ethanol in gas

[rpn453]

Quote:

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To be rated top tier gasoline, one of the qualifications is "Contain enough denatured ethanol such that the actual ethanol content is no less than 8.0 and no more than 10.0 volume percent."

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From what I can tell, that doesn't apply here. Shell's pumps advertise all their fuel as top tier and specify that 87 is 10% ethanol, 89 is 5%, and 91 contains no ethanol.

 

[KJA426]

I buy Sunoco sometimes and their pumps were marked "with ethanol". Now the pumps don't say anything so I assume that they no longer use ethanol in their gas.

 

[marco246]

We have had 10% ethanol in all our gasoline here in Hawaii for several months now. Commercial fishermen and other boaters are up in arms because they claim the ethanol has interacted with the resins in their fiberglass gas tanks to produce a "goo" which clogs up engine fuel systems. The evidence is not merely anecdotal, and several fishermen have had to take their boats out of service for engine rebuilds. These people vote, and they are not happy. The state legislature is probably going change the law so that some unadulterated gasoline will be sold at marinas and maybe some gas stations. If normal gasoline becomes available I will use it if it's in the right grade. I have noticed a loss of mpg in my vehicles since ethanol has appeared.

 

[SrDriver]

Don't see much of a difference in fuel mileage with 10% Ethanol in our vehicles + the blend costs a little less than regular unleaded without it.

 

[Whimsey]

Oxygenated gas kills the mpg in my 2002 F-150 4.6, 5 speed. On a round trip using NJ's oxygenated gas I got 16 mpg going. My return trip using "real" gasoline I got 21 mpg. This was on the same day, same route. This was 2 years ago when we had MTBE as our oxygenator. Now we have 10% ethanol and my mpg is even worse

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And the ironic thing is oxygentated gas does nothing or little to improve emissions in modern fuel injected vehicles. It was conceived to help vehicles with carburetors when it was first mandated. It actually increases some pollutant levels. But the politicians latched on to it as a "noble cause", and a great funds raiser, no matter how misguided it is.

Whimsey

 

[MNgopher]

We've had 10% ethanol mandated year around for about a decade now in Minnesota statewide. Ethanol can be a problem with older equipment that was not designed to handle it, particularly small engines. At least our legislators were smart enough to allow for the sale of non-oxygenated premium fuel. While not available at every retailer, at least it is availible!

I used to keep track of my fuel mileage based on whether it had ethanol in it, didn't have ethanol in it, or unkown. I stopped when I was showing a huge gap in fuel mileage between them and it dawned on me that every time I bought non-ethanol gas, I as doing nearly all freeway mileage that resulted in ++ fuel mileage. Not exactly a fair comparison. I'm too cheap to buy non-oxy premium around here.