, going on 3 or 4 years ago now, the MANY gasoline driven tools and equipment have had ZERO.......NO........gas related problems........Before that it was fuel lines, float bowels, and dissolved plastic parts in the carbs.........

Not gonna go into the equipment but it's your standard:
2 chainsaws
3 tillers, including a 63 troy bilt horse in preemo condition
weed eaters
industrial chipper
ON AND ON AND ON..................

Anyway, good stuff...........http://ezpourspout.com/wp/............God bless.......Dennis

63 Troy Bilt, sweet!

 

[36654]

RXCRIDER . Yes it was one of those. My 2 cycle power equipment was having FITS with the ethanol and this was the lesser of 2 evils. The octane issue is debateable in my opinion because of the btu content of the ethanol. My street strip car is eqipped with after market EFI and is easily tuneable to run on gasoline or alcohol and any blend of the two I care to run. Ethanol requires almost twice as much fuel to make the same powrer. For the 2 cycle stuff I never had any engine problems that I would blame on low octane. I had pleny of carb and fuel problems I could blame on ethanol.

Just to be factual, pure ethanol (E100) has 2/3 the energy content (BTU's per gallon) of gasoline. Therefore, E10 gasohol has 96.7% energy content of pure gas.

 

[sedanman]

Thank you for keeping me honest. When I'm burning alcohol in the Dodge it sure SEEMS like I'm using twice as much.

 

[36654]

Thank you for keeping me honest. When I'm burning alcohol in the Dodge it sure SEEMS like I'm using twice as much.

The 20~21 mpg in my Tacoma makes me think I've adopted the local gas station as a charity....

 

[SeabeckS]

And yet, when I run corn fuel in my Avalon, I get about 10% less mileage.

Two years ago, made a round trip to Chicago from Seattle. As a sort of test I tried a few tanks of E10, and a few tanks of real gas, while crossing the plains. All interstate driving, using cruise control...ran the tank nearly dry before filling up again. In dash mileage computer tracked right along with calculated mileage when refueling. 31+mpg with real gas, 28 or there abouts with corn.

YMMV!

Cheers

 

[sedanman]

But E10 is only 10% corn. Try it on E85 ( assuming your car is capable) and see how horrible your mileage is.

 

[SeabeckS]

But E10 is only 10% corn. Try it on E85 ( assuming your car is capable) and see how horrible your mileage is.

Thank goodness E85 isn't widely available here!

We only have one convenient place to get pure gas, I fuel up there most of the time.

And our '07 Avalon isn't compatible with that E85 garbage. Many of my family members live in Northern Iowa, and they all think the corn fuel thing is a BAD idea for several reasons. Of course none of them are farmers!

 

[osbornk]

I did a n experiment a few years ago with a 2008 Impala I had at the time that got around 30 MPG on the interstate. My mother-in-law was in the hospital 90 interstate miles from my house and I had to drive back and forth every day. I ran out full tanks of both pure gas and ethanol gas for several days. Because the roads and conditions were identical each day, I felt the comparison was accurate. Pure gas got 2 MPG better mileage than the ethanol stuff. The pure gas station later closed so it ceased to matter.

 

[dennisdarrow]

Ok........now throw in the equation, MPG comparisons, of the summer VS winter blends..........I go from here, just south of Chattanooga up to Nashville on a couple of times per month basis..........My Merc SLK320 in the winter go a steady 30 mpg to 32 mpg at 75 to 80 mph with bursts way up there to get around traffic. The latest 2 trips in May and June were 24 and 26 mpg..........same speed and traffic......

The same deal in my V-6 Honda pilot gone from 320 miles per tank down into the 280's..........Summer blends are definitely a money maker for the oil guys with using more fuel during vacation???? Yes, tree huggers I understand about the ozone layers, CO2, and the necessity of the blends..........RIGHT..........God bless.......Dennis

 

[47512]

I did a n experiment a few years ago with a 2008 Impala I had at the time that got around 30 MPG on the interstate. My mother-in-law was in the hospital 90 interstate miles from my house and I had to drive back and forth every day. I ran out full tanks of both pure gas and ethanol gas for several days. Because the roads and conditions were identical each day, I felt the comparison was accurate. Pure gas got 2 MPG better mileage than the ethanol stuff. The pure gas station later closed so it ceased to matter.

You are so right. A few years ago I traveled from California back and forth across the country motorcycle racing. I hauled my equipment in a old Chevy truck, Carburetted and no cat, so it would burn anything. On 10% it would get 14/15 MPG, on real gas it would sometimes get as much as 18. Not scientific but with the cruise on and several hundred miles of flat surface I think that tells the tail.

 

[tommcgee]

FTFY Tom.
Gary

Yep, agreed!