Coincidence - my last tank dropped about 1 1/2 mpg with no change in anything except weather and winter gas .
Pennzoil Ultra 5W-40 Euro
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I'll mix 2.5 quarts Ultra 5W20 with 3 quarts Ultra Euro 5W40 for the next oil change, the mixed should be around xW30. This way I can use a case of Euro 5W40 with 5-qt jug 5W20 in 2 oil changes.
Just curious, in everyone else's area, do you not have gas stations that sell gas without ethanol? Here in NE Oklahoma, they are all over the place. If you get gas without ethanol, you will notice a pretty nice gain in mpg. My car's in dash monitor went from 24.7 (this with thousands of miles on it averaging in already) to 27.4 in two to three weeks (only about 1k miles averaging into it).
They cost a bit more, but the mpg more than makes up for it. Anyhow, we have a station here that if you buy the car wash at the pump, it will give you 15 cents off per gallon of gas of the no-ethanol gas. There's a trick to it though, if you're as cheap as me, if you have a debit card, swipe it and it asks you if it's debit or credit, hit credit and it will "Error" out on the car wash (not charging you for it) but still award you the 15 cents off per gallon.
This is at a Sinclair station. So I now get the much better mpg of no-ethanol fuel, which has a great side effect of also being easier on the oil and tbn retention of the oil, but for the same price as ethanol fuel. If anyone live in NE Oklahoma, this is at the Sinclair station in Broken Arrow on 145th and 81st streets.
They cost a bit more, but the mpg more than makes up for it. Anyhow, we have a station here that if you buy the car wash at the pump, it will give you 15 cents off per gallon of gas of the no-ethanol gas. There's a trick to it though, if you're as cheap as me, if you have a debit card, swipe it and it asks you if it's debit or credit, hit credit and it will "Error" out on the car wash (not charging you for it) but still award you the 15 cents off per gallon.
This is at a Sinclair station. So I now get the much better mpg of no-ethanol fuel, which has a great side effect of also being easier on the oil and tbn retention of the oil, but for the same price as ethanol fuel. If anyone live in NE Oklahoma, this is at the Sinclair station in Broken Arrow on 145th and 81st streets.
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Originally Posted By: shpankey
Just curious, in everyone else's area, do you not have gas stations that sell gas without ethanol?
Up here in northern IL, they all contain ethanol.
Supposedly they exist, but nothing nearby...
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IL
Just curious, in everyone else's area, do you not have gas stations that sell gas without ethanol?
Up here in northern IL, they all contain ethanol.
Supposedly they exist, but nothing nearby...
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IL
Wow that sucks. Around here's they seem to have gotten pretty competitive. A lot of the smaller stations have it to hold some ground against the mighty Quik-Trip's near monopoly on gas stations. Then more and more popped up. Now in Broken arrow, on one street corner there's 3 without ethanol and a mile down the road 2 more. Seems they are all competing heavily against one another. Which then prompted the Sinclair to offer the 15 cents off with a car wash.
Man I love competition!
Man I love competition!
Michigan, like most states, has mandatory Ethanol...in our case, 10%
Originally Posted By: OldBaldy
Michigan, like most states, has mandatory Ethanol...in our case, 10%
Same goes for some metro areas (Atlanta) hence this is why I drive a diesel.
Michigan, like most states, has mandatory Ethanol...in our case, 10%
Same goes for some metro areas (Atlanta) hence this is why I drive a diesel.
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Originally Posted By: tenderloin
EPA OKs Increase in Gasoline/Ethanol Blend to E15 for Newer Vehicles
This is bad news on several fronts. Prepare to witness fuel economy drop again, have more damage to cars, and pay more for food. Henry Ford tried ethanol, too, and quickly rejected it as a motor fuel. It might make economic sense if we used cane sugar to make it, but instead we used subsidized corn.
EPA OKs Increase in Gasoline/Ethanol Blend to E15 for Newer Vehicles
This is bad news on several fronts. Prepare to witness fuel economy drop again, have more damage to cars, and pay more for food. Henry Ford tried ethanol, too, and quickly rejected it as a motor fuel. It might make economic sense if we used cane sugar to make it, but instead we used subsidized corn.
Here's my question - if the government is trying to mandate higher MPG over a product line - why would they be doing this ethanol junk? It seems counter productive to start mandating that manufacturers get a specific MPG target when they keep introducing fuel that inherently gets a worse MPG. It would seem to me that everyone would benefit more from HIGHER quality fuel, and not ethanol added to the fuel.
Originally Posted By: cryption
Here's my question - if the government is trying to mandate higher MPG over a product line - why would they be doing this ethanol junk?
To reduce US dependency on foreign oil.
Here's my question - if the government is trying to mandate higher MPG over a product line - why would they be doing this ethanol junk?
To reduce US dependency on foreign oil.
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: cryption
Here's my question - if the government is trying to mandate higher MPG over a product line - why would they be doing this ethanol junk?
To reduce US dependency on foreign oil.
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people? We could reduce it 100x more by drilling in known reserves on US land. Drilling ANWR could reduce our dependence on foreign oil far more then ethanol.
