WARNING FROM THE AAA

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: MNgopher
Comment 1: To those who haven't seen an E15 pump, you likely don't live in corn country. They are showing up in a few more locations here than there were a year ago, and I suspect the trend will continue. The only reason the EPA and everyone else says that the fuel is OK in cars 2001 and up is that the oldest car they tested.

Comment 2: If your car was made after the late 80's, the fuel system was designed to handle fuels up to 10% ethanol. We've had E10 here for 25 years or so, and I've never had a car that was designed for E10 have problems with it. Lower gas mileage yes, but nothing else. OPE designers get away with blaming ethanol for their use of cheap components in their fuel systems. Again, they've had 25+ years to get their stuff together to deal with it...
SO we trust the "you can keep your health plan" government EPA instead of the car makers. Riiiight.

 

[TiredTrucker]

Originally Posted By: mongo161
Save Corn for food, livestock feed and agriculture. Food is way too high because of this greed to use corn for fuel.


Corn that is used for ethanol production does go to livestock feed and other uses! I haul feed products from ethanol plants frequently. The poultry production sector loves the products from ethanol production. High protein (lysine) feed supplements made from Dried Distillers Grain (DDG) that is the result of ethanol production. Corn oil and a host of other products come out of ethanol plants daily. Only an idiot who doesn't take the time to actually look at what ethanol production is all about believes that a bushel of corn that goes to ethanol production is forever lost to any other use. There are dozens of by products that are used from ethanol production.

I fueled with E15 most of the winter (Murphy's in Newton, IA in the dead heart of ethanol country). Nozzle right between the E85 nozzle and regular nozzle. Nary an issue. Got equivalent mpg as I ever did with E10 varieties. I do know for a fact, that at the pump, it has a separate yellow color coded nozzle with plenty of warnings that it should not be used in vehicles prior to 2012. Only for newer vehicles and flex fuel vehicles. Any dufus that fills a vehicle not made for this stuff deserves whatever happens.

Been using ethanol laced fuel since the late 70's / early 80's and have never had, or even heard of, any fuel related problems in my vehicles or any of my neighbor's vehicles that can be attributed to ethanol. Only on the internet and talking heads on TV. Even my Yamaha portable generator has had a study diet of E10 as has my previous John Deere mower and my present one. But the hysteria lives on.

And the amazing thing is, though I live in ethanol central, surrounded by 46 ethanol plants in Iowa alone, if I wanted I could get ethanol free 87 and 91 anywhere around me any time I want. If the corn lobby was so against anyone having ethanol free gas, you would think it would be right here in the heart of corn country.

 

[fdcg27]

Yeah, we should trust the car makers who put in airbags that fire lethal shrapnel when deployed and ignition switches that shut the car off at random causing the occassional fatality instead.
Reality is that any car sold in this country since the late '80s that isn't fully compatible with E10 was defective in design and manufacture from the factory.
Cars need to be designed and built to acomodate the fuels available and E10 has been a reality for many of us for decades now.

 

[Bluestream]

Ethanol fuels are particularly damaging to 2-stoke engines. The octane rating declines after 3 weeks with phase separation, and the resulting detonation can take out the piston ring locator pins and the ring rotates into the exhaust port....

 

[mongo161]

Each tank of gas gets 1 ounce of TC-W3 and 1 ounce of Chevron Fuel System cleaner for every 5 gallons of gasoline with ethanol 10%. I've been doing this for a few years, with pre-filled 6-ounce bottles of the mix to add to 15 gallons of gas at fill-up time. Smooth sailing.....all the time.

 

[mongo161]

Thank you for your post. You have told us quite a bit in your write up.

The Corn Lobby is the force behind ethanol gasoline rather that using corn for food and agricultural needs.

After all, you're in the heart of ethanol/corn country.

 

[datech]

Originally Posted By: mongo161
Each tank of gas gets 1 ounce of TC-W3 and 1 ounce of Chevron Fuel System cleaner for every 5 gallons of gasoline with ethanol 10%. I've been doing this for a few years, with pre-filled 6-ounce bottles of the mix to add to 15 gallons of gas at fill-up time. Smooth sailing.....all the time.



That's a good idea because its kind of a mess to try and dose with the regular bottle at the gas station. What kind of bottles do you use?

