Non-Ethanol Premium

chrisg331 said:

Ethanol is used to cut good fuel. It's has less than 70% of the energy content of the same quantity of gasoline. Henceforth the lower MPG. An interesting experiment really. That's why vehicles are specifically made to run E85 or higher concentrations. Another bad idea by the powers that be. Overall I think its silly to use farm land to produce fuel though.

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chrisg331 said:

Ethanol is used to cut good fuel. It's has less than 70% of the energy content of the same quantity of gasoline. Henceforth the lower MPG. An interesting experiment really. That's why vehicles are specifically made to run E85 or higher concentrations. Another bad idea by the powers that be. Overall I think its silly to use farm land to produce fuel though.

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loveracing1988 said:

True, running ethanol does lead to lower mpg's but it also burns so much cleaner it isn't even funny. If you ran a flex fuel vehicle strictly on e85 you would never have to run any kind of injector cleaner, never have to worry about carbon buildup on the valves, nothing. I run a tank through my wife's jeep twice a year to clean out everything, the mileage drops from 20 to 16.5 but it's cheaper than a bottle of injector cleaner.

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jaflowers said:

oh yea, it burns cleaner but doesn't actually "save the environment". The environmental cost in producing it is far worse than just sticking to straight gas. Engines work better on straight gas too as all the little rubber gaskets and injector parts that get eaten by the ethanol.

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mtofell said:

It seems my 6.4 Hemi really likes the stuff. I was far out of town camping and the only fuel available was 92 octane non-ethanol. I ended up with about a 1/2 tank after getting home and unhooking the 5th wheel. So far, the MPGs seem to be at least 1-2 better than usual on my commuting (per the DIC).

My experiment is far from scientific but those of you MPG micro-managers might give it a try. I really don't pay that much attention to my MPGs but thought this was interesting.

From a $$ standpoint I'm sure it's a losing idea. I think I paid $4.39/gallon for the stuff. The funny part is I'd have paid twice that if I had to. I didn't really have much choice.

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loveracing1988 said:

The way we get it that is correct, but there are multiple ways of making ethanol that are environmentally sustainable and much more carbon positive but oil companies and farmers would never let those methods see anything other than a laboratory.
If this was 1994 or so you would be correct, but since 95 parts have been ethanol resistant in cars and trucks. Let alone the fact it is 2017 and we've been using it for years now. If you look back at cars that could be had either as a flex fuel or non flex fuel vehicle the only difference was programming for the added ethanol content sensor. I actually ran e85 for years in my old escort with no ill effects and that was a 95 car.

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Blue Streak said:

People are starving to death around the world and we are burning corn in our vehicles at the same time that we are sitting on over 300 years of oil reserves in this country. Doesn't make sense to me.

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Casper said:

Actually 2013 was the first year the majority of vehicles contained E-15 resistant parts. Prior to that E-10 was all they could handle. Its still a corrosion problem and tends to flash out of solution when the temperature increases.

Plain and simple alcohol is a niche fuel and not even a very effective oxygenating agent for gasoline. Sure you can design an engine to run it, but the cost is way higher, the BTUs are way less and the impact on pollution is negligible and its actually worse for the environment during the summer ground ozone season. .

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Blue Streak said:

People are starving to death around the world and we are burning corn in our vehicles at the same time that we are sitting on over 300 years of oil reserves in this country. Doesn't make sense to me.

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coobie said:

Maybe they should move to the corn belt if they are starving

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