ethanol mandate gone!!

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
Originally Posted By: TallPaul
If they don't have any ethanol in the fuel, then are we going back to fuel line freeze up in winter and adding dry gas to our tanks?

Why do that? How many times have you actually had enough water in your tank to ice up? Even if this sort of thing turns into a problem, the E10 and E85 will both still available.
Even here in the frozen north that's the LEAST of my worries. You don't need 10% to keep a fuel line from freezing, especially if you buy from a station with rapid turnover.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
While I have come to realize it's not necessarily the best use of our natural resources, I've been using it for the better part of my driving days (18 years) and I've YET to encounter a single fuel related problem. My wife has always used it (less now that we've better come to understand it's environmental impact) and she's had nary a problem.

I run it in my riding mower, because it runs better (slightly too rich on non ethanol) and for a while, my 2 cycle snowmobile because the gas station I frequent didn't label their fuel properly. Neither has blown up, neither has suffered carb or fuel line issues. The mower sits all winter with the same fuel in the tank/carb and always fires right up and runs fine the next season. Well, that's an easy one you say... The mower is only a year or two old, it hasn't had time to properly develop it's greatly under exaggerated evil tendencies. Bzzt... Wrong. The mower in question is better than 10 years old.

Is ethanol a viable, sustainable alternative fuel? No.

Is ethanol the spawn of the Devil? No.

After more the 30 years of use between my wife and I, ethanol has proven itself to be a perfectly usable fuel though. Now mind you, this is at a claimed 10% blend.
The owner's manuals in ALL THREE of my Toyota products say, clearly, "no MORE than 10%". THere's nothing like paying gasoline prices for something with less BTU content. Spare me the "higher octane" stuff, my engines are 87 rated. I ESPECIALLY don't want some agenda driver Federal bureaucrat telling me "it's all right" (but too bad if it isn't)

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
To remove the ethanol mandate requires lobbyists to be ignored and the admission on someone's part that mistakes were made.

Do you realistically think that will happen?

+ 1 In the political system of today, buck passing is more important than solving anything.

 

[ddtmoto]

Check with any motorcycle/power sports service dept about their experience with fuel issues with products they service since E was put in our gas. Vehicles not designed for e10 can suffer sooner or later. The shelf life of ethanol laced fuel is about 30 days. Ethanol absorbs water, so if you use Efuel you have water in your fuel system. A vehicle that sits out the winter and takes more than a couple of weeks even to go thru a tank of fuel is scary. Store a vehicle with Efuel and phaze separation can make it's life ugly. I am lucky to have ONE pump in my county with Puregas. I will go out of my way for real gas.
http://pure-gas.org

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
How many times have you actually had enough water in your tank to ice up?
Fuel line freeze up was a problem in the 1970s and perhaps the 1980s, presumably until they started adding ethanol. I don't know that I have more than a couple times of fuel line freeze up, but one time it too much (as is any failure of the machine to operate).

Originally Posted By: ddtmoto
Ethanol absorbs water, so if you use Efuel you have water in your fuel system.
Better to have the water in the system and absorbed by ethanol than to have the water in the system and not absorbed.

 

[oldhp]

But the worst thing is U.S. tax dollars, .43 to.58 cents a gallon going to ethanol plants to make this stuff. If it was so good why does it have to be subsidized with U.S. taxpayer money???????

Hopefully this farce will end at end of this year.

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric

Is ethanol the spawn of the Devil? No.


But is it the water of the devil?

 

[lexus114]

I dont believe it till I see no stickers on the pumps saying contains up to 10% Ethanol.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: oldhp
Hopefully this farce will end at end of this year.


Do you know something I don't? Is there a proposal out there to eliminate mandatory ethanol use?

 

[Samilcar]

Originally Posted By: TallPaul

Originally Posted By: ddtmoto
Ethanol absorbs water, so if you use Efuel you have water in your fuel system.
Better to have the water in the system and absorbed by ethanol than to have the water in the system and not absorbed.


Correct. Ethanol absorbs any water in the fuel and moves it out the tailpipe when the ethanol gets burned in the combustion chamber. If water in the fuel system isn't absorbed by the fuel, it remains in the fuel system.

 

[oldhp]

I don't know about mandatory use. But Congress "almost" didn't extend the subsidized money for the ethanol farce last year.
Supposedly this past Jan the subs were supposed to stop.
You can bet your bottom dollar, if Congress STOPS the free money to the ethanol plants, they'll close down. No profit.
But...The Iowa corn people have alot into this (read MONEY & POLITICS) so who knows how it will go.
All I know is when I had my '03 3.9 Dakota and Casey's had unleaded GASOLINE I got +2 more MPG. Engine ran,idled and sounded better.
So please go away ethanol crud and take some politicians with you!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: oldhp
So please go away ethanol crud and take some politicians with you!!!!!!!!!!!


It's interesting to note that up here, ethanol enriched gasoline existed before the government started meddling with things, and it stood on its own two legs and was profitable. Government mandates up here merely messed things up for the consumer, restricting choice and increasing costs.

When there was no regulation, you could get 89 octane ethanol blend for the same price as 87 regular pure gas. That's a sensible marketing position. Now, there's no regular pure gas, and 89 octane ethanol blend costs more than 87 octane, which is also ethanol blended.

 

[DBMaster]

Yes, I remember in the early 80's some used to search to find sources for "gasohol." I found that when we eventually switched from MTBE reformulated gas to the ethanol blend my 89 Accord LXi could use it without knocking at the 87 octane level. The fuel did not seem to do any harm to the car in fifteen years. So, ethanol may be a viable substance to blend into gasoline, but I believe in allowing the free market to decide rather than legislators.

With that said, I do not believe that the contents of motor fuel will EVER be decided by the free market. The quantity consumed in the U.S. guarantees that many will be trying to stick hands into the pot and, ultimately, it all comes down to money.