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This is a strange problem as it only happened 2 times. Here is the story.
I was driving my daewoo to the store. When I stopped at a stop sign the car shook violently. Left off the brake it stopped. So i decided to go to a empty parking lot and try to recreate what it did. I turned down the stereo rolled down the window and pushed the brake to a complete stop about 5 seconds later RPMs on the engine went way down I could hear it. It dropped so low the car sputtered for 2 seconds than RPMs went back to normal. This is the 1st time this happened what could it be?
A bit of info that may be helpful: I have about 30% of gas left (a little above 1/4 tank) I had the heat on (its in the 40s) and the car was only about 1/2 to its normal OP temp when this happened,
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[quote=”dohc-kindaguy” post=61637]No, it’s supposed to deplete greenhouse gasses and drop foreign dependency on oil by taking perfectly good food that starving homeless people could use and turning it into fuel. Actually, you’ll travel 33-40% further on the equivalent 1 gallon of pure gasoline compared to E85.[/quote]
how would i know if i had “pure” gas or not i was always told ALL gas is 10% ethanol to prevent gas line freezes in winter. And we dont need foreign oil we got more than enough in Alaska to provide for most if not all of North America
There is some additives like ethanol placed in the winter, but not all. In Fact ethanol is worse in the winter, and they actually water e85 down with gasoline in the winter as ethanol doesn’t burn well when it’s cold.
How to tell if you have ethanol varies from state to state. In Ohio there is currently no law to prevent the sale of ethanol in gasoline, they could pretty much sell us e85 as pure gas and charge us the same price as e85 (as you are probably aware) costs less than 87 octane.
In west virginia they require a label to be placed on pumps that have more than 1.2% ethanol. So since I live 6 mins from west virginia I naturally buy gas over there, of course I could have slight traces of ethanol, but it’s still better than 10% +… You can test for ethanol your self, with a clear plastic cup…
simply add 1/3 water, mark a black line where the water is.
Fill the other 2/3 with gasoline.
Let it sit about 30minsWhat will happens is that the ethanol will separate from the gasoline and mix with the water, this is because ethanol and gasoline do not mix well, so the ethanol will sink and blend right in with the water. In doing so the gasoline will become cloudy.
Since gas is lighter than water and ethanol it will float on the surface, you can easily see how much ethanol is in the gas using this method.
If you want to see the % they sell kits online that make it easy… OR you can ask your mom for an old glass measuring cup that has all of the measurement marking on it and use the math skill school gave you to find the % 🙂
As for drilling in alaska… well… there is allot of political bickering about the environment. Hence things like ethanol and hemp based bio fuel.
I was told that if you put E85 into a car that was never designed to take it that it’ll eat away gas lines and engine seals causing potentionally dangerous gas leaks.
I didn’t nessicarily mean cheap for you. differant gas companys use different solutions or refinery processes, to try to set thier fuel apart from others. some companys go a cheap route to try to make more money then another whom’s intentions are a bit more leaned towards enviroment and consumer care. lets be real for a sec, and say they are all about money, but a few are more aware of the hazards of burning fuels. might I also add, that a gas station with older tanks in the ground (where the fuel comes from for the pumps if you didn’t know) that may be rusty or contaminated also can alter the cleanslyness of your fuel source. same goes for the trucks that haul the fuel into the station for tank filling. imperfections in the fuel solution can be introduced at that point to. I can honestly say, that using the same fuel from 2 different stations makes a small differance. Super 29 Shell 10 mins away, 87 octane nets me about 17.5 mpg where a local truck stop 1 mile away recently converted to a shell company, and just changed fuel supplier, same fuel, but old tanks/pumps and possibly still has contaminates in the tanks from the older fuel, nets about 16.2 mpg in my vehicle. under the same driving conditions and only a few temperature degrees different from fill ups. I know A LOT of things can contribute to a small distortion in fuel mileage, and in more drastic situations, gremlins and random seemingly ignition/timing bugs, but I still suspect a fuel filter change more often then suggested based on known past variables is not going to hurt anything. you need to find a happy medium, and thats my motto in life. too much or too little of any one thing can be a hazard. but thats not to say you don’t understand the minimum / maximum effects/details of the situation at hand. by that I mean, with tolerances, where, what, who, you get your fuel from, as a consumer should not really effect you in a whole. but know that, “dirty” or contaminates in your fuel is common and can alter the performance/drivablity of your vehicle in different conditions. to the extent that different air pressures or altitudes, temperatures, humidity levels, all can have an effect on how effeciantly your fuel is burned in your vehicle, If you have ever had a carberated vehicle that gets poor fuel economy during the winter or starts hard or is labeled as a “cold-blooded b*@(h” is most likely do to the carburater needing to be re-jetted or rather re-calirbrated for the varieables in the surronding enviroment. or you can just deal with it till the weather gets warmer. not horribly important unless you are meticulous about your vehicle and its performance. computers and fuel-injection systems do these calibrations automatically witch is nice. but when sensors go bad, or electrical gremlins start arising…it is not so nice! sorry for the book, and I hope this clears up my “cheap or dirty” gas comment.
a look on google gave me this which was put up January of 2011:
Minnesota is a national leader in ethanol policy and development. We were the first state to mandate the use of ethanol in our fuel supply and today state law requires that all gasoline sold in Minnesota contain 10 percent ethanol. Minnesota statute also sets a goal of increasing the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline to 20 percent by 2013.
Minnesota is currently home to 21 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol, as well as the most E85 stations in the nation.
Many of Minnesota’s ethanol plants began in the 1990s as farmer-owned co-ops, adding unique flavor and vitality to this homegrown source of renewable energy.
That depends on the car… Refer to your owner manual on using ethanol and alcohol within your engine.
EDIT: Wow, interesting that minnesota would push ethanol so hard… I thought that’s I’d see cali doing it long before…
while we are on the subject of gasoline substitutes, remember back when gasoline had lead and zinc in it? and they deemed it bad for the earth and removed it… and then everybody started burning exhaust valves, even though they said unleaded was better then leaded and would not hurt an engine….. now when we rebuild late-model engines its customary to install hardened valve seats to protect against the “damage” of unleaded gasoline. with any major change in fuel source, I’m sure something else needs to be altered to keep up with the change. yes its probably ok to drive an old car on unleaded gas with no alterations, but after time extra wear/build up became an issue. Who is to say that after making the big convert to e85, and older car from the 90’s wont need something replaced, or worse, we can’t use cast iron anymore cause it chemically dissolves iron deposits, so now everything must be aluminum…. that is a sarcastic exxageration…..but it gets the point acrossed.
^ That would suck, ford is still making cars with cast iron blocks… One example is the 3 cylinder 1.0 turbo ecoboost that is to be arriving on the market soon in the ford fiesta… Ford actually claims cast iron is better for MPGs because it heats up quicker in the winter and that alone pays for it’s little bit of added weight…
@LeoTheLion89: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should… and another one bites dust…Dump it in and find out.
I get an average of 36 combined, on ethanol I got like 25 or something, it’s been a while.
And those cars are diesel engines, a diesel will run on about anything. Infact the first diesel engine ran on peanut oil iirc.
yeah, ethanol is infact 200 proof (100%) alcohol… I wouldn’t waste vodka on my engine though… That’s a redneck sin.
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