Ethanol Free Gas - What's Your Experience?

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Ours here is 90 octane ethanol free. It does run better in my truck, but at around 50 cents a gallon more, into the 3 dollar range, a bottle of Lucas ethanol treatment dumped in every tank full does the same thing and is cheaper.

91 no ethanol is about 70 cents higher around here. I run it in everything but the new cars and truck. Have had too many problems with ethanol in chainsaws,weedeaters,generators and lawn mowers! The dam ethanol used to melt/dissolve the gas lines in them. I messed up and topped off my barracuda last time w/ 91 eth., cant tell any dif. so far except it doesn`t start as easy when hot.
 
In Southeast Texas this week non-ethanol gas in three grades is running less than 10 cents more than average pump gas from Shell, etc

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i think (?) ontario has now mandated 10% average across the board in Jan.2018 so unless they use 15% in regular they now have to have a minimum of 5% even in hi octane?
me...i use 94 petro can and it has ethanol.
 
In Ontario, Shell ViPower, Esso Supreme[or whatever they call their expensive gas], and Ultramar - whatever they call their expensive gas!, is ethanol free. Costco was selling Shell, so I would guess that their "supreme" would be ethanol free as well. I use it in the cars that I store in winter. But I still use fuel stabilizer.
 
I'm a former fuel hauler.

E10 will make your engine run leaner with a carb. You can compensate for the ethanol by raising the compression. Look at the E85 race motors. You won't get the mileage. Ethanol has less BTU's than straight gas=less mpg's.

Ethanol gas clouded and eventually cracked the polycarbonate sight glass on our loading heads on the trailers. They would leak.
If you have a carb motor buy fuel injection rated hose at the parts store. Regular fuel line decomposes from the inside with ethanol. Use fuel injection style hose clamps! DO NOT USE A PLASTIC FUEL FILTER!!!

Ethanol is hygroscopic. It sucks moisture out of the air. When delivering fuel on a humid day it is a good idea to cap off the in ground fuel tanks as any air in there has water in it. It will bond to the ethanol and sink to the bottom of the tank leaving the sub-octane fuel by itself. The fuel mixed with the E is sub-octane gas. I forget maybe 76-78 octane. Although the E boosts the octane, it is less efficient in mileage.

Ethanol fuel is heavier than straight gas. This is evident when loading a tanker trailer. You can't legally haul the same amount of gallons.

My Husqvarna riding mower has a Kohler engine. No E10 right on the fuel cap and in the owner manual. Air cooled engines are more sensitive to fuel types and octane. Running lean in an air cooled engine is not a good thing. A liquid cooled engine can absorb/compensate for more heat.

Back when I had a '93 Corolla it had the 1.8 liter engine. High compression 11.4-11.8 IIRC. The owners manual said regular was fine. E10-OK. No E15 or higher. At the time I varied the fuels E10, straight gas, E10 93 octane, and 93 straight gas. For that car no matter what the fuel price per mile came out to $.08 no matter what I ran. YMMV.

When my D350 Cummins was running I got a steady 21+mpg on straight diesel with the cruise set on 62mph commuting back and forth to Nashville. B10 (10% bio fuel) soy oil from the pump it went to 17.8mpg. Biodiesel will clean all of the crud from your tank and dump it into your filters. Bio is higher in cetane rating, also lower in mileage.

Regular diesel uses an algaecide to deter algae growth. I found green pond scum in my filter!
 
Yeah in Manitoba, at the pumps, we have 87 and 89 ethanol blended. I have not seen 91 ethanol free in 20 years.
My engine and entire fuel system,are very happy with 87E10. If I could get it in 15%, I would try it.
Here in LDB,Gulf has ethanol free premium.
 
I have seen the jelly, and green bowls many times. I use sea foam whenever i plan to leave anything for a oeriod of time.
My ‘80 power wagon does not like the ethanol. But one dealer is improperly representing their fuel.
05 impala running like crap,cel illuminated. Scan revealed ethanol sensor reading 19%.ecm couldnt compensate. He filled with premium from another station and problem immediately corrected itself. So,at 19% how much water is the consumer paying for?
 
I can tell when the customer is running that fuel just by the smell of the exhaust.
 
When delivering fuel you are supposed to stick the tank with a water identifying paste on the bottom 2-3" on the stick. If you get 3/4" you don't deliver fuel. I NEVER found water in an E10 storage tank as the E keeps it clean of water. If it can't absorb it all and there is straight water in the bottom you have a really BIG problem!

If the gas your friend got was 19%E there was either a problem mixing it at the bulk plant, or cross contamination at the delivery point.

E is injected into the sub-octane straight gas at the bulk plant. When I loaded at BP it happened in tandem with the sub loading. When I loaded at Magellan the E100 went in first, then the gas.

Back in the old days the driver had to do the math and load the E100 first at one loading rack, then move to the next for the gas.
 
On my second tank of non-ethanol fuel in the Lancer.

Still running better, better hot idle, better hot start.

"Hot" = 90+ heat index in SETX.
 
I've started to check.
Noticed today the local no name pump is Shell and states it may contain up to 10% ethanol
 
Most gas today is 10% ethanol. Indeed, not sure I can buy anything else in Sacramento. I just heard that President Trump is pushing to change federal rules to allow 15% ethanol, as something about helping corn farmers after Chinese trade retaliation. People are tempted by the lower price of E85, but you get ~30% less mileage with it, plus your engine controls must be for "flex fuel", which I think means it has sensors which detect the ethanol % in the fuel flowing to the engine and adjust accordingly.

I first ran into gas w/ ethanol in a drive from Atlanta to Albuquerque in 1989. Our 1969 Dart slant started stumbling above 55 mph in the afternoon in MS and got so bad by eastern NM that I had to stop. I found the fuel hose at the pump inlet was soft and collapsing under suction. Swapped that and no more problems. I think it also caused the accel pump diaphragm in the Holley 1920 to fail and leak gas onto the intake manifold, which is a big safety concern. Probably one issue using NOS carb rebuild kits is that their rubber is not ethanol safe. When you buy fuel hose, don't get the old carburetor type (R7, recall) since it might be old stock. I always use "for fuel injection" type (R9, recall) since has a liner (Viton?) which resists ethanol. It is also stiffer so doesn't kink at a bend.
 
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