Is It E10 or E12?

[LTVibe]

Now that ethanol blended fuel is returning to Florida (in the early to mid 1980's some stations here sold "gasahol" for midgrade), an old problem is also returning.

Fuel that is supposed to be "up to 10% ethanol" is instead "at least 10%" ethanol!

Fuel Problems From Too Much Ethanol

Quote:
In two of three cars tested, the gasoline had 11 or 12 percent ethanol. That worried customer John Cinke. If his car has too much ethanol, he said he'll want the gas station investigated.

 

[Shannow]

Market at work.

Rules are only guidelines after all to corporations. Stretch them a bit and see who gets found out...enough corps stretch them for long enough, and the rules get re-written to include the "accepted norm"

 

[eljefino]

"experts" quoted in that article are local mechanics just spouting off.

IDK where they came up with that 6 year old rule. Every owners manual from the 80s to present on every car I've had allows ethanol... though they often warn about methanol.

And if they find 12% they drain the tank and start with fresh gas, from where? It'll have it too! They act like the alcohol somehow builds up in the tank.

 

[SrDriver]

Currently, Minnesota law requires all gasoline sold within the state to include 10 percent ethanol. Soon the state law will require all gasoline sold within the state would have to include 20 percent ethanol by 2013. However, the new ethanol mandate will not take effect if ethanol has already replaced 20 percent of the state's motor vehicle fuel by 2010.

Link To Article

 

[SD26]

Nice! More ethanol, so we use more fuel, and pay more taxes.

Governments serve the people. This is not an example of that.

 

[KW]

In my 2006 Cobalt, 2007 KLR 650, and 1998 Jeep I have ran E85 50/50 with regular gas. With the carbed bike the power was down a little (I did not re-jet) but it ran well enough that I'd do it again in a pinch. My push mower and riding mowers have had the last few tanks filled with straight E85. They are a little more cold blooded and power is down just a little but it seems to be working well enough that I might back then off to a 50/50 mix.

I put a piece of brass, rubber fuel line, metal fuel line, a bolt, and a piece of aluminum in a jar of E85. It's only been about 3 weeks but nothing has happened to the stuff in the jar so far. Other than the bolt is cleaner.

What got me started playing with this stuff is I'm going to try and use it as a fuel option for my drag car. Still cheaper than race fuel but the price break over regular gas is slowly fading away.

 

[mpersell]

The label says E10 but most of the fuel is around 7% by volume.

 

[swalve]

Originally Posted By: KW
In my 2006 Cobalt, 2007 KLR 650, and 1998 Jeep I have ran E85 50/50 with regular gas. With the carbed bike the power was down a little (I did not re-jet) but it ran well enough that I'd do it again in a pinch. My push mower and riding mowers have had the last few tanks filled with straight E85. They are a little more cold blooded and power is down just a little but it seems to be working well enough that I might back then off to a 50/50 mix.

I put a piece of brass, rubber fuel line, metal fuel line, a bolt, and a piece of aluminum in a jar of E85. It's only been about 3 weeks but nothing has happened to the stuff in the jar so far. Other than the bolt is cleaner.

What got me started playing with this stuff is I'm going to try and use it as a fuel option for my drag car. Still cheaper than race fuel but the price break over regular gas is slowly fading away.


Please report back your power gains! You should be able to bump up timing and even compression ratio (or boost) since its octane level is higher. I've read (forget where) that race engines tuned for ethanol produce better power.

 

[swalve]

Originally Posted By: mpersell
The label says E10 but most of the fuel is around 7% by volume.


I think it depends on what the laws are in the area- if it's "up to 10%" or "no less than 10%".

 

[LTVibe]

It's been almost 3 years since I started this thread, and the ethanol problems in Florida may be getting worse:

Action 9 Finds More Ethanol In Gas Than Advertised

Quote:
We reviewed state inspection records and found in just the last few months, 8 local stations were cited for high ethanol content. One station was pumping more than 18 percent ethanol. The state found a Lake County gas station selling 25 percent ethanol.

 

[unDummy]

Question, how are the stations buying it? Where is the Ethanol coming from at such a high rate? Do you blame the gas station? the tanker's refueling location? or the supplier for the tanker's refueling location? or the local blender?

Yes, with those little alcohol test kits, most E10 stations are 11-15 percent. This is why I'm against E15, which will bring us something along the lines of E17-E20+.

And, if this is coming from the gas blender, the octane isn't necessarily higher. Sorry but there could be some seriously low octane fuel in the system that someone is spiking with E100 to make that 87 E10-E25 that you're getting.

Too bad that they didn't list the cheating gas stations. Wonder if its the no-name stations or the big name stations?

 

[LTVibe]

Originally Posted By: unDummy
Question, how are the stations buying it? Where is the Ethanol coming from at such a high rate? Do you blame the gas station? the tanker's refueling location? or the supplier for the tanker's refueling location? or the local blender?

Good questions. I would also like to know the answers.

The problem is probably more common than we would like to believe. Another BITOG post mentioned high-ethanol problems in Louisiana:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1665498

 

[OilNerd]

Quote:
We reviewed state inspection records and found in just the last few months, 8 local stations were cited for high ethanol content. One station was pumping more than 18 percent ethanol. The state found a Lake County gas station selling 25 percent ethanol.



High ethanol content caused a lot of problems in Virginia, too. Some were as high as 50% ethanol.
Ethanol High in Hampton Roads