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Ethanol free gas is real gasoline. Even better if you can find it with lead in it. Seriously, I get ethanol free gasoline whenever and wherever I can. Ethanol is not good for farm equipment or older cars/trucks. Even newer vehicles it has drawbacks for, as it holds moisture.
I am in Colorado and around here because the state is run by a bunch of tree huggers, there is no gas without ethanol. Does wonders to carburetors that sit. Funny, they used to call it Winter Blend, and it was 10 percent, but for some reason and they distribute Winter blend all year round.
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=125719]I am in Colorado and around here because the state is run by a bunch of tree huggers, there is no gas without ethanol. Does wonders to carburetors that sit. Funny, they used to call it Winter Blend, and it was 10 percent, but for some reason and they distribute Winter blend all year round.[/quote] Interesting. The other point about ethanol I forgot to mention is that it gets worse fuel mileage than 100% gasoline. The gov wants both good fuel mileage and low emissions..you can’t have it both ways. The people who make the laws don’t know a thing about automotive.
The reason for the Colorado gas is that haze that extends from Denver to Fort Collins. Funny weather they have out there. Drive North of Fort Collins and the wind tries to blow you off of the road. I’ve read that the results of the ethanol experiment have been disappointing but that is the reason.
I live in Nebraska the originator of the use of ethanol in fuel. This started here in the late 1960″s. For a lot of years you couldn’t buy ethanol free gas here anywhere. Now you can.
Buying special gas for small engines isn’t something I would do. They seem to run fine on most anything that resembles gasoline.
Locally, I can only purchase reformulated gas – E10 aka gasohol, 10% ethanol & 90% gasoline. However, I can get 100% gasoline outside the counties line. The only difference I’ve noticed is that I get ~5% lower fuel efficiency with the ethanol blend. Well, that and I don’t need to buy HEET in the winter anymore.
From what I’ve read ethanol is hygroscopic meaning it attracts moisture like brake fluid so you will need HEET more than ever.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hygroscopic?s=t
Nothing about it is good, Heck they don’t even make a profit from it (uses more resources to make than it is worth). The 5% lower fuel economy will be offset by more needs to stop and re-fuel.
[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=125962]From what I’ve read ethanol is hygroscopic meaning it attracts moisture like brake fluid so you will need HEET more than ever.[/quote]
All solvents absorb some water. Gasoline absorbs less than 1%. Ethanol will normally absorb about 5% water, and it forms an azeotrope – a mixture that is really difficult to separate and requires an exotic method, like molecular sieves, to generate “neat” or “absolute” ethanol. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ethanol used in gasoline is not absolute and contains some water, probably around 5% if it’s been exposed to air for some time.
The primary ingredient in HEET is methanol, which has a lower freezing point than ethanol. But, methanol too suffers from water absorption.
Since moonshine has already been mentioned, making ethanol is the goal of clandestine production/distillation. Methanol is an inpurity that makes you go crazy, blind, and eventually kills you.
[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=125962]Nothing about it is good, Heck they don’t even make a profit from it (uses more resources to make than it is worth). The 5% lower fuel economy will be offset by more needs to stop and re-fuel.[/quote]
Although an 15 year old statistic, it takes about ten times more energy to produce corn than the corn contains. Add the losses from ethanol production, and you begin to wonder why they use it. I guess the corn industry benefits from ethanol.
[quote=”Hanneman” post=125987][quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=125962]From what I’ve read ethanol is hygroscopic meaning it attracts moisture like brake fluid so you will need HEET more than ever.[/quote]
All solvents absorb some water. Gasoline absorbs less than 1%. Ethanol will normally absorb about 5% water, and it forms an azeotrope – a mixture that is really difficult to separate and requires an exotic method, like molecular sieves, to generate “neat” or “absolute” ethanol. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ethanol used in gasoline is not absolute and contains some water, probably around 5% if it’s been exposed to air for some time.
The primary ingredient in HEET is methanol, which has a lower freezing point than ethanol. But, methanol too suffers from water absorption.
Since moonshine has already been mentioned, making ethanol is the goal of clandestine production/distillation. Methanol is an inpurity that makes you go crazy, blind, and eventually kills you.
[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=125962]Nothing about it is good, Heck they don’t even make a profit from it (uses more resources to make than it is worth). The 5% lower fuel economy will be offset by more needs to stop and re-fuel.[/quote]
Although an 15 year old statistic, it takes about ten times more energy to produce corn than the corn contains. Add the losses from ethanol production, and you begin to wonder why they use it. I guess the corn industry benefits from ethanol.[/quote] Could not have said it better myself!
During the second gas crisis (1979?) gasoline got very scarce. Stations that had gas were open 8 to 5. Stations that didn’t went out of business. Lots of gas stations closed permanently. This being Nebraska, home of ethanol, the fuel became less and less gasoline and more and more ethanol.
I remember going out to the garage where our two cars were parked on a hot day and the interior of the garage smelled like a brewery. The ethanol had overpowered the charcoal canisters and was venting to the atmosphere. Floorboard the acellerator to pass on the highway and about half way around a semi encounter vapor lock. The in tank fuel pumps weren’t initially for fuel injection, they were for vapor lock.
Those are the problems I encountered when running high ethanol fuel. The corrosion people always talk about I never saw.
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