Sam Ruger

Some of you may not know it but Federal law requires, beginning (already) in 2015, that US gasoline reach 30% ethanol by 2022 (or maybe 2023). The EPA delayed increasing ethanol in our gas this year but it must, eventually, obey the law.

I'm told engines can be made to run on this stuff by adding fuel regulators. So can we do that? Is there such a regulator available? I figure somebody must own a Chevy 350 in Brazil.

If not, what do we do when, we're looking at the gas pump in the very near future and it says: CONTAINS UP TO 15% ETHANOL?

Close our eyes, turn our heads, and pump away?

crowz

Shouldn't be much longer till ethanol will be history. That poison had no biz in gas to start with.

As for 30%? Isnt going to happen. Mpg on everything running gas would be so low its just not feasible.

Also ethanol content this year is down from previous years because of changes put in place from the drop in oil prices. Even on the ones showing may contain up to x %. That % is lower now. Google it.

Sam Ruger

And for those who think I'm making this up:

http://www.epa.gov/oms/fuels/renewablefuels/

And it is E15 fuel. The reason it was first delayed in 2013 was that it would actually destroy the pumps of the gas stations pumping it, plus every lawnmower and marine engine using it. The current reason for the 2015 delay is that it's use voids all manufacturer car warranties as it destroys fuel pumps.

Sure makes you want to put that stuff in your C4, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, ethanol producers have the right to sue the EPA for not implementing the Federal law as required.

Sam Ruger

Well! I certainly won't argue that ethanol is about as successful as a solar cell at midnight.

The 30% figure comes from the Federal law mandating cellullisic ethanol exceed corn ethanol by 2:1. Corn ethanol was virtually 10% in 2014 and, by Federal law, corn ethanol must be still be in our gas too and by the same amount as before. The only way to meet both laws is with 30% ethanol gas. Google the law. 36 billion gallons of this crappola has to be mixed with our gas.

E85 gas proves you're right on mpg plus ethanol raises the price of gasoline. So we pay more to get less plus the repair bills. You're dead right that ethanol needs to go away. Plus it takes 1.3 gallons of ethanol and 1600 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol. Who can't do that math?

I followed your suggestion and Googled it but failed to find where ethanol is falling in gas. I did find where it was increasing in 2014.

For lurkers, even ethanol producers admit E15 will destroy 25% of the cars in America (and I'm certain ours fall in that 25%). Since I'll be buying my gas from marinas and carrying it up 5 gallons at a time from the docks if this actually happens, I was wondering if somebody had a fall back plan besides putting our cars on blocks?

Keep in mind that Brazil actually did this by law too but, unlike the US, they can adjust their blend at the fuel pump (Sadly, proof that even Brazil has smarter politicians than we have.). It would not surprise me at all if the idiots we elected required we add sugar to our gasoline.

crowz

Try searching oil companies free pass ethanol

Right now they are being allowed to reduce the output and the law repealing the requirement altogether is getting closer and closer to passing.

1stVetteFinally

The Historic Vehicle Association maintains a map showing gas stations that still sell pure gas. Looks like there are a few stations in Washington, hopefully one is close to you.

http://www.historicvehicle.org/Resou...s/Pure-Gas-Map

That map does not show all the stations that still sell pure gas. There is one in my area that is not on the map. I'm going to get the address of the station and let HVA know about it.

DGXR

With so many older vehicles on the road in our country, which would essentially be destroyed by E30, forcing E30 onto the public would cause too much backlash. Not gonna happen, not for another 20+ years anyway.

Most of our politicians are driving new cars, provided by the taxpayers. So they have very little personal incentive to oppose ethanol. But that doesn't mean a proposal to mandate E30 will pass into law before 2035.

Pyro4117

Have you listened to most politicians anymore? Or most of the general public for that matter? They would consider getting those (our) older vehicles off the road a 'feature, not a bug'.

After repairs to my pressure washer (due to the effects of ethanol in the fuel), the repair shop referred me to a gas station on one of the local reservations which has ethanol-free pumps.

Unfortunately, 87 octane is the only choice, so I can fuel my 'Vette up there, but will still need to use an octane booster - for as long as that can still be sold legally.

Sleazy Rider

we just came through Pocahontas Arkansas this past weekend and they had a few non ethanol stations with 93 octane.

HlhnEast

Funny thing about ethanol free fuel in FL is its about a buck more than E10. Seems a little out of proportion to me. Its also not legal if I understand correctly for "on the road" use. Marine engines and small engines only.

Crossed Flags Fan

If and when it comes to actually happening, there will be a market for an industry to make a product that will be an acceptable work around. Don't sweat it yet and for what its worth, send a letter your your congress and senate persons to vote against it. Thats about all you can do at this point.

Pyro4117

The price difference at this station is only $0.20/gallon.

I'm also pretty sure that at least once or twice I may have bent other 'on the road' statutes with my Corvette...

dizwiz24

Embrace it with open arms, more ethanol = more detonation-free horsepower (with the proper equipment and tuning)

Mr. Peabody

Sam, check the PNW section of the forum. There have been several posts about this topic. There are a number of stations around our area that sell ethanol free gas.

hcbph

Around here, you can get non-alcohol gas for small engines and collector cars. Costs about $1.00 per gallon more than gasohol blend. No alcohol is definitely better than alcohol blend IMO and it's not available in all states.

I guess, such is life.

Lloyd Smale

might be the ticket for max power in turbo and blown cars and may even in extreme compression motors but most of us here drive our cars down the highway and don't need octane any greater then 93 and more then that actually hurts performance. That an you have to live with a about 20 percent worse gas mileage. I know the grand national crowd I used to hang with is big on E85 tunes for there cars. Problem with that is up here anyway every station doesn't have E85 and you can get stranded and have to use a different fuel and even with 93 octane you have to take out a lot of timing in a car tuned for e85 to run it safely along with the fact that fuel delivery is hard to regulate with the much bigger injectors you need to run e85. Bottom line is very few c4 guys are going to embrace it with open arms. Theres still stations here that sell ethanol free fuel but there hard to find like the ones the sell e85. Most of what here is the lower alcohol consentration fuels that aren't much good for either purposes.

Pyro4117

Did a little more poking around, hopefully this may help with the situation somewhat...

That last part may have one of the most significant impacts on us, at least those of us who leave our C4's parked for long periods of time - and those that have aluminum heads.

Although I guess there are worse things than being told I need to drive the Corvette more!

DanielRicany

I guess it's going to have a significant impact on just about every new car out there too... since the majority of them have aluminum heads and blocks.

DGXR

There are ethanol "treatment" products on the market, why isn't this used in gasoline?
We're already paying extra money in exchange for less energy content and more fuel system & engine damage.

HeavyLifter

Here's a good resource to find stations.

http://pure-gas.org