It seems like it's more believable that there is nothing to do with all this extra corn - so they make up some "facts" about ethanol being good for reducing foreign oil.
Plus, when you take into account all the petro products used in making the ethanol - I can't see the benefit. Petroleum is used in the growing, harvesting, and refining of corn into ethanol.
The Renewable Fuels Association found it uses 6 units of energy to produce 1 unit of energy's worth of ethanol.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050329132436.htm
"Ethanol is produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane. It may sound green, Patzek says, but that's because many scientists are not looking at the whole picture. According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it."
I could go on and on.
Originally Posted By: cryption
Here's my question - if the government is trying to mandate higher MPG over a product line - why would they be doing this ethanol junk?
To reduce US dependency on foreign oil.
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people? We could reduce it 100x more by drilling in known reserves on US land. Drilling ANWR could reduce our dependence on foreign oil far more then ethanol.
It seems like it's more believable that there is nothing to do with all this extra corn - so they make up some "facts" about ethanol being good for reducing foreign oil.
Plus, when you take into account all the petro products used in making the ethanol - I can't see the benefit. Petroleum is used in the growing, harvesting, and refining of corn into ethanol.
The Renewable Fuels Association found it uses 6 units of energy to produce 1 unit of energy's worth of ethanol.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050329132436.htm
"Ethanol is produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane. It may sound green, Patzek says, but that's because many scientists are not looking at the whole picture. According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it."
I could go on and on.
Originally Posted By: cryption
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people?
The latter of course.
They won't tap the reserves until reserves in other parts of the world are sufficiently depleted, at which point US will charge a hefty premium for their own reserves.
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people?
The latter of course.
They won't tap the reserves until reserves in other parts of the world are sufficiently depleted, at which point US will charge a hefty premium for their own reserves.
Sad but true.
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: cryption
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people?
The latter of course.
They won't tap the reserves until reserves in other parts of the world are sufficiently depleted, at which point US will charge a hefty premium for their own reserves.
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: cryption
Do you really believe that or do you think it's what the government feeds the people?
The latter of course.
They won't tap the reserves until reserves in other parts of the world are sufficiently depleted, at which point US will charge a hefty premium for their own reserves.
...using our food supply to offset energy costs is stupid. Have you checked your food bill lately?
Originally Posted By: cycloxer
...using our food supply to offset energy costs is stupid. Have you checked your food bill lately?
To be fair, basing the majority of our food supply on corn is not exactly smart and healthy either. It may be cheap at the bottom of the food chain, but by the time we complete the cycle, I fear that obesity and medical bills make it rather expensive overall. Alas, we're veering off topic and into political territory here, so I will shut up now.
I'm about 1.5K miles away from putting PUE 5w-40 into my 530i!
...using our food supply to offset energy costs is stupid. Have you checked your food bill lately?
To be fair, basing the majority of our food supply on corn is not exactly smart and healthy either. It may be cheap at the bottom of the food chain, but by the time we complete the cycle, I fear that obesity and medical bills make it rather expensive overall. Alas, we're veering off topic and into political territory here, so I will shut up now.
I'm about 1.5K miles away from putting PUE 5w-40 into my 530i!
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: cycloxer
...using our food supply to offset energy costs is stupid. Have you checked your food bill lately?
To be fair, basing the majority of our food supply on corn is not exactly smart and healthy either. It may be cheap at the bottom of the food chain, but by the time we complete the cycle, I fear that obesity and medical bills make it rather expensive overall. Alas, we're veering off topic and into political territory here, so I will shut up now.
I'm about 1.5K miles away from putting PUE 5w-40 into my 530i!
I'm not a fan of corn oil and corn-based food, either, but nonetheless, even if we diverted all corn to ethanol production it would replace about 12% of our oil use (not considering the extra oil used up by shipping in replacement foods). The main reason for increasing the allowable ethanol content is to subsidize corn growers.
It's hard to separate the politics since this was primarily a political decision. We've been using ethanol in the Midwest for 30 years, and it isn't very good as a motor fuel.
Originally Posted By: cycloxer
...using our food supply to offset energy costs is stupid. Have you checked your food bill lately?
To be fair, basing the majority of our food supply on corn is not exactly smart and healthy either. It may be cheap at the bottom of the food chain, but by the time we complete the cycle, I fear that obesity and medical bills make it rather expensive overall. Alas, we're veering off topic and into political territory here, so I will shut up now.
I'm about 1.5K miles away from putting PUE 5w-40 into my 530i!
I'm not a fan of corn oil and corn-based food, either, but nonetheless, even if we diverted all corn to ethanol production it would replace about 12% of our oil use (not considering the extra oil used up by shipping in replacement foods). The main reason for increasing the allowable ethanol content is to subsidize corn growers.
It's hard to separate the politics since this was primarily a political decision. We've been using ethanol in the Midwest for 30 years, and it isn't very good as a motor fuel.
I've read about 15 pages of this. Do we still not have an Ultra Euro 5w40 UOA or VOA?
Interesting oil.
Interesting oil.
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