Thread: 10% ethanol fuel - how has it affected your vehicle?

I have noticed worse gas mileage and lesser performance when filling up with 10% ethanol.

When I find the rare gas station with 100% gasoline, I get much better fuel economy, and seemingly more power.

I wish there was a website that helped you pinpoint 100% gas, gas stations in your region..

the cheaper gas stations up here do it year round and i believe they go to 15% in the winter time. i think the shell, chevron, trexaco, etc only put it in during the winter up here. ill check next time i fill up

in Oklahoma, it's year round 10% at MOST stations... the ones that have 100% gas advertise it pretty blantantly... "REAL GAS SOLD HERE!!" and stuff like that...

the b15 seems to like the 10% ethanol iowa gas. otherwise i try to avoid it like the plague.

I'd say 99.9% of the gas stations in florida are 10% ethanol but when you get near boat docks and down in the keys (major boating destination) you can find some gas stations that have 100% gas,
.
I never really had the chance to run 100% gas in my sr20(because I didn't have one til april 09, but run 93 octane) but in my ga16 I used to get 34-37mpg (100% gas) now I get 23-26 (10% ethanol) all highway, I get gas every other day and I drive anywhere from 900-1200 miles a week
.
I thought the government said we would be getting better mpg from the 10% ethanol mix, oh wait the government lied, what else is new

its fukin with me big time

I finally filled up w/ 100% gas Sunday. Of course that was the day my engine decided it hated life and ended itself. So I didn't really have time to tell a difference.

My gas mileage went from about 24 MPG city with JWT Pop and 91 intake Cam to 21 MPG on average. Now if I were to ask the Federal Government, all they would say is EPA declared your car as 20/28, you should be thankful for getting the 1 extra MPG.

I thought all gas was Federally mandated to have at least 10% Ethanol, thus it was mixed into it before it hit the gas stations. All of the major gas stations will have at least 10% year round, maybe 15-20% in the winter. Up in DC I believe the standard is at least 15%.

Though I will say it doesn't seem like my highway mileage changed, I got 33 MPG stock, 33 MPG with Pop Charger and 91 Intake Cam, 33 MPG with Ethanol in the mix. But then again by the time Ethanol came about I already had a header and some other goodies, maybe that helped offset the highway mileage?

It makes sense to why Ethanol would you rob you of power too, it just doesn't burn as hot, I believe it's 85 bdu vs 110 bdu? Hence you don't get as an efficient burn, thus power and MPG loss. Now there is a bright side to this for us Turbo guys. Colder burn means we can get away with a little leaner mixtures. But I doubt it's anything worth risking, probably instead of 12:1 we can get away with 12.2:1

EPA has mandated that all fueling stations utilize a 10% mixture of Ethanol. Those stations that state "REAL GAS SOLD HERE!" generally still have 10% ethanol mixed in. They're just using it for marketing. The gas station itself actually has no control over what is mixed in at the station. The refinery/hub is where the ethanol is introduced into the fuel mixture.

Ethanol in the gas changes your fuel economy because alcohol has fewer btu than gasoline. The more alcohol that is introduced to the gas the worse the economy. Cars that get 30 MPG on straight gasoline get something like 16 on E85, so the lesser price is offset by the higher consumption.

The other effects that you may not have seen yet are the damage that the ethanol enhanced gasoline causes in you fuel system. When "oxygenated fuels" were first introduced in the late '80's for pollution control reasons most of the cars on the road were carbureted and did not have neoprene in their fuel lines. It caused a great deal of problems until the rubber hose industry seemed to change their formulation slightly. Currently the fuel hoses etc. are able to deal with the alcohol in the gas. The thing that is deteriorating so slowly that you don't know it is the plastic fuel tank in your car. After a few years of using gas containing alcohol you will see a sediment, almost like sand in your fuel filter if you take it apart. It is actually a very fine sand that is used in the manufacture of those plastic tanks and it is imbedded in the plastic. The alcohol eats away at the plastic and the sand gets stuck in the fuel filter.