Gasohol

Joined
Aug 26, 2012
Messages
24
Location
Kansas City,MO
Just acquired a '87 Toyota Supra Turbo and i'm enjoying reading through the manual. I've only been driving since '03 and can't recall ever hearing anyone call the ethanol mix gasohol so thought that was interesting heh.
 

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Gasohol was a fairly big deal in Nebraska in the 80's and 90's. I never used it and filled up with regular unleaded whenever I was in the Omaha area. Gasohol did not make it into Missouri or Kansas to my knowledge.
 
Well, the dictionary today says it was/is a mix of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline blend. I thought it was higher than that, but I could be mistaken. By the time the 10% ethanol blend got down to Missouri/Kansas, it wasn't called gasohol. At least, that is my dim recollection.
 
This article from 1981 mentions it, with a particular mention about how Standard was limiting "gasohol" sales to the Omaha area, so I think that the focus on the corn belt has been strong for a while.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/14/us/budget-cuts-weak-market-hurt-gasohol.html

Also interesting is that the article mentions a potential name change to "super unleaded" for the E10 product. That happened and the relic is still very common in Nebraska and Iowa - it's what Casey's, HyVee, Kum and Go still call the base octane E10 product on the pump and price signs. That means that price signs at Casey's etc. will have, sometimes exclusively, "Super UNL" and "Diesel" but often no "Regular UNL" (and regular unleaded is E0, rather than E10, in that system). BP, Shell, Phillips 66, Conoco, etc. are more conventional and use "Regular" nomenclature for the E10 87. That's not commonly the case in other midwestern states like Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.
 
Ah Gotcha, I assumed this was just a early name for todays gas, but sounds like it was something else entirely eh?
Correct. Gasohol was the early name for E10 and, yes, E10 started, and was heavily promoted, the the Midwest corn belt. E0 here where I live is called marine gas and only available at Parker's gas stations. The name E10 came later when the EPA started regulating the percentage of ethanol to 10%. Some stations were slipping in 15% because it was cheaper to purchase and because there was no standard percent, amounts were all over the place. It also became a concern when auto makers started to recommend no greater than 10%
 
Thanks for the link! Just read the 1981 article and it brings back lots of memories.

Gasohol would have died off it it wasn't saved by the EPA mandating it's use.
 
But oxygenated fuels are mandated in some instances, and with MTBE being banned or disused that creates a de facto mandate for EtOH.

From what I read, MTBE wasn't banned. The FedGov wouldn't give the oil companies immunity from lawsuits over groundwater contamination due to MTBE. So the oil companies stopped using it, fearing lawsuits and liability.
 
From what I read, MTBE wasn't banned. The FedGov wouldn't give the oil companies immunity from lawsuits over groundwater contamination due to MTBE. So the oil companies stopped using it, fearing lawsuits and liability.
Some states ban the use of MTBE in gasoline. California is one.
 
Well, the dictionary today says it was/is a mix of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline blend. I thought it was higher than that, but I could be mistaken. By the time the 10% ethanol blend got down to Missouri/Kansas, it wasn't called gasohol. At least, that is my dim recollection.
Right out of automotive tech school, I worked for a repair shop that also sold gasoline. This would have been in the early 80’s and in Kansas. This place sold unleaded, leaded premium and “gasohol”. Gasohol was rated (IIRC) 90 octane and our premium leaded was 91. I remember reading an article in a magazine how some wannabe racers were mixing gasohol and leaded premium to get slightly higher octane ratings. The theory was that the lead from leaded premium would mix with unleaded gasohol to raise the octane by a point or two. Sounds good in theory, don’t know in reality exactly how well it worked. However, I do remember that any car that previously ran leaded gas or unleaded premium and then switched to gasohol would probably need a new fuel filter within two tanks of using gasohol. It happened to all the customers, to my buddies and to me also. The gasohol had that good of cleaning properties. After a fuel filter change, all was well.
 
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