So in the past I have tried non-ethanol fuels in my 97 Ford F150 4x4 with a 4.6 engine. I found i got NO different gas milage using it vs. 10% ethanol fuel. I was pretty disappointed my vehicle just didn't see a difference in fuel types. I had bought the vehicle for pretty cheap from a young guy who had not taken a lot of good care of it despite what he represented to me. I dropped a rebuilt engine into it and over the years it pretty much got 12-14 mpg. Occasionally it would see higher but not consistently.
I began to have transmission trouble. I took it into a transmission shop and the tranny was rebuilt. The shop owner said I may see better gas milage but didn't make any big promises about it. At the time winter blend gas was being pumped so no I didn't really see any bump in my gas milage. Then came the summer blend. I did see the usual bump up in milage for the summer blend. Then I began to see the milage crawl upwards with combined city and highway drives. I generally use Top Tier gas with occasional fills without Top Tier gas. I saw a trend in much better milage. I was seeing 14.5 pretty regularly with city driving and 15.5 with occasional 16 mpg fills with highway driving. I was pretty happy about it and thought it was due to the summer blend.
On a lark I dropped into a non-ethanol station to fill up. Phillips 66 here in Boise offers all grades of the gas with no ethanol. I filled up with some 87 octane and headed out on the freeway for a service call some distance away. I noticed my gas gauge was moving much slower than usual. I returned to town and filled up at the same Phillips 66 with non-ethanol gas. I got 18.6 mpg. I was pretty happy about that. It looks like with my rebuilt transmission rebuild I finally have the potential for real gas to show me that my truck can reach a higher milage now.
I began to have transmission trouble. I took it into a transmission shop and the tranny was rebuilt. The shop owner said I may see better gas milage but didn't make any big promises about it. At the time winter blend gas was being pumped so no I didn't really see any bump in my gas milage. Then came the summer blend. I did see the usual bump up in milage for the summer blend. Then I began to see the milage crawl upwards with combined city and highway drives. I generally use Top Tier gas with occasional fills without Top Tier gas. I saw a trend in much better milage. I was seeing 14.5 pretty regularly with city driving and 15.5 with occasional 16 mpg fills with highway driving. I was pretty happy about it and thought it was due to the summer blend.
On a lark I dropped into a non-ethanol station to fill up. Phillips 66 here in Boise offers all grades of the gas with no ethanol. I filled up with some 87 octane and headed out on the freeway for a service call some distance away. I noticed my gas gauge was moving much slower than usual. I returned to town and filled up at the same Phillips 66 with non-ethanol gas. I got 18.6 mpg. I was pretty happy about that. It looks like with my rebuilt transmission rebuild I finally have the potential for real gas to show me that my truck can reach a higher milage now.