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Eric, I apologize in advance if this has already been covered. I checked, but my Search-Fu isn’t always very strong.
I’m interested in your thoughts on Ethanol in gas. I’m not talking about E85, but just the standard gas that has up to 10% ethanol by volume.
When I bought a gas weed-eater for the house, I was told that I MUST put Sta-Bil in it with every tank, or my warranty would be invalidated.
That got me to thinking. If Gas-a-hol is that bad for a small motor, it can’t really be that good for a LARGER motor… like in our cars/trucks/bikes, etc.
Maybe a video could be done covering your thoughts on:
1) Ethanol in an OLDER engine that pre-dates the introduction of Gas-a-hol. Is this a bad thing?
2) If it IS a bad thing, what sorts of problems will we see? What should we be on the look-out for?
3) What can we DO about it to mitigate the effects? Are there any additives that really work, in your opinion?
4) If we use those additives, are we undoing whatever good the authors of that policy sought to do? IE: Are we then putting out as much or more pollutants, in your opinion, by burning the additives?
5) Are even the newer cars really and truly engineered to handle E85, or the 10% Ethanol? CAN you, given the corrosive properties?
Been wondering about this, and I’d love to see a video with your opinions on the matter.
Cheers!
-Hinoki
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That’s a great topic but to be honest I would need to do some research and possibly some experimentation before I would make a video on that topic. Perhaps it would be even better if I could get an expert on the topic to come on the show. With topics like that I want to be sure to get my facts straight and right now I’m a long way away from that as far as Ethanol is concerned.
It’s a great topic however and it would probably do very well as a video. Thanks very much for the suggestion.
Ethanol attracts moisture/Burns Hotter/Corrodes internal parts of an engine. Basically they use a cheap low grade gas and mix in some ethanol to bring up the octane rating to where they want it. So in your gas tank there will be water on the bottom ethanol in the middle and gas on the top it doesn’t mix. Even AAA doesn’t want it in cars I saw a report on one of the forums where they had to replace an entire fuel system and engine because of ethanol. It is bad for engines that were not designed to run specifically on it.
Avoid it at all costs it lowers your mileage significantly so your better off buying straight gas even though it costs more the benefits make up for it.In my Mazda B3000 I got 11MPG with ethanol and 20MPG on straight gas
I don’t know all the scientific aspects of ethanol but It seems my car just doesn’t run as good with gas containing ethanol. Not sure why.
I haven’t had any issues with it in my current car, older cars, outboard motors, or lawn equipment. Haven’t noticed any change in MPG with it.
I have heard horror stories about it so no doubt it has caused issues but I’m suspecting that poorly maintained systems or engines already with issues, ethanol can push it over the edge.
Ethanol ethanol ethanol …. Killer of spark plugs causer of corossion minister of misfires… The amount of problems that I’ve seen it cause for customers really isn’t worth saving a couple of extra cents my advice stay away !!!!
I have never had problem related to ethanol. I also live in a state that you still have a choice which fuel to run, 10% or no ethanol. Some areas could still have gasohol which is different then ethanol that is derived from corn. Seems people have more problems to the east and west coasts with the alcohol blends, curious why. Far as they atract moisture of course, it has moisture removed so it will blend with gas. Gasoline has the problem with moisture cause it will not desolve in it. Alcohol works good with moisture. I wonder why some of the top performance engines run with alcohol. Main reason is they do not have to retard the timing on the engines so they get more energy from detonation that gasoline wastes.(they also can run very high compression, can not with gasoline). I have been using it for 30 years and will not quit.
It’s the low mix that causes the problems 80%+ never seen a car with problems not saying there are cars with problems from 85% ethanol or not all I know is the 10% mix causes shit loads of problems I pulled some plugs out of a misfiring yaris at 30,000kms and they were FUBAR I asked the customer a bunch of questions and it ended up coming down to fuel. She changed to premium 95 never had a problem since
Ethanol is hydroscopic ( I know it is a big word ) meaning it attracts moisture and as far as dragsters using it, they are only running for a few short bursts at a time and then the engine is torn down and rebuilt. Like I stated before even AAA doesn’t want it. My understanding is that it actually costs more to make ethanol than gas. Ethanol becomes corrosive in an engine destroying metal and plastic.
We can either grow corn for food or fuel, not both.
I don’t like 10% ethanol gas but here is an interesting article I came across.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/five-years-later-nascar-green-173600870–nascar.htmlBut of course, comparing a NASCAR engine to an actual “stock” engine rolling the roads today is like comparing apples and bananas; they’re both fruit (or internal combustion engines) but beyond that they’re completely different. And I am positive no NASCAR gasoline is “watered down” or sits around in decades-old metal fuel tanks like the gas at our local stations.
Ethanol basically is straight 200 proof alcohol… I wouldn’t drink it though, but whatever…
Anyway… Alcohol contains 40% LESS energy than dino juice, this is why all engines get bad economy with it, and engines not designed to run ethanol lose allot of power… they think they are running straight gas, so this much gas is this much power…
Many newer engines have some form or another of rating on what octane they can run without problems… My focus in “no more than E5” which is basically saying no more than 3-7% ethanol or a theoretical 5%. I’ve ran high ethanol in it before on accident, and it wasn’t bad, it just got really poor fuel economy…
Some cars it can cause more problems, but theoretically, if you convert it to run alci, it will run ethanol just fine… Remember that in the old days with carbs it was kinda popular to run alci in a race machine because it burned cooler or something along those lines, so no surprise ethanol is being used in races… Also cars designed to run ethanol have different tanks, and breathers to keeps moisture out longer…
The biggest problem with ethanol is if the car is not designed to run it, do not let it sit in the lines for extended periods of time as it can become corrosive… In ohio we have a problem right now because gas stations are not required to say if there is ethanol in their fuel, since I live close to the border I buy most of my gas in west virginia, since it requires a label if the fuel has more than 1% of ethanol.
That’s kind of what I was getting at on the NASCAR engines, since they are made to order and they make several each season they can specifically engineer them to run the E15 the article mentioned. Us normal folks don’t have that option and are at the mercy of the gas distributors selling us our gas at the local station. Most places around here sell E10. Seems to not run very well in my car as far as efficiency.
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