 

[mongo161]

Originally Posted By: datech
What kind of bottles do you use?


Empty Gumout Regane 6 ounce bottles and the like......

 

[simple_gifts]

Originally Posted By: Neely97
Inside gas door on my Toyota says not to use it .


On a 2014? It probably says up to 10% is acceptable, just like it did 12 years ago.

A lot of hysteria over a fuel that modern cars were designed to accommodate.

CT has had E10 long before the recent nationwide push for it. In fact, my Echo has never seen ethanol free gas; not 1 tank.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted By: mongo161
Thank you for your post. You have told us quite a bit in your write up.

The Corn Lobby is the force behind ethanol gasoline rather that using corn for food and agricultural needs.

After all, you're in the heart of ethanol/corn country.


Yet corn for Ethanol is not grown for food supply.

 

[mongo161]

Very true.....the corn grown for ethanol is not for food. However, the land use that use to go into the production of corn for food has been replaced with the production of corn for fuel. This has skyrocketed the cost of feed grains for poultry, cattle, livestock and humans.

Here is the cause and effect.....http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/04/20/its-final-corn-ethanol-is-of-no-use/

 

[Bluestream]

Mongo that report is a real eye opener...it's the smoking gun if you will...scary! With the surplus oil supply we now have we can ditch the ethanol, except for all the investment made in plants we are now stuck with this chit!!!

 

[mongo161]

The smart farmers hopefully have already switched gears and gone back to growing corn for food. With the price so high and worldwide demand for food....how could you loose.

IMO...some of these farmers are locked into long-term contracts for ethanol corn.......which is not needed and the price will crash.

 

[TiredTrucker]

Corn is high priced for livestock? Mention that around a farmer and you will most likely be laughed out of the county. Corn prices are are at very low levels and have been for a while. Just heard a report the other day that cash rent farmland prices are dropping because of lower corn prices and may drop some more if corn prices don't come around.

Guess no one actually read what I posted or bothered to do any research to refute me on the food vs fuel thing. 17 lb of livestock feed is made from the average bushel of corn used for ethanol production. Roughly 2.5 gallons of ethanol produced per bushel. high grade CO2 is produced from ethanol production that is primarily used by beverage manufacturers. Corn oil from ethanol plants is being bought up by biodiesel producers as a good feedstock for production along with soybean oil and other sources. And dozens of other products folks use every day that can be traced back to ethanol production.

Farmers don't deal with ethanol plants on what gets targeted for normal uses and what gets used for ethanol production. Farmers sell on the commodities market. Where the corn goes after it leaves the farm is not up to the farmer. That farmers have a say in what corn goes to ethanol or not is a very myopic view of farm markets.

 

[Shannow]

And you've dismissed anything that I have said regarding fatty acid profile for grass raised beef versus grain fed, then equated grains to grass...myopic...LOL.

 

[SteveSRT8]

It would seem the famous saying "you are what you eat" has merit...

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
And you've dismissed anything that I have said regarding fatty acid profile for grass raised beef versus grain fed, then equated grains to grass...myopic...LOL.
IMHO Grass fed and finished tastes better as well.

 

[TiredTrucker]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
And you've dismissed anything that I have said regarding fatty acid profile for grass raised beef versus grain fed, then equated grains to grass...myopic...LOL.


And you missed what I said earlier about the poultry industry buying this stuff up by the truck load because they really like it for both fryer and egg production. LOL

You do know there are other forms of livestock being raised for food than cattle, right? And products like high protein feed supplements are essential for those operations. Now that roughly 1/3 of the poultry in Iowa alone has to be slaughtered due to bird flu virus that got in to the operations, These feed supplement will more critical than ever to get the eggs laid and build up the operations again.

And we haven't even gotten into pork and other critters that the stuff is great as a high protein supplement for.

Yes, myopia was apropos.

 

[Shannow]

TT, we also mentioned fatty acid profile in poultry and other animals fed on brewery waste...you can look back with the search function.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2012.230078/full

 

[TiredTrucker]

Well, the livestock growers are going to use the stuff, irregardless of the government and the ethanol thing or what any of us think about it, so you might have to consider alternative protein sources or raise your own if this is going to cause you such concern. And I will continue hauling it to